Re: White Wolf Language-Butchery (was: Chinese/japanese Pronounciation)

On Wed, 1 May 2002 12:24:59 -0500 William Annis <annis@...>
writes:
>  >             I'm not sure of the function of that particle, but
> there are
>  >words (such as place names e.g. Mazar-i-Sharif) which have -i- or
> -e-
>  >in the middle.
>         It's called 'ezafe' and has about a zillion uses.  It turns
> out it several wee particles reduced into this single form, so the
> wild uses to which it is put hides historical differences.  It's
> used
> to connect elements in a noun phrase, and to many learners'
> irritation, it isn't written, except after certain vowels. :)
> Ezafe
> is also used after a bunch of prepositions, IIRC.
>         Translating ezafe as "of" will cover many cases.
> --
> wm
-

Sounds like the Arabic |'iDaafa| (known in Hebrew as |semikhut|):
(and the names of the structures are similar too)

|bayt alTullaab|  "house the-students"  = "house OF the students"

So does that mean that the name Ahl-i-Batin is a Dari compound of the
Arabic words |ahl| and |baaTin| which just happens to be parallel to what
the actual Arabic compound would be, except with an inserted |-i-| ?


-Stephen (Steg)
 "la la la la la..."