Re: Absolute, not relative directionality

--- In cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "tgpedersen" <tgpedersen@...>
wrote:

>
> I heard of a case in which the Finnish adpositional construction
> (structurally similar to the Basque one) occurred in the Swedish
> speech of Finnish children in care there during the war: "i

vagnens

> under", lit. 'in the car's under', cf standard Swedish "under
> vagnen" 'under the car'. If this Basque-like construction

influenced

> IE, it must have been at the time when prepositions (< adverbs)
> became established.
>
> Torsten

This is a case of a Swedish challenged Finnish kid, preserving
common Finnish word order but not finding an adessive or more likely
allative case, finds a preposition that serves more or less the same
purpose.

auton alla - car's at under - adessive - under the car
auton alle - car's towards/onto under - allative - under the car

I think many Finnish children hear, "Älä me kadulle, jäät auton
alle". "Don't go onto the street, you will stray car's (in)to
under". In English, "Don't go on the street you'll get run over by
a car".

Peter P