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"Tagalog, it's got a Trigger System," She Said (was; QUESTION...

From:list James E. Hopkins <espero9@...>
Date:Monday, February 15, 1999, 14:10
Sabutovon Ukhese (Greetings to all!)

Druni has a similar redundancy:

"Ta ruchek mishyavor." (The baker [he] went).  In this sentence "runchek" is
"gender-indeterminate" as the native Druni grammarians say. Druni however has
BOTH a 3rd person singular masculine (mishyavor) "he went" AND a 3rd person
singular feminine (mishyavel) "she went" So, you could also say:

"Ta runchek mishyavel." (The baker [she] went).  This construction is
redundantly used even when the gender of the subject is indicated:

"Ta pasokor uridyaror." (The male dog is eating.)
"Ta pasokel uridyarel." (The female dog is eating.)

If the gender of the subject is unknown the verb becomes gender-indeterminate
as well:

"Ta pasok uridyara." (The dog is eating.) Of course this hold true with non-
personified, genderless objects:

"Ta soboneri dralizhe buyukyara." (The computer works well.) Genderless
objects can however be personified:

"Ushel Ter dozhatsit bredi onyarel." (Mother Earth is a watery planet.)
"Zurhanor Drun givanit vey yaniit onyaror." (Brother Drun is dry and sandy.)


Shtashun,
Jim H
ta Druntan