XPost: alt.usage.english   
   From: peter@pmoylan.org.invalid   
      
   On 02/05/24 22:50, Hibou wrote:   
   > Le 30/04/2024 à 06:54, Peter Moylan a écrit :   
   >>   
   >> Almost all European languages have a "have" verb to indicate   
   >> possession. (And has other uses, but that's a separate topic.) The   
   >> Irish language is an exception, in that it lets a preposition do   
   >> the job of a verb. The equivalent of English "I have an apple" is   
   >> "Tá úll agam", literally "Is apple at me".   
   >   
   > Cette pomme est à moi ?   
      
   Yes, I'd forgotten examples like that.   
      
   >> Scots Gaelic is similar (Tha ubhal agam), and so is Welsh (Mae gen   
   >> i afal).   
   >>   
   >> And so is Russian. The Russian for "I have an apple" is "у меня   
   >> есть яблоко", literally "at me is apple". Apart from word order,   
   >> this is identical to the Irish example.   
   >>   
   >> This bothers me. What should (most) Celtic languages and (some)   
   >> Slavic languages share a feature that is not found in the many   
   >> languages that sit geographically between them? [...]   
   >   
   > Perhaps the explanation is that the 'have' of possession is a   
   > capitalist 'have'.   
      
   Thank you for that insight. That's the best explanation of all.   
      
   Peripherally related: we used to have a comedy group called The Doug   
   Anthony All-Stars, named after a former leader of the Country Party.   
   Their show on TV was called DAAS Kapital.   
      
   --   
   Peter Moylan                         http://www.pmoylan.org   
   Newcastle, NSW   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)