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From: petrich@netcom.com (Loren Petrich)
Subject: Re: Mongolian premier -- mini field work on a brother lang.
Message-ID: <petrichDxxH21.29D@netcom.com>
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References: <32374947.3831@promikra.si>
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 1996 12:22:48 GMT
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In article <32374947.3831@promikra.si>, muchan  <muchan@promikra.si> wrote:
>This message is originaly posted to <sci.lang.japan>

> 1)  I love you.          Bi  tsamd hayrtay.
> 2)  You love me.         Tsi nadad hayrtay.
> 3)  I am Mongolian.      Bi Mongol.
> 4)  You are Japanese.    Tsi Yapan.

	[some inferences as to structure...]

	I may note that bi looks like Indo-European *me- and tsi looks 
like Indo-European *te- for these pronouns. In fact, me- and te- are 
found across much of Eurasia, and are not very common elsewhere.

> May be today, or tomorrow I'll meet him again. What sentences I'd ask
> him? Your idea, pleeeease!

	Try working some of these words into sentences; here are some 
reconstructed ancestral Indo-European words to compare to Mongolian (and 
whatever other languages you want). Variation may mean that we are not 
sure which one was the original.

	Numerals:

1	*oinos, *oikos, *sem-
2	*dwo:
3	*treyes
4	*kwetwores
5	*penkwe
6	*s(w)eks
7	*septm.
8	*okto:
9	*newn.
10	*dekm.
(various compounds in between :-)
100	*km.tom
1000	(?)

	"name": *nomn.
	"water": *wed-
	"Sun": *sa:wel-
	"Moon": (very variable)
	"star": *ster-
	"day": (very variable)
	"night": *nekwt-
	"fire": *pu@r-, *egni-

	"to be": *es-, *bheu@-, *wes-
	(usually at least the first two stems appear in the conjugation)
	"to go": *i-
	"to eat": *ed-

	"man": *wiros
	"woman": *gwena:
	"father": *p@te:r
	"mother": *ma:te:r
	"brother": *bhra:te:r
	"sister": *sweso:r
	"son": *su:nus
	"daughter": *dhugh@te:r

	"dog": *k'won-
	"horse": *ek'wos
	"bovine": *gwo:us
	"sheep": *owis

	I (nominative): *ego:, *egom
	me (oblique): *me-
	(verb ending): -m-, -@-
	[@ means schwa]

	you, sg. (nom.): *tu:
	you, sg. (obl.) *te-
	(verb ending): -s-

	we (nom.): *we-, *me-
	us (obl.): *nes-
	(verb ending): *-me-

	you, pl. (nom.) *yu-
	you, pl. (obl.) *wes-
	(verb ending): *-te-

	Demonstratives (did service for 3rd person):
	*to-
	*ko-
	*ghe-
	*en-

	(verb ending) sing.: -t-
	(verb ending) pl.: -nt-, -r

	Interrogatives
	*kwi-, *kwo-

	Relative (?)
	*y-

	Noun declension (consonant stem, presumably the oldest)

	Nominative = subject
	Nom. sing.: *-s, *-
	Nom. pl.: *-es, *-a (neuter)
	Pronouns have:
	Nom. sing.: *-, *-d (neuter)
	Nom. pl.: *-i, *-a (neuter)
	Genitive = "of" case
	Gen. sing.: *-es, *-os
	Gen. pl.: *-o:m
	Accusative = direct object
	Acc. sing.: *-m, *-
	Acc. pl.: *n.s, *a (neuter)

	Note: nominative = accusative for neuter nouns and pronouns, the 
so-called Neuter Law. This can be seen even in English, with its loss of 
most of the noun and pronoun declensions; compare he/him, she/her, and it/it.
-- 
Loren Petrich				Happiness is a fast Macintosh
petrich@netcom.com			And a fast train
My home page: http://www.webcom.com/petrich/home.html
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