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

From:Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>
Date:Tuesday, January 17, 2006, 17:33
Ray Brown wrote (in an excellent post with which I agree wholeheartedly):

> BTW How do Conlangs handle 'ago'? >
Aha! I was waiting for that..... But first, a few natlangs of my acquaintance: INDONESIAN uses (always, AFAIK) a relative clause: NUM menit/jam/hari/minggu/bulan/tahun/dll. _yang lalu_ NUM min./hr./day/week/month/year/etc. _REL past ~gone by FRENCH: il y a NUM + time expression. That's always seemed very strange to me :-)) Is there some other way? ITALIAN IIRC, like Spanish, uses the 3s of 'to do/make' (fare), e.g. due anni fa 'two years ago' (I'm not sure about "fa due anni") OK: Kash: uses the verb _cosa_ 'to go' in modifying position: ro pehan cosa, lit. two year gone. No other possibilities, but maybe in very formal speech/writing one might say-- ro pehan re mende cosa 'two years that have gone(by)'. When we get around to figuring out GWR, this thread has given me the idea to do something evil....

Replies

Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>
Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>