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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Dear all, </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial> Peter Arkadiev's query is of course
relevant only for languages that have a bona fide relativizer (= a form blending
(morphologically, semantically or both) a subordinator + a substitute of the
relativized (mostly nominal) element). Such languages amount to no more,
probably, than 25%-30% of all languages (among which European
languages), whereas 22% use a nominalizing or participial strategy, 15% a
subordination strategy (by means of 1) a special (sometimes optional) morpheme,
or 2) a verbal affix or inflectional element, or 3) a special personal paradigm
(as in Salishan languages) ), and 18% use a genitive morpheme, as in
Mandarin Chinese, or simply a fronted relative clause with no marker, as in
Japanese (I blush recalling that this is treated in detail in <EM>La
structure des langues</EM>, Paris, PUF 2001: 61-62). </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial> The formal homology between "where?"
and "who?" is not uncommon, as has been stressed, yesterday and today, by
several participants to this forum, but it is not quite widespread either. To
the languages already mentioned, I would add Lao and its very closely
related neighbour Thai, which have <EM>thi</EM> [falling tone](<EM>nai
</EM>[midtone]) for "where?" and <EM>thi</EM> [falling tone] for "who, which".
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial> Not infrequently, a formal identity,
rather than involving "where?" and "who, which", involves in fact the
relativizer and an interrogative pronoun, as in Lithuanian Yiddish <EM>vos</EM>.
Or the relativizer and the interrogative pronoun are distinguished by
the fact that one is derived from the other: Georgian has <EM>vin</EM>
"who?" and <EM>ra</EM> "what?", while it has <EM>vints</EM> and <EM>rats</EM>
for the relative pronouns "who" and "which" respectively (although Georgian more
commonly uses another relative pronoun, <EM>romeli</EM> (+ case suffixes)
).
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial> Furthermore, the relative pronoun may
share the same root as (rather than "where?") a relative locative adverb , as in
such Indo-Aryan languages as Hindi: relativizer = <EM>jo</EM>, and "in
which" = <EM>jahân</EM>. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>All best</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Claude Hagège, Collège de
France</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>