LL-L "Anthropology" 2008.05.26 (01) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L  - 26 May 2008 - Volume 01
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From: Stan Levinson <stlev99 at yahoo.com>
Subject: LL-L "Anthropology" 2008.05.25 (04) [E]

Supporting Mike's and Ron's statements, my wife, who is Thai, is pretty much
obsessed with earlobe length (okay, I may be exaggerating just slightly).
She always notices.
stan

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From: Mike Morgan <mwmosaka at gmail.com>
Subject: LL-L "Anthropology" 2008.05.25 (05) [E]

Heather wrote:

> grammar of Welsh and Irish in non-european tho' their vocabularies largely
> are. ... Instead they give great detailed comparison between Coptic, Berber
> and Irish/Welsh including
> 1. initial position in the sentence of the main verb
> 2. the use of a singular 3rd person verb for both singular & plural
> subjects - so long as nouns are subjects; if the plural pronoun is used then
> it atkes 3rd pers plur ending.
> 3. the use of the word 'back/after' to create the past tense
> 4. inflected prepositions [ I think I''m right in sayingt hat these are
> still traceable in medieval Welsh but now no longer]
>

Yes, and as someone who acquired Welsh and then later studied Coptic, the
feeling of "oh I already KNOW that construction" was quite real!

However, as for the comment on number 4, i am not sure what you mean by
"still traceable in medieval Welsh but now no longer". IF, as my reading of
it says, means that inflected prepositions in Welsh are no more, then it is
mistaken; in fact they are alive and kicking! ... though of course maybe a
small few of them have become "less inflected" in the modern colloquial
(e.g. gennyf i "with me" is now generally just gyn / gen i ... BUT the
plural is fully inflected).

Many of these features though, are NOT all that uncommon in the world's
languages. SO, in fact, it is ONLY the totality that causes the impression
that Welsh (and the other Celtic languages) are related to Coptic. And as to
whether that impression is in fact based on some far distant past reality, i
am afraid we are entirely in the realm of speculation ... which, of course,
is NOT an uninteresting realm to live in!

MWM || マイク || Мика || माईक || માઈક || ਮਾਈਕ
================
Dr Michael W Morgan
Managing Director
Ishara Foundation
Mumbai (Bombay), India
++++++++++++++++
माईकल मोर्गन (पी.एच.डी.)
मेनेजिंग डॉयरेक्टर
ईशारा फॉउंडेशन (मुंबई )
++++++++++++++++
茂流岸マイク(言語学博士)
イシャラ基金の専務理事・事務局長
ムンバイ(ボンベイ)、インド
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