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From: ludemann@netcom.com (Peter Ludemann)
Subject: Re: The whole language tree thing.
Message-ID: <ludemannDF0M1H.I22@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
References: <DEIxrB.8J0@crash.cts.com> <AC7B817B96681A523@yarn.demon.co.uk> <4352d1$h7b@spool.cs.wisc.edu> <AC7F8164966813F9B@yarn.demon.co.uk>
Date: Sat, 16 Sep 1995 20:24:53 GMT
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Sender: ludemann@netcom7.netcom.com

In article <AC7F8164966813F9B@yarn.demon.co.uk>,
Paul Talacko <taka@yarn.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>I know no one still believes me, but take this example:
>Die Parteien legen mir die diesem Notariatsakt beigeheftete, aus einem
>halben bogen bestehende, von ihnen errichtete Privatkunde, de dato Wien,
>den 3. August 1995 zum Zwecke der notariellen Bekraeftigung vor.
>
>You will never get a French sentence like that.

But I would have no trouble translating this sentence into Japanese,
just changing the order for grammatical reasons (modifying phrases
have to come before what they modify in Japanese, there being no
relative pronouns).  Hardly proof that German and Japanese are related
(although there is the beguiling similarity of Low German and Japanese
both using a post-sentence "neh" to mean "isn't it" (cf High German
"nicht wahr", French, "n'est-ce pas")).

-- 
Peter Ludemann           ludemann@netcom.com, ludemann@expernet.com
