Re: The...the...
| From: | R A Brown <ray@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Friday, April 21, 2006, 19:55 |
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Sapthan wrote:
> On 4/19/06, *caeruleancentaur* <caeruleancentaur@yahoo.com
> <mailto:caeruleancentaur@...>> wrote:
>
> How do you express the concept "the...the..." as in "the more, the
> merrier" in your conlangs. Senjecas does not have the definite
> article, so I'm looking for some suggestions.
>
> I know that Spanish uses "cuanto...tanto...."
Not much different from Latin with its "quanto ... tanto ..... :)
And Latin did not have definite articles. But as the Spanish shows, the
construction does not have anything to do with the definite article
per_se. Latin, however, more often used the shorter "quo ... eo ...."
e.g.
quo delictum maius est, eo poena est tardior "The greater the crime, the
slower the punishment".
They were ablatives of 'difference of measure': "By what amount the
crime is greater, by that amount the punishment is slower"
---
Ray
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