Re: Proper methodology (was: RE: [tied] Re: Mother of all IE langua

On Sun, 07 Dec 2003 07:50:34 +0000, Glen Gordon <glengordon01@...>
wrote:

>Miguel:
>>Yes, and associated with a hierarchical socio-political system.
>
>So what??

So you cannot compare PIE with Japanese as far as personal pronouns are
concerned.

>I already gave an example in English with a usage in the
>same way as I theorize for MIE *ya:u. In fact, the usage would work
>in any language, and any "sociopolitical system" or lack thereof:
>
> English: "What do you think? What does _the people_ think?"
> French: "Que pensez-vous? Que pense _tout le monde_?"
> German: "Was denken Sie? Was denken _die Leute_?"
> Mandarin: "Nimen xiang shenme? _Zheige ren_ xiang shenme?"
> Cantonese: "Leide lam miye? _Digo yan_ lam miye?"
> MIE: */_Ya:u-se_, kWei-te weidete?/

In none of these languages has "the people" become a personal pronoun.
A better example is Brazilian Portuguese, where "a gente" *is* for all
practical purposes a personal pronoun. It means "we", and allows further
simplification of the verb conjuation:

eu falo

você fala not: tu falas
ele/ela fala
a gente fala not: nós falamos

vocês falam not: vós falais
eles/elas falam


=======================
Miguel Carrasquer Vidal
mcv@...