FFlores wrote:

> Sally Caves <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> > Subordination is very "formal" in Teonaht.  _Ihai_functions as a kind of
> > relative,  a place-holder for the subject or object in question,
> > and subordinate clauses follow main clauses with a mirroring of
> > syntactical
> > order.  Since the main clause almost invariably ends with the verb, the
> > subordinate clause will *begin* with the verb, in proper and improper
> > relative
> > clauses:
> >
> > Il beto nelry ke ytonakel ihai il mabbamba.
> > "The boy did-I  see kick-did that-one the ball."
> > I saw the boy who kicked the ball.
>
> The "mirror" thing is a very interesting device. What happens
> if you have to embed a subordinate clause within another?
> (For example "I saw the boy who kicked the ball that he had
> found"?).

You just add it on to the prior subordinate clause; but all subordinateclauses
have reversed syntax.

Il beto elry ke itonakel ihai il mabbamba nrina-lo ihhain
The boy did I see kick did who the ball found-he which.

You might also even say:

Il beto itonakel-ihai il mabbamba nrina-lo ihhain elry ke.
The boy kicked who the ball found he which I saw

> Drasele'q has some of the types of German-like constructions
> that Twain made so much fun of. For example:
>
> _fol   ma`sst nolt masse'lmaru"r aldval   rin  essal gef  ren_
>  under trees  old  orchard.LOC   sleeping with blue  eyes man
> "the blue-eyed man (that is) sleeping under the trees in the orchard".

I like.  I actually like these constructions that the Germans take so
muchpride in and the English think so ugly:  "On the step cracked by so much
fallen last year's snow he tripped."    Actually, because of it's word order,
it resembles an English sentence; we put these kinds of subordinate phrases
in the middle of our sentences too, only we encase them in commas:

    On the step, which was cracked by the snow that fell so much last year,
he tripped.

> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>  The trouble with the rat race is that even
>  if you win,  you're still a rat.
>                                              Lily Tomlin

  And my favorite:

Never wrestle with a pig:   you get dirty and the pig likes it.

Sally Caves