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Re: Weekly Vocab 6: to know

From:Roger Mills <romilly@...>
Date:Wednesday, May 7, 2003, 22:01
Garrett Jones wrote:

> something interesting i noted with people's translations for the verb 'to > know': all but one person's conlang either had more than one word for the > english word 'to know' or omitted a word in one case. >
Not surprising; many many natlangs distinguish, at minimum, "know (something)" vs. "know (a person)". I especially liked the 4-way distinction in your Minyeva. Kash also has 2 words meaning "understand"-- tanjañ 'grasp the meaning of (I understand French)' vs. sanjañ 'realize, become aware of (I understand you're going to France).' The occasion hasn't yet arisen to use these, however. Perhaps: "I understand why you wrote that, but I don't undertand it."