----- Original Message ----- From: Isaac Fried
To: Arnaud Fournet
Cc: Pere Porta ; Hebrew List
Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2010 4:38 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Vav Nun Suffix
How deep is "much, much deeper level than Hebrew"? Very deep. Very, very deep. Very, very, very deep? Any estimates?
Isaac Fried, Boston university
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Possibly at least as old as the language people spoke when they first moved out of Africa.
In fact your analysis is not far from pure glottogony.
So far I've never studied sub-saharian languages.
Anyway it makes sense to reanalyze certain affixal morphemes as "degraded" pronouns.
For example #m- instrumental seems to have a clear connections with a number of pronouns like ma "what"
But at the same time, how do we establish that this is not just a chance coincidence?
Nearly all consonants are the signifier of pronouns in a worldwide perspective.
Chance coincidences can never be entirely discarded as a possible "explanation".
Arnaud Fournet
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