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Stevo,thank you for the clarification. I somehow remembered that "naski naji" (Katanda) meant "a duck has swum", as I thought that the default tense was past-perfect. But now I learn that it's "a duck is swimming", right?Stefo
Von: MorphemeAddict <lytlesw@gmail. com>
An: saweli@yahoogroups. com
Gesendet: Dienstag, den 9. Februar 2010, 18:39:23 Uhr
Betreff: [saweli] asking for a name and giving it
Stefo,Here's how to ask for a name and give it in Saweli.It's basically equivalent to the Latejami except for the verb tense..In Latejami the default verb tense is past-perfect, but in Katanda (and possibly later versions before Latejami) and Saweli, the default depends on the dynamicity of the verb. Static verbs are present-imperfect by default, while dynamic verbs are past-perfect by default.Wuxingab yasat?What is your name?The verb "wuxib" means "be named/called/ designated/ titled/known as". The suffix "-ga-" is the interrogative suffix, here taking the place of "zongat" ('what?') in the last object position.Wuxib yasat zongat?What is your name?The answer is:Wuxib yarat zuxid re{John}ta zufet.My name is John. (Or more precisely: My name is "John".)To ask if a person's name is John, you can say:Yongan wuxib yatat zuxid re{John}ta zufet?Is he/she named John?Of course, John is usually a masculine name, but I wanted to emphasize that "yatat" does not imply a gender.In practice, I think that the quote words and classifier and endings around "John" would just be ignored, so that people would normally just say "Wuxib yarat John".This would not be possible in grammatical Latejami, because (in general) it violates various rules having to do with parseability.On the other hand, I do not encourage this sort of simplified usage.stevo
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