XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.fan.tolkien   
   From: derek@pointerstop.ca   
      
   Julian Bradfield wrote:   
      
   > On 2009-07-06, Christopher Henrich  wrote:   
      
   >> Well, you see, in the Kalahari language, verbs agree in gender with   
   >> their subjects; "meerkat" and "bleat" had feminine gender whereas   
   >> "rhinoceros" and "remains" had masculine gender.... [1]   
   ...   
   >> [1] Bullshit, of course. But I would not put it past the Kalahari to   
   >> have something even stranger in their grammar. For that matter, English,   
   >   
   > Not bullshit, as it happens. It's not as simple as masculine and   
   > feminine, but in San languages (or at least the one I've read anything   
   > about), verbs do agree with their governing noun (which is not   
   > necessarily the subject).   
      
   Proving once again that truth _is_ stranger than fiction!  I, having learned   
   everything I know about the San from a couple of documentaries and the No. 1   
   Ladies Detective Agency, didn't even know there was more than one San   
   language.   
      
   > In the case of !Xoo, there are five noun   
   > classes with which the verbs and adjectives agree. However, I don't   
   > know how the agreement would work in this case - maybe both verbs   
   > would agree with rhinoceros.   
      
   _Everything_ must agree with a rhinoceros.   
   --   
   derek   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)