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And it's a polysynthetic language, so new words are invented all the time :) Also cool: They have two third persons, proximate and obviative (some times called

And it's a polysynthetic language, so new words are invented all the time :) Also cool: They have two third persons, proximate and obviative (some times called fourth person)

Veliladon 2y ago
All words are invented?
- datadrivenangel 2y ago
  This is true for everything, but it's more obvious when you only have ~200 speakers.
deleted 2y ago
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lurk2 2y ago
> In English and many other European languages, the principal means of distinguishing between multiple third-person referents is using gender or (lack of) reflexive. Thus, in "she saw him", it is clear that there are two third persons because they are of different genders. In "she saw her", it is clear that there are two third persons because otherwise, one would say "she saw herself". However, "she saw her mother" is ambiguous: it could mean that she saw her own mother or that she saw someone else's mother. This is because it is not clear, in some contexts, if "she" and "her" refer to the same person. An obviative/proximate system has a different way of distinguishing between multiple third-person referents. When there is more than one third person named in a sentence or discourse context, the most important, salient, or topical is marked as "proximate" and any other, less salient entities are marked as "obviative". Subsequent sentences that refer to previously-named entities with pronouns or verbal inflections can then use the proximate and obviative references that have already been established to distinguish between the two.[0] [0] - https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obviative https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obviative
- kgeist 2y ago
  Russian has a similar distinction: if there are two "he's", you can use "on" (proximate) and "tot" (distant) to distinguish between them. Like, "he (on) said it was okay, but he (tot) disagreed". In this example, the first "he" is the person with the main focus in the conversation, and "tot" is someone else who was also mentioned but is not the main focus.

And it's a polysynthetic language, so new words are invented all the time :) Also cool: They have two third persons, proximate and obviative (some times called fourth person)

Veliladon 2y ago

All words are invented?

datadrivenangel 2y ago
This is true for everything, but it's more obvious when you only have ~200 speakers.

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

lurk2 2y ago

> In English and many other European languages, the principal means of distinguishing between multiple third-person referents is using gender or (lack of) reflexive. Thus, in "she saw him", it is clear that there are two third persons because they are of different genders. In "she saw her", it is clear that there are two third persons because otherwise, one would say "she saw herself". However, "she saw her mother" is ambiguous: it could mean that she saw her own mother or that she saw someone else's mother. This is because it is not clear, in some contexts, if "she" and "her" refer to the same person. An obviative/proximate system has a different way of distinguishing between multiple third-person referents. When there is more than one third person named in a sentence or discourse context, the most important, salient, or topical is marked as "proximate" and any other, less salient entities are marked as "obviative". Subsequent sentences that refer to previously-named entities with pronouns or verbal inflections can then use the proximate and obviative references that have already been established to distinguish between the two.[0] [0] - https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obviative https://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obviative

kgeist 2y ago
Russian has a similar distinction: if there are two "he's", you can use "on" (proximate) and "tot" (distant) to distinguish between them. Like, "he (on) said it was okay, but he (tot) disagreed". In this example, the first "he" is the person with the main focus in the conversation, and "tot" is someone else who was also mentioned but is not the main focus.