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Re: Tense formations

From:BP Jonsson <bpj@...>
Date:Saturday, September 15, 2001, 13:14
At 13:22 2001-09-15 +0200, Rune Haugseng wrote:
> > > > I don't believe that that distinction exists in Norwegian - «elsket» would > > I think be used in both situations. But I'm just a beginner, so maybe Tal > > or our new member Rune (velkommen!) could provide native-speaker > > clarification. > > > >Thanks! That sounds right to me, although you'd probably be better off >asking someone who actually knows what a supine is...
The distinction exists only in Swedish, and what's more it was or4iginally a purely orthographical device. In some dialects the past participle neuter ending of certain strong verbs was pronounced _-et_--e.g. _kommet_--, and in some it kept the older pronunciation _-it_--e.g. _kommit_. In the 16th century it was spelled in either way in any position, but then somebody got the idea that the _-it_ spelling should be used in the perfect construction (_hava kommit_ "have come"), while the _-et_ spelling should be used when the participle functioned as a true, inflected adjective. Nowadays many people actually make this distinction in speech also; another of the prolific spelling pronunciations in Swedish. They snatched the term _supinum_ from Latin grammar, but AFAIK the latine supine is actually a qute different usage. Maybe Ray can describe that. /BP 8^)> -- B.Philip Jonsson mailto:bpX@netg.se (delete X) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~__ A h-ammen ledin i phith! \ \ __ ____ ____ _____________ ____ __ __ __ / / \ \/___ \\__ \ /___ _____/\ \\__ \\ \ \ \\ \ / / / / / / / \ / /Melroch\ \_/ // / / // / / / / /___/ /_ / /\ \ / /Melarokko\_ // /__/ // /__/ / /_________//_/ \_\/ /Eowine __ / / \___/\_\\___/\_\ Gwaedhvenn Angeliniel\ \______/ /a/ /_h-adar Merthol naun ~~~~~~~~~Kuinondil~~~\________/~~\__/~~~Noolendur~~~~~~ || Lenda lenda pellalenda pellatellenda kuivie aiya! || "A coincidence, as we say in Middle-Earth" (JRR Tolkien)