Re: Chez Watt Re: Common ancestor between man and ape

Walter Bushell <proto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <ymir-B12519.20003826082007@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Ymir <ymir@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article
<uranium-1188164213.880727.91110@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
UC <uraniumcommittee@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Aug 25, 11:22 pm, Walter Bushell <pr...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
In article
<uranium-1188069605.985097.93...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, UC
<uraniumcommit...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<snip>



Yes, but German and English are not really all that similar in syntax.
If German word order is for English used, it must awkward and silly
seem.

Oh, bother it! It is still quite understandable. In fact many words in
common are. You will find a great difference if you go to the Romance
languages even or Sanskrit or the languages descended from it. I have
heard people who have studied languages outside the Indo-European family
say that by comparison they are dialects of the same language.

One Amerindian language at least conjugates verbs depending on how the
speaker knows what he is talking about. There is one verb form for "It
rained on me.', one for "I see it raining from inside" and one for
"Someone told me it was raining.", for example. Hawaiian has no verb "to
be".

How does Hamlet's soliloquey sound in Hawaiian?

Many languages lack a copular verb 'to be'. I'm not aware of any that
lack an existential verb 'to be' (including Hawai'ian).

Andre

Some people proposed English prime which is English shorn of the verb
"to be".

And what that? Not understand.
--
John S. Wilkins, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Philosophy
University of Queensland - Blog: scienceblogs.com/evolvingthoughts
"He used... sarcasm. He knew all the tricks, dramatic irony, metaphor,
bathos, puns, parody, litotes and... satire. He was vicious."

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Chez Watt Re: Common ancestor between man and ape
    ... If German word order is for English used, ... languages even or Sanskrit or the languages descended from it. ... Hawaiian has no verb ... Some people proposed English prime which is English shorn of the verb ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Chez Watt Re: Common ancestor between man and ape
    ... If German word order is for English used, ... languages even or Sanskrit or the languages descended from it. ... There is one verb form for "It ... Some people proposed English prime which is English shorn of the verb ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Chez Watt Re: Common ancestor between man and ape
    ... If German word order is for English used, ... languages even or Sanskrit or the languages descended from it. ... There is one verb form for "It ... Some people proposed English prime which is English shorn of the verb ...
    (talk.origins)
  • Re: Academic/scientific journals in Esperanto?
    ... > Ar an dara lá déag de mí Feabhra, scríobh Manuel M. Campagna: ... of forms of accusative in each of these languages. ... >> complex and irregular verb tables such as exist in latin, Greek, Romance ... > The verb tables of English are sufficiently irregular that one would have to ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Chez Watt Re: Common ancestor between man and ape
    ... but German and English are not really all that similar in syntax. ... If German word order is for English used, ... languages even or Sanskrit or the languages descended from it. ... There is one verb form for "It ...
    (talk.origins)