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Re: [ceqli] Re: babel



on 5/3/04 8:17 PM, Rex May - Baloo at rmay@hidden.email wrote:

>> If those translations all make sense, I'm not sure we need "za" for
>> anything.
> 
> But I expect we should keep it.  Maybe "dormho" and "dormza" will evolve to
> have different meanings, slightly.

Now it strikes me that "za", as per what we decided about transitive and
intransitive, can also be both.

Go pa za kuri.   I started to run.
Go pa za to kel.  I started the show.

To bawmxo pa bernza.  The wood caught on fire.  Can also be expressed:
To bawnxo pa bernho.
Go pa bernza to bawmxo.  I started the wood on fire. Can also be expressed:
Go pa bernfa to bawmxo.

But "ho" and "fa" don't seem that way at all.  Quite different words.  The
first is intrisically intransitive, the second transitive.

I don't know how much this advances the discussion, but it just struck me.

Maybe "bernza" emphasizes the starting, and "bernho/fa" emphasizes the
result.
-- 

Rex F. May (Baloo) 
Daily cartoon at: 
http://www.cnsnews.com/cartoon/baloo.asp
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