on 4/13/08 3:49 PM, J. 'Mach' Wust at j_mach_wust@YAHOO.COM wrote:
> On Sun, 13 Apr 2008 14:09:47 +0300, Josh Roth wrote:
>
>> In Khafos, nouns take a certain suffix (-l/-el/-ol/) when preceded by at
>> least one adjective. Ex:
>>
>> kevre jetse vato-l
>> big green house-?
>
> Could this be considered a marker of some kind of definitness? Maybe not
> quite.
Nope. The NP could be translated as definite or indefinite, depending on the
context.
> This reminds me of the phenomenon that in certain Alemannic German dialects,
> the definit
> article takes a different form when it is followed by an adjective or a noun.
> I don't have any
> idea how to call this either:
>
> d hüser
> the-Nom-Plur houses
> 'the houses'
>
> di grüene hüser
> the-Nom-Plur-? green-Nom-Plur-Weak houses
> 'the green houses'
>
> di grüene
> the-Nom-Plur-? green-Nom-Plur-Weak
> 'the green ones'
Interesting.... (Is that first one supposed to be just 'd' without a vowel?)
Do you know how this distinction originated?
> Do you know by chance any theories on the origin of the Tagalog or Persian
> linkers or
> ligatures? Relicts of older case agreement markers?
>
> ---
> grüess
> mach
I don't know about the Tagalog -ng/na, but the Persian -(y)e originated from
a relative particle.
Josh Roth