Re: Questions and Impressions of Basque

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004 23:47, you wrote:
<snip>
> 3) THe book emphasizes that some of the (non-verbal) grammatical affixes
> apply to *noun phrases* rather than nouns. This seems strange to me...
> every other language with a case system (or other noun marking) I've
> ever learned always always marks these things at least on the noun, and
> possibly also on the adjectives. But in some of the basque examples, you
> have these affixes glued onto the final word of a noun phrase even when
> that word isn't the noun itself! I think the definite article is an
> example of an affix that does this. Are these true affixes, or are they
> really clitics?
Phew!  I had really thought I was going out on a limb with the name
"Rakhebuityan" - Fish-Eater, where "rakhe-" is "To eat, eating", "buity" is
"fish", collective noun, and "-an" is the actor suffix to the noun phrase.

Now I can die happy!  I'm not the only one who's used that.
<snip>
>
> Thanks in Advance,
>
> Chris.
--
Wesley Parish
* * *
Clinersterton beademung - in all of love.  RIP James Blish
* * *
Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?"
You ask, "What is the most important thing?"
Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."