Re: [tied] Re: Japanese and Indo European

I have studied Japanese for many years, and all I can say about your comments is that no matter what a text book for Indoeuropean speakers can tell, those concepts like "gerund", "participle" or even like "adjective" or "verb" do not necessarily mean the same in a language like Japanese and are jsut for our comprehension's "sake" ;-)

In fact, you two are right: -te verbal forms are both an imperative, as well as a durative form. -(n)de forms are the same, just different because of verbal root phonetical issues, as you said.

I must say, of course, that actually Japanese is so similar to any Indoeuropean language as an egg to a chestnut, like Spaniards say.

Regards.

----- Original Message -----

From: ikpeylough

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Thursday, July 31, 2003 6:23 PM

Subject: [tied] 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

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