LINGUIST List 10.590

Fri Apr 23 1999

Disc: Possession in Hebrew

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

Directory

1. Lidia&Baruch, RE: 10.530, Qs: Hebrew, Italian

Message 1: RE: 10.530, Qs: Hebrew, Italian

Regarding Simona Herdan's query about expression of possession in
Hebrew:

There are many languages in the world which have no verb 'to have' and
express possession by means of something like 'a thing is to/with/at
me'. All Semitic, Turkic, some Finno-Ugric languages belong to this
type, as well as Hindi and Russian: u menja jest' brat 'at me is
brother' (I have a brother). Hebrew 'yesh li akh', Arabic 'andi akh'
( stands for voiced pharyngeal fricative), Amharic 'wandemm alle-ny'
= 'brother is-(to)-me'.