LL-L "Grammar" 2008.09.01 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L List]

===========================================
L O W L A N D S - L - 01 September 2008 - Volume 05
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please set the encoding mode to Unicode (UTF-8).
If viewing this in a web browser, please click on
the html toggle at the bottom of the archived page
and switch your browser's character encoding to Unicode.
===========================================


From: Henno Brandsma <hennobrandsma at hetnet.nl>
Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2008.09.01 (03) [E]

 From: heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk <heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Grammar" 2008.08.31 (04) [E]

from heatherrendall at tiscali.co.uk

Ron wrote "much like the two types of infinitives in Frisian."

Could you give us some examples of these, please

Heather


From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Grammar

Hi, Heather!

I haven't yet come to grips with that phenomenon and don't have example data
here. So I'm leaving it to Henno, Henry or whoever else knows about it
better than I do.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron



I'll give a short sketch of this interesting phenomenon:

All Frisian varieties (both Westerlauwer Frisian, Saterland Frisian and
North Frisian, and also in the substrate dialect "Westfries" of Dutch
layered on top of Frisian) have 2 types of infinitive, one that ends in -e
(for the WF case, in which I will give all examples), and the n-form that
has an extra n at the end. Note that this -n is pronounced clearly (although
then often the schwa (e) before it disappears, like in rinne [rIn@] vs
rinnen [rInn], with vocalic n, or sometimes (but more rarely, IMO) [rIn at n].
Verbs that already end in -n (a small group in WF, and in other varieties
they don't always exist), like dwaan (to do), gean (to go), slaan (to beat)
have but one form.

Their use is complementary: the -n form is te form of the verb one uses when
we make a noun out of a verb:

- ierappeldollen is swier wurk (harvesting potatoes is heavy labour) [the
verb being ierappeldolle]

- It meitsjen fan myn fyts duorre lang [reparing my bike took a long time]
(meitsje = to make, to repair..)

It also occurs as a gerund after verbs of "sense":

- ik hear him sjongen  (I hear him singing) [sjonge = to sing]

- ik sjoch him oankommen (I see him coming/ arriving) [oankomme = to arrive]

This is also called the ACI (accusativus cum infinivo) construction, like in
Latin [audio eum cantare etc.]

And also after the proposition "te"

- Ik haw him te sliepen hân (I've had him over to sleep, lit.: I have him to
sleep had) [sliepe = to sleep]

- Ik haw der neat te sykjen (I have no business there, lit.: I have nothing
to seek there) [sykje = to seek]

and in "oan it...." constructions (these can be seen as nominalisations, at
some level):

- Hy is oan it rinnen (he is walking (right now)).



Other cases have -e, mostly after modal verbs:

- Ik kin net sjonge (I cannot sing)

- Ik wol graach komme (I want to come (with pleasure))

- Ik sil it efkes opsykje (I will look it up).



I think etymologically the -en form partially comes from the gerund -end (or
-and, -ande etc in Old Frisian).

In Frisian all infinitives had lost their final -n (from Old Germanic), and
in later Frisian the d in -end became weak (though we still have forms like
"the rinnende man" = the walking man, the man that is walking, etc. ).

There are analogous distinguished forms in English (-ing vs normal verb
forms with to) and sometimes German (ich habe ihn singende gehört). There
are some papers on the phenomenon, also connected to its preservation in
substrate forms (althought his has largely died out in the current
generation).



Henno Brandsma
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lowlands-l/attachments/20080901/9f5f338b/attachment.htm>