Re: THEORY ago (was: Most common irregular verbs?)

On 1/17/06, R A Brown <ray@...> wrote:
> BTW How do Conlangs handle 'ago'?
Kēlen cheats:

il jalōna tē il ñi sāen marēþa sū jasāma;
'For six days, he wandered in the desert.'

il talōnte tē il ñi sāen marēþa sū jasāma;
'Six days ago, he was wandering in the desert.'

So, there is no actual word for 'ago', but there is a noun that means 'day ago':

Definition of the Base -talōnt-

jatalōnte   [singular inanimate noun]
    "a day ago, yesterday;"

il talōnte   [conjunction]
    "yesterday, a day ago. See Conjunctions for more details;"

il talōnti nā   [conjunction]
    "many days past, many yesterdays ago. See Conjunctions for more details;"

Derived from: -lōn-

So 'long ago' would be:
il talōnti nā ...

but 'for a long time':
il jahōλen ...

-S

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Sylvia Sotomayor
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