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....
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