Southern Asian Languages and Arusian - Typological Comparison Part 2

This post is the second out of a series of posts on which we will compare Arusian to some Asian languages to test and seek features that might be similar. In this post, we will be comparing Arusian to Cantonese by taking into consideration five main features:

• Morphology and word building
• Topic-Comment syntax
• Adpositions
• Relative Clauses
• Copula

Please check out the comparison between Arusian and Vietnamese here!

Morphology and Word building

Both Arusian and Cantonese are highly analytic (just like Vietnamese, as we saw in the last post) and form words by putting two or more roots side by side to create more complex words. Also, the concept of what might be a word in those languages may differ significantly from what is a word in English.

Let's compare how those languages form words:

??? use the example of school here

Topic-Comment syntax

In Cantonese, Topic-Comment (T-C) is a common sentence structure where the topic is introduced first, often followed by a pause, and then a comment is made about that topic. It's like saying "As for X, Y is true." The same is true for Arusian and Vietnamese.

Arusian

Juwa

book

fus

that-LINK

u sa

TOP LINK

lu

I

puwauwr

read

Translation: "As for that book, I've read it"

Cantonese

嗰

go2

that

本書

bun2 syu1

CL book

我

ngo5

I

睇咗

tai2 zo2

read-PERF

Translation: "As for that book, I've read it"

Adpositions

Arusian and Cantonese use verbs to express the same notion expressed by prepositions in English. As such, prepositions don't really exist in either language.

Arusian

Lu

I

semr

write

juwa

book

u

REL

oremr

use

tai

pencil

Translation: "I write a book with a pencil"

Cantonese

我

ngo5

I

用

jung6

use

鉛筆

jyun4 bat1

pencil

寫

se2

write

一

jat1

one

本書

bun2 syu1

CL book

Translation: "I write a book with a pencil"

Relative Clauses

Arusian uses a post-nominal relative clause introduced by a relativizer wei, although we can find other relativizers or linking particles like u or sa. In the following example, the relative clause follows the noun it modifies, and sa marks the relationship. In Cantonese, on the other hand, the relative clause precedes the head noun. The particle 嘅 (ge3) functions as a possessive/attributive marker that links the modifying clause to the head noun. This structure is similar to how adjectives precede nouns in many languages.

Arusian

Luwei

Yue

trmr

be

dem

language

sa

LINK

lu

I

tekr

study

Translation: "Cantonese is the language that I study"

Cantonese

廣東話

gwong2 dung1 waa2

Guangdong-speech

係

hai6

COP

我

ngo5

I

學

hok6

study

嘅

ge3

of

語言

ju5 jin4

language

Translation: "Cantonese is the language that I study"

Copula

In Arusian, the word trmr serves to link two nouns and convey a sense of equivalence, much like the verb to be in English. Similarly, Cantonese uses 係 (hai6) for the same purpose. This cannot be used for "adjectives", just nouns. Also, Cantonese uses another copula for location (喺 hai2), which is equivalent to Arusian payr, which is not considered a copula.

• Example 1 (Equative copula)

Arusian

Lu

I

trmr

be

vom sa cin

person LINK China

Translation: "I am Chinese"

Cantonese

我

ngo5

I

係

hai6

be

中國人

zung1 gwok3 jan4

middle-country-person

Translation: "I am Chinese"

• Example 2 (Locative copula)

Arusian

Lu

I

payr

be-at

pai-tek

place-study

Translation: "I am at school"

Cantonese

我

ngo5

I

喺

hai2

be-at

學校

hok2 haau6

study-place

Translation: "I am at school"

Conclusion

"???" Juweya.