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Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2010 4:43 am
by Echobeats
Dingbats wrote:TomHChappell wrote:"He went home" originally was a proper answer for "Whither (i.e. which way) did he go?". It was not originally a proper answer for "Where (i.e to what place) did he go?"
Is this really how the distinction between "where" and "whither" worked? In the related Swedish, which retains the contrast (at least in the standard), both of those questions would use the equivalent of "whither", since both ask for a direction. "Where" would mean something like "In which place did he walk around without going anywhere?" (but is of course in practice just nothing you would say).
Yeah,
whither means "where to". I've never heard of a difference between different kinds of "where to".
Posted: Sun Aug 15, 2010 7:46 am
by Shm Jay
The paradigm was where/whither/whence and here/hither/hence. I don’t remember if there was a third set for some other adverb.
Posted: Mon Aug 16, 2010 2:51 pm
by Radius Solis
There/thither/thence.
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 4:38 pm
by TomHChappell
Echobeats wrote:Dingbats wrote:TomHChappell wrote:"He went home" originally was a proper answer for "Whither (i.e. which way) did he go?". It was not originally a proper answer for "Where (i.e to what place) did he go?"
Is this really how the distinction between "where" and "whither" worked? In the related Swedish, which retains the contrast (at least in the standard), both of those questions would use the equivalent of "whither", since both ask for a direction. "Where" would mean something like "In which place did he walk around without going anywhere?" (but is of course in practice just nothing you would say).
Yeah,
whither means "where to". I've never heard of a difference between different kinds of "where to".
AIUI you're saying something like:
here/there/where was locative/adessive (location);
hither/thither/whither was allative (destination or goal);
hence/thence/whence was ablative (source).
But AIUI English actually used here/there/where for destinations and goals, and used hither/thither/whither for directions.
I could be wrong.
[EDIT]: In which case I should have said "whither" and "whitherward", rather than "where" and "whither". That is, the original "went" was an answer to "whitherward". [/EDIT]
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 9:28 pm
by Radius Solis
Actually there is a suppletion in the paradigm, just a different one I hadn't spotted before:
where - whither - whence - when
there - thither - thence - then
here - hither - hence - now
Whither did 'hen' go?
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 9:30 pm
by Nortaneous
Also, why does "here" have /i/ when "where" and "there" have /e/?
Actually, I guess the real question would be why "where" and "there" have /e/, since <eCe> is usually /i/.
Posted: Fri Aug 20, 2010 11:53 pm
by tezcatlip0ca
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