Re: Japanese and Indo European

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

> Hello!
> I ve studied Japanese a little bit, and what stroke me was the
> similarities in grammar with German or Latin.

Where have you studied Japanese? Some of what you have below is
strange to me, although I'm certainly no expert on Japanese.

> For example the imperative form has -te at the end of word.
> "Eat"--->TabeTE (cf. Ger. "issT")

The Japanese text I have here lists {tabete} as gerund, and the
imperative as {tabero}.

> But the infinitive looks lire in latin
> "to eat"--->TabeRU (cf. Lat. "amaRE")

No infinitive is given in the book. {taberu} is the non-past form.

> For the particip present, astonishing to
> "eating"--->TabeNDE (cf. Lat. "delenDUM")

Neither the term "present participle" nor the form {tabende} are
mentioned. Forms ending in {-nde} are usually the gerund forms of n-,
m-, and b- stems, e.g. {sinu - sinde, nomu - nonde, yobu - yonde}.

> And for the preterit, it sounds like in German
> "ate"---->TabeTA (cf. Ger. "wollTE")

This one works. I've wondered about this myself, whether it might go
back to some sort of "Nostratic". Maybe somebody has ideas about the
proto-japanese-ryukyuan form at least.

> Another sign, the word "wa" to introduce the agent in a sentence. I
> have read somewhere that it existed in Nostratic.
>
> A third point is a distinction between this--->KOno, that--->SOno,
> and that over there---->Ano

This doesn't seem to be anything special.

> Last but not list SO means "so"!
>
>
> So what do you think?
>
> Is it meaningful?
>
> Thanx for your answers!
>
> Sacha