Genetic Descent

[Anton Sherwood]

(dlwhite)
>>>> what I am asserting is that the morphemes used in conjugation
>>>> are very resistant to borrowing.  ...

(petegray)
>>> The highly productive English morpheme -ess ...

(bronto)
>> is <-ess> used in conjugation?

(petegray)
> Oh, you mean "conjugation" as in the verb patterns of Latin and
> other IE inflected languages?

I dunno how dlwhite means it, but I understand `conjugation' to have
something to do with inflection of verbs for person, number, tense and
mood, none of which applies to a noun-suffix.

(At least in languages with which I am acquainted.  Are there languages
in which one would normally say, for example, that Henri d'Orleans is
the king-subjunctive of France?)

> Then you cannot assert your statement
> as something true of all languages, only of those which show
> Latin-like conjugation.  Which ultimately means IE. . . .

What do you call it when Hebrew or Swahili verbs are inflected for
person etc?

--
Anton Sherwood  --  br0nt0 at p0b0x.com  --  http://ogre.nu/