On 8 September 2017 at 13:15, Felix Malmenbeck <felixm@kth.se> wrote:
In TKD ยง6.4, this is written of the word 'ar:
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Finally, 'ar how many? how much? follows the noun to which it refers. It can never follow a noun with a plural suffix (-pu', -mey, -Du'; see section 3.3.2).
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I've always taken this to mean that a noun followed by 'ar is grammatically singular, and so we must say, for example, qachvam Dab nuv 'ar?, rather than *qachvam luDab nuv 'ar?*.
However, it now strikes me that there is another possible interpretation, namely that while the noun followed by 'ar is never marked with a plural suffix, it could still be considered grammatically plural, and thus allow for sentences such as *qachvam luDab nuv 'ar?*.
I don't understand. If you don't know how many of something there is, how could you know whether it was singular or plural? -- De'vID