Re: [tied] Re: Middle Voice

At 11:06:45 AM on Sunday, June 12, 2005, aquila_grande
wrote:

> The Scandinavian languages Norwegian, Sweedish, and Danish
> have a "middle voise". It has no connection with the old
> IE middle voise, but it is interesting to sketch out its
> historical developement.

> -It emerged as a contraction between the reflexive
> pronouns and the verb endings ca 1000 years ago. At the
> beginning it had mostly reflexive meaning.

> -Steadily more it was used in a passive sense, and this is
> the main use of it today.

> -However, nowadays a reciprocal use is developing, at
> least in the Norwegian language, and for some verbs this
> is the prefered way of expressing reciprocal meaning.

This was happening already in ON: <Skilðusk þeir með
kærleikum> 'They parted (from each other) with friendship'.

Brian