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Infinitive ending -i

av zixhwizs, 1 februari 2009

Meddelanden: 11

Språk: English

zixhwizs (Visa profilen) 1 februari 2009 16:27:18

In the dictionaries I've looked at so far (not many), verbs are always represented in the infinitive -i form. I assumed this was just the tense for them, like os, is, and as. But something occurred to me, and I'm not sure why I haven't noticed it before.

Is there a grammatical reason that some non-verbs share the infinitive ending, such as pli, li, ni, or pri.

mccambjd (Visa profilen) 1 februari 2009 17:12:36

Zamenhof ran out of letters?

The -i ending of pronouns, conjunctions, etc. are not grammatically connected to the infinitive case, I believe.

erinja (Visa profilen) 1 februari 2009 17:20:01

The grammatical endings of pronouns are not connected to the verb ending -i.

He wanted to end pronouns with a vowel, so that you could properly apply grammatical endings; and all vowels were already taken for other uses, so he had no choice but to double up.

-a adjective
-e adverb
-i infinitive verb
-o noun
-u imperative verb

ceigered (Visa profilen) 2 februari 2009 17:02:48

erinja:The grammatical endings of pronouns are not connected to the verb ending -i.

He wanted to end pronouns with a vowel, so that you could properly apply grammatical endings; and all vowels were already taken for other uses, so he had no choice but to double up.

-a adjective
-e adverb
-i infinitive verb
-o noun
-u imperative verb
What's the reasoning for ending every major thing with a vowel? I would have thought a syllable would have been easier to recognise than a vowel (e.g. -ment ('mong') in French, 'to' infinitive in English - by no means are these regular but at least they're easier to recognise in quicker speech when vowels can be slurred and stress can lose its impact). Is it just that Zamenhoff decided that would be easiest to remember + learn (not necessarily recognise) at the time?

Rogir (Visa profilen) 2 februari 2009 19:57:10

Not everything ends with a vowel: most of the verb forms don't. Nouns and adjectives have to end in vowels to allow for easy endings, and adverbs then get a vowel so they can be easily made from nouns/adjectives. Besides, final vowels are less likely to be lost in pronunciation.

ceigered (Visa profilen) 3 februari 2009 06:12:27

Rogir:Not everything ends with a vowel: most of the verb forms don't. Nouns and adjectives have to end in vowels to allow for easy endings, and adverbs then get a vowel so they can be easily made from nouns/adjectives. Besides, final vowels are less likely to be lost in pronunciation.
Ah ok, I see where you're coming from, cheers for that Rogir!

hiyayaywhopee (Visa profilen) 5 februari 2009 22:37:33

Words that end with vowels or very common consonants (e.g. n or s) are also much easier for many people who aren't used to European languages to pronounce.

jchthys (Visa profilen) 6 februari 2009 01:15:22

Just what hiyayaywhopee said. Like Ido has the infinitives end in r, which I think is kind of hard to pronounced.

ceigered (Visa profilen) 6 februari 2009 02:03:20

jchthys:Just what hiyayaywhopee said. Like Ido has the infinitives end in r, which I think is kind of hard to pronounced.
Well with practice it's easy, but then again who wants to practice? rido.gif

Oh well I finally have some understanding of this, before it was just a big mystery of 'why did he do this that way' etc.

ILuvEire (Visa profilen) 6 februari 2009 04:02:27

jchthys:Just what hiyayaywhopee said. Like Ido has the infinitives end in r, which I think is kind of hard to pronounced.
I agree. When I speak Spanish I drop the -r. Tomar -> toma.

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