Re: The...the...

From: "caeruleancentaur" <caeruleancentaur@...>
Sent: Wednesday, April 19, 2006 11:16 PM

> 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...."
>
> What exactly is the etymology of the German
> "je...desto..."?
Ayeri:

ti ... to ...
ti ikaneng to tamp(u)eng (the more the merrier)

Ayeri also doesn't have a definite article. I have no idea
where "ti" and "to" may come from ... the words suggest to
be related to one another, though.

German:
je ... desto ...
je mehr, desto glücklicher (the more the merrier)

NHG je < MHG ie < AHD io, eo; Goth. aiw, OE a:, OIsl æ:;
comes from a frozen Germanic case form of a noun (of the
i-stem) with the meaning "time, lifetime, era". Belongs to
the group of _ewig_ (eternal), cf. OHG êwa "eternity" [NHG
Ewigkeit], Goth. aiws "time, eternity", OIsl. æ:vi "age,
era". -- The adverb _je_ is also a part of the words _immer_
(always) and _jemand_ (somebody).

The Duden doesn't write anything about "desto",
unfortunately.

Note that in colloquial German, people often use _je ...
je ..._ instead.

Yours,
Carsten

--
"Miranayam kepauarà naranoaris." (Kalvin nay Hobbes)
Venena, Yangtim 21, 2315, ea 07:20:40 pd