Associative plurals

[john at research.haifa.ac.il]

I've heard Black Americans use a reduced form of 'and them' (pronounced
schwa-n-schwa-m) suffixed to names with an associative-type meaning
(Jackie-en-em='Jackie and the people with her'). I don't know how common this
is.
John




Quoting jess tauber <phonosemantics at earthlink.net>:

> Dunno if this works, but Yahgan has a high-animacy dual suffix on nominals,
> -(n)de:(i) which is also sometimes found when only singular nominals are
> given. I've been trying to figure this out recently. Perhaps an associative
> dual? There is also a high-animacy plural, -(n)daian, but I don't know if
> this works associatively, but it might given things I've seen in the three
> biblical texts. Something to chew on....
>
> Jess Tauber
> phonosemantics at earthlink.net
>




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