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The quotative verb (Í)¨ (e)n may be conditionalized; the
form is then ýºÔ nnaa. When a sentence precedes ýºÔ
-naa we can get a kind of sentence-conditional meaning `If it is the
case (that x)' Nouns alone may be followed by ýºÔ nnaa,
which then functions as a kind of TOPICALIZER. Its meaning is somewhat
difficult to translate idiomatically in English; (literally `if one SAYS
X ... '),) but the loose translation is generally something like, `as far as X
is concerned' or `regarding X ... ' or `since you mentioned X ... ' or `speaking
of X ... .'
- ¶ÕÆÕ¾ÔýºÔ ÇÂí¡Þ ½¿Õ¢»Õ¿£ sinimaa-nnaa, avanukku
payttyam `AS FAR AS movies are CONCERNED, he's just crazy
(about them).'
- ¾Ö¨ ´ÀÕýºÔ ÍÆ¡Þ ×ÀÔ£½ ÉøÓ¹£ miin kari-nnaa, enakku rompa
istam `Now fish curries, that's something I really like.'
When a sentence precedes the ýºÔ -nnaa, the construction
is equivalent to the ordinary conditional, semantically. That is, the
following sentence pairs mean the same thing:
- Ǩ Âÿ»Ô¨-ýºÔ avan vandaan-nnaa `If he comes ...'
- Ǩ Âÿ»Ô avan vandaa `If he comes ...'
The -nnaa type of conditional is somewhat more common in
ST than in LT; it is however REQUIRED when
the verb that precedes it cannot be conditionalized the ordinary way, i.e., it
has no past stem. Modals or habitual negatives are of this type:
Çâ ØÂá£ºÔ ¼Ô¨ ¯ØŨ adu veenumnnaa, naan varreen
`If that is needed, I'll come.'
The meaning of ýºÔ -nnaa is often epistemic, i.e., it
can often be translated `If it is true that ... ' or `if it is such that
... ' or `If it turns out that ... ', etc.
Harold_F.Schiffman