Re: The cost of time

Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...> writes:

> William Annis wrote:
> >
> > In English one "spends" time.  Sometimes you pass time.
> >
> > It just occured to me I have no way in Vaior to say "I spent much of
> > today reading."
> >
> > How do other languages handle this idea?  I'm thinking mostly about
> > natlangs, but conlangs that have avoided the monetary associations
> > would be interesting to me, too.
>
> In Uatakassi, one would say "I was reading thru/during much of the day",
> using the same case for "day" as would be used in a sentence like "There
> are many stores along that road" or "there are many potholes in that
> road" (specifically perlative, motion thru or inside an object or
> 2-dimensional area), time being viewed metaphorically as a road.
Coincidentally, i came across this problem only a few minutes after reading the first post of
this string. I was translating a bit of the Mabinogi in to Nindic. I came
across the sentence:

And before the feast was over she became his bride. Said Pryderi, "Tarry ye here
the rest of the feast, and I will go into Lloegyr....


Where the problem was: the rest of the feast.
To get around this problem, I created the root:
 -DEK- duration,last,pass, etc.
A preposition from this root would be *edek, which would have the form: edheg,
in Nindic, and ere, in Silindion.
Since neither has a perlative case, i assigned it the allative case in Silindion
(any other suggestions?), and the oblique form in Nindic. The result is:

Hai ogal dhoror selchad, ephuilys ni nuin in. Or Deniw, "Egerros mior edheg
selchad, 'bo ianaw mi noth Cwadfen"

(the names have been changed to random Nindic names).

Elliott Lash.