Re: why the -s in English verbs?

Arne Dehli Halvorsen skreiv:

Nice tables, accurate for my dialect. I would say that the paradigm breaks down in some instance, where a purely clitic expression becomes cryptic, and this may also be some of the reason why Eastern Norwegian hasn't gone further along this path.

If you consider the sentence: Did X give Z to Y?, or equivalently Did X give Y Z?

And literally 'Gave X Y Z', just in case ...

and you try to fill it up with pronouns, you'll find some very compact but understandable sentences, and some which I doubt anyone would use:

XYZ = 3 person singular masculine : Ga'n'n'n? (three syllables)

Ga:n'n'n - one long and two short syllables.

XZ=3psm, Y=3psf : Ga'n'a'n? (two syllables)

Ga:n'a:n - two long syllables.

X=2ps, Y=3psf, Z=psm : Ga ru 'a'n? (three syllables)

Ga'ru'a:n or
Ga'ru'an: - two short and one long syllable.

The length mark changes the emphasis slightly.

It's also possible to add some (but not full) emphasis to both objects by prolonging the length of both clitic, in which case the last clitic may be percieved as a separate syllable:

Ga'ru'a:'n - two short, one long and a short syllable.

All in all, the syllable count is difficult. It's more of a rhythmic thing, I think.

XY=3psf, Z=3psm : Ga'a'a'n? (three syllables)

Ga'a'a:n - two short and one long syllable.

(For variations over the last syllable, see above)

XYZ=3psf : *Ga'a'a'a? (presumably four syllables, but would anyone say it?)

Four short syllables, that is. I don't think anyone would say it. One would replace the reciever with the accentuated object pronoun 'henne(r)'. Ga'a henner'a.

In order to give away something describable as 3psf, that something would probably have to be a dog or a cat.

No. It may be a dying feature, but it's still possible (for me, anyway, approaching 40) to use the unaccentuated female pronoun for a feminine noun. Thus, the last 'a' could point to a book, a shirt or a bell.

An example:

(Lillebjørn Nilsen, 1988?)

Anna traff José på Gran Canaria,
å a trudde på'n når'n sa å gla'n var i a.
E brøllopsklokke ringer når'u drar i a
å Anna trudde på en "happy end"
.... det var den ...
'a trudde på ....
Det var den a trudde på!

Forced literal translation:

Anna met José on Gran Canaria
and she believed on-him when-he said how glad-he was in her.
A wedding bell is-ringing when-you pull in her
and Anna believed on a "happy end"
.... it was that ...
she believed in ...
It was that she believed in!

My language suddenly looks very exotic now.

We need some missionaries to write a descriptive grammar of Central Scandinavian.

--
Trond Engen
- won't show anyone his dancing
.