Re: Missing Words

Shalom!
Further corrections!

----- Original Message -----
From: Peter Clark <pc451@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Friday, March 15, 2002 7:16 AM
Subject: Re: Missing Words


>         While that is mostly true, I should note that it is not entirely
accurate.
> Russian does not have *conjugated* forms of "to be" in the *present*
tense.
> Thus, one says:
Yeah, that's true...

> "Ja byl zanjet" - I was busy
SBS (should be spelled) "zánjat"... Still I know many Russian speakers who
misspell the unaccented vowels because of their heavy reduction...

> "Ja zanjet" - I am busy
> "Ja budu zanjet" - I will be busy
>
> Also, you can use the infinitive, jest', to emphasize existance: U mjenja
> jest' dom - "By me exists house" "I _have_ a house."
1. "Jestj"is NOT an infinitive, it's a rigid 3sn present form, now use
throughout the Present...
2. It doesn't _emphasize_. It switches topic/rhema.
        {U menjá dom} means "It's a house (and not an appartment) that I've
got".
        {U menjá jestj dom} -- that's neutral form. The word {dom} is a
rhema ("new information").

>         Furthermore, Russian does have a verb "to have," "imjet'" but it
is used
> mostly for possessing abstract ideas, such as rights, truth, meaning,
etc.
> For example, the phrase "Ja imjeju v vidu..." is commonly used as "I
mean..."
> Also, were you to make the verb reflexive (add -sja/-s' at the end) it
would
> also mean "to be" or "to exist."
>         Of course, I would be interested in learning how Russian lost the
present
> tense for of "to be," since originally there were such forms. I once even
> learned the conjugation, but I've forgotten...
Well, these forms are dead for centuries... All you can find now is:
{sutj} - 3pl, sometimes used in very formal styles, like legal stuff;
{jesmj} - 1sn, {jesí} - 2sn -- only in a very solemn speech, sounds
extremely archaic.

Just a couple of examples:

RST (Russian Synodal Translation of the Christain Bible, made in 1876, the
most wide-spread one):
{B-o-g skazál Moiséju: Ja jesmj Súshchij} (Exo.3:14) -- lit. "G-d said to
Moshe: I am the One who Exist"
{...blagodarím Tebjá, G-ó-spodi B-ó-zhe Vsederzhítelj, Kotóryj jesí i byl i
grjadësh...} (Rev.11:17) -- lit. "(we) thank Thee, the L-rd G-d Almighty,
Who (thou)art and was and comest"

>         :Peter
Yitzik
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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