LINGUIST List 10.530

Tue Apr 13 1999

Qs: Hebrew, Italian

Editor for this issue: Jody Huellmantel <jodylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Simona Herdan, Possession in Hebrew
2. msweinst, 'guerre des langues'

Hello Linguists,

I am gathering information for a project on various aspects of
possession in Hebrew. What I find most interesting is the use of
"there is/are" to render the present tense of "to have" and of the
forms of "to be" for the other tenses. These verbal forms are followed
by a preposition indicating goal/direction. So, literally, a sentence
like "I had a book" would be translated as "A book WAS TO ME".

I wonder if such correspondences between "to have" and "to be" exist
in other languages too. I would very much appreciate any help in
finding references to studies dealing with possession in general and
also with this particular aspect of Hebrew or of another language. Any
comments are welcome.

Please respond to me privately at simonainterplus.ro
Thank you all in advance.
I will summarize to the list if there is enough response.

Simona Herdan
Linguistics student
University of Bucharest,
Romania

Dear friends,

I was wondering if anyone could help me find some relevant/modern
bibliography about 'guerre des langues' in Italy during the 16th and
17th centuries? The subject that brought me to this request is the
weakening in Hebrew usage in Jewish-Italian communities and its gradual
replacement by Italian - both written and spoken. I could only find
relevant research in the volumes of "Storia della Lingua Italiana".

Many thanks
Roni Weinstein, The Hebrew University - Jerusalem.