ABSTRACT
Many languages have expressions containing the word' has,' followed by what was originally its object, but is now not always distinct in form from the subject-case, thus Fr. il y a, Sp. hay (from ha 'it has' y , there '), It. v'ha (in v'hanna molti ' there are many' molti is treated as subject), South German es hat, Serbian and Bulgarian ima, Mod. Gr. ekhei. (Cf. also H. Pedersen, KZ 40. 137.) Chinese has the otherwise invariable rule that the subject is placed before the verb, but these sentences begin with yeu, originally 'have' ; see Gabelentz, Ohin. Gramm. 144. Finck (KZ 41. 226) transcribes the same word yu3 , e.g. yu3 ko lang2 ' there once was a wolf,' orig. 'has piece wolf.'
