Re: Some more Madzhi grammar

On Sun, 17 Mar 2002, Frank George Valoczy wrote:

> ADJECTIVES
>
> Adjectives are not declined, They precede the nouns they modify.
> Comparison:
>         Positive
>         Comparative: Ablative of noun + positive
>         Superlative: -nuv
Interesting.  With fifteen cases (thirty, if you count plurals) I'd expect
adjectives to agree in case and number.

> PERSONAL PRONOUNS
>
>         1sg     2sg     3sg     1pl       2pl           3pl
> Nom     am      nag     Tav     mien      nien          Tien
> Acc     anym    nag@n   Tav@n   mienan    nienan        Tienan
> Dat     an@vn   nan@vn  Tav@vn  mien@vn   nien@vn       Tien@vn
> Abl     an@mn@l nag@n@l Tav@n@l mien@vn@l nien@vn@l     Tien@vn@l
> Com     an@m@l  nag@l   Tav@l   mien@l    nien@l        Tien@l
I notice a persistant lack of gender.

Why don't the pronouns have all the cases of the nouns?

> VERBS
>
> Verbs hav an indefinite and a definite conjugation.
What's the difference?  Why would someone use indefinite instead of
definite conjugation?  I've heard of definite and indefinite nouns, but
not verbs.

> noun to verb: -l2tS-
In what sense?  in the sense of "house" to "to house?"  Or in the sense of
"dog" to "to dog."

> I'm not certain about word order yet, but I think it's fairly free, within
> limits, meaning, different word order stresses a different thign, like in
> Hungarian.
With so many cases, that'd be almost inevitable, I'd think.  But there
still ought to be an overarching "neutral" word order.  In Latin, word
order is free but SOV is the "neutral" word order; if you mess with it,
you're emphasizing something else.

--Patrick


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Prurio modo viri qui in arbore pilosa est.
                        ~~Elvis

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