Minhast: Difference between revisions

In the formal language, as in the Classical language, fractions are expressed using the formula, ''X min yešpa=yar Y (han)'', where ''X'' represents the denominator and ''Y'' represents the numerator, a common pattern in dependent-marking languages such as Basque and Japanese.  Examples include ''Šentaz min yešpayār duxt hakman'' for 3/20 (lit. From twenty portions, three have come).  Mathematical operations becomes tricky with fractions; adding 3/20 + 2/20 = 5/20 translates to  ''Šentaz min yešpayār duxt hakman, šentaz min yešpayār šāni hakman,  wahēk, matti  šentaz min yešpayār meneħ hakman'', or "From twenty portions, three have come, from twenty.portions, two have come; now behold, there are from twenty portions that five have arrived."   

However, in practice the formula for forming fractions and conducting mathematical operations has been simplified. One encounters instead truncated formulas such as ''Šentazešpār duxtakman'' for 3/20, or ''Šentazešpār duxtakmammā, šentazešpār šānikman;  šentazešpār menekmandūr'' for 3/20 + 2/20 = 5/20.  The latter example, in addition to demonstrating truncation, shows how clause-like constructions involving the Subordinative ''=mā'' and Resultative ''-dūr'' have replaced what was originally a large noun phrase complex.  The ''min''=construction with ''yešpa'' and the Ablative clitic ''=yār'' was itself truncated and re-analyzed as the derivational suffix ''-ešpār'' for fractions.