[Multilingual Monday] The Partitive, Plus "Smartass"!
It's a two-for-one today!
First up: the partitive case. Just what is this? I've first noticed this in Basque:
Ez dago libururik. "There are no books."
Badago lanik? "Is there any work?"
The suffix -ik (or -rik after a consonant) can translate to "any" in a positive sentence or as "none" in a negative sentence. Rather than having a separate word, the Basque uses this suffix. It's also used to mean "most of x" (as seen in emakumerik gehienak (or, more literally, "from-the-women, the-majority"), or in the superlative (as seen in herririk politena, "the prettiest town", more literally "from-the-towns, the pretty").
Though there is debate as to whether or not the partitive is a case in Basque because of its limited use (like its lack of a plural counterpart), in languages like Finnish it IS a full case, suffixing words with -a or -ta. Onko teillä kirjoja? means, "Are there any books?" and mirrors the usage in Basque, at least in this instance.
Now I've said this before, but it needs to be said again: not all languages use the same cases or the same grammatical items in identical ways -- this was seen upon looking at the subjunctive in various languages and it holds true here. While the Basque have used the partitive to make a superlative, Finnish has used the same case to indicate ASPECT (as opposed to indicating it in the verb as in Russian or other Slavic languages). Kirjoitin artikkelia, "I was writing the article" (but didn't finish) in the partitive vs. Kirjoitin artikkelin, "I wrote the article" (and finished it) in the accusative. It's certainly fascinating as, if this same example were in the PRESENT tense, the partitive would indicate "I am writing the article" and the accusative would imply "I WILL write (and finish) the article". It's fascinating, to me, to see such a wide use of the case.
Next up: "Smartass"
My most recent FaceBook status read:
Regev Nyström רוצה לדעת, איך אומרים "סמארט אס" בעברית
And a friend wrote:
אני חושב שאין מילה מקבילה בעברית
("Regev Nyström wants to know how to say 'smartass' in Hebrew."
"I don't think there's an equivalent word in Hebrew.")
And this is probably true, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there's no real parallel in many of the languages I speak. Sure enough, I looked through ALC to find an equivalent in Japanese and it gave me:
失礼な人, shitsurei na hito, "rude person"
知ったかぶり, shittakaburi. "know-it-all"
うぬぼれ屋, unuboreya, "swelled head"/"narcissist"
... and none of these quite matches what a "smartass" is, and its various implications. Can it be that there's really not an equivalent term? That wouldn't be the first time ...
By all means, comments on the partitive or "smartass" are welcome!
First up: the partitive case. Just what is this? I've first noticed this in Basque:
Ez dago libururik. "There are no books."
Badago lanik? "Is there any work?"
The suffix -ik (or -rik after a consonant) can translate to "any" in a positive sentence or as "none" in a negative sentence. Rather than having a separate word, the Basque uses this suffix. It's also used to mean "most of x" (as seen in emakumerik gehienak (or, more literally, "from-the-women, the-majority"), or in the superlative (as seen in herririk politena, "the prettiest town", more literally "from-the-towns, the pretty").
Though there is debate as to whether or not the partitive is a case in Basque because of its limited use (like its lack of a plural counterpart), in languages like Finnish it IS a full case, suffixing words with -a or -ta. Onko teillä kirjoja? means, "Are there any books?" and mirrors the usage in Basque, at least in this instance.
Now I've said this before, but it needs to be said again: not all languages use the same cases or the same grammatical items in identical ways -- this was seen upon looking at the subjunctive in various languages and it holds true here. While the Basque have used the partitive to make a superlative, Finnish has used the same case to indicate ASPECT (as opposed to indicating it in the verb as in Russian or other Slavic languages). Kirjoitin artikkelia, "I was writing the article" (but didn't finish) in the partitive vs. Kirjoitin artikkelin, "I wrote the article" (and finished it) in the accusative. It's certainly fascinating as, if this same example were in the PRESENT tense, the partitive would indicate "I am writing the article" and the accusative would imply "I WILL write (and finish) the article". It's fascinating, to me, to see such a wide use of the case.
Next up: "Smartass"
My most recent FaceBook status read:
Regev Nyström רוצה לדעת, איך אומרים "סמארט אס" בעברית
And a friend wrote:
אני חושב שאין מילה מקבילה בעברית
("Regev Nyström wants to know how to say 'smartass' in Hebrew."
"I don't think there's an equivalent word in Hebrew.")
And this is probably true, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there's no real parallel in many of the languages I speak. Sure enough, I looked through ALC to find an equivalent in Japanese and it gave me:
失礼な人, shitsurei na hito, "rude person"
知ったかぶり, shittakaburi. "know-it-all"
うぬぼれ屋, unuboreya, "swelled head"/"narcissist"
... and none of these quite matches what a "smartass" is, and its various implications. Can it be that there's really not an equivalent term? That wouldn't be the first time ...
By all means, comments on the partitive or "smartass" are welcome!