No Responses to “Conlangery #98: Menya (natlang)”

  1. ak

    Very interesting.

    Re: Japanese quotes, I think you’re talking about the word “tte”. For example:

    1. Atsui. = It’s hot.
    2. Atsui tte. = “It’s hot.”

    By adding “tte” at the end of the second one, the speaker is specifying that the statement is a quote, someone else’s statement. I think the “tte” is ultimately an abbreviation of “tte itta”, which itself is a contraction of “to itta” which means “s/he said”.

  2. Valdeut

    Great episode! I think I should read through that grammar more carefully when I have time, but there’s some interesting stuff going on.

    I don’t think quotative particles are that uncommon actually, but I agree that they can seem a bit engelangy. I think they often evolve from verba dicendi.

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