Die vs. kill

Seppo Kittilä sepkit at UTU.FI
Thu Feb 10 06:13:07 UTC 2000


Dear colleagues,

could anyone give me an example of a language where 'die' derives from
'kill'. I´m searching for a language where the verb 'kill' is the
unmarked one and 'die' is derived from it, for example, by adding some
kind of detransitivizing affix to the verb 'kill'. I have only found
languages in which the derivation is from 'die' to 'kill', e.g.,
Turkish:

Hasan   öl-dü
H.NOM   die-PAST
"Hasan died"

Ali     Hasan-i  öl-dür-dü
A.NOM   H.-ACC   die-CAUS-PAST
"Ali killed Hasan"

I´m very grateful for all the help I can get,

best wishes,
Seppo Kittilä



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