--- In conlang@y..., Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@J...>
wrote:
> On Sun, 26 May 2002 01:11:14 -0400 Muke Tever
> <alrivera@A...> writes:
> > You're not supposed to trust X-English English-X
dictionaries on
> > stuff like
> > this, but I have {quelque chose} for French,
{chto-to} and
> > {chto-nibud'} for Russian, and {io} for Esperanto.
>
> > (Maybe this woefully inadequate scholarship will
prompt others to
> > contribute.)
> > *Muke!
> -
>
> "something" in Hebrew is |mashehu|, which roughly
translates literally as
> "that which it is". Dan would know better, but i
think i'd use another
> smashed-together compound, |eizeshehu|, for "any"...
|eizeshehu davar|
> "whichever it is thing" for "anything"... but that
could just be an
> anglicism.
>
> ObConlang, in Rokbeigalmki the word for
"something/anything" is |tahao|
> /tahaw/, from |tii| /taj/ "there is/are" and |hawa|
/ha?wa/ "what".
> Similarly, the words for "some/any-time",
"some/any-place",
> "some/any-one" are:
> when = |tawa| /ta?wa/ ~ |tatao|
> where = |pawa| /pa?wa/ ~ |tapao|
> who = |zawa| /za?wa/ ~ |tazao|
>
> Technically, |zawa| and |tazao|, unlike the English
"who/someone", don't
> imply an animate agent - they just refer to whoever
or whatever is the
> subject of the sentence. |hawa| and |tahao| are
more general, and can
> refer to subjects and objects, in addition to being
used for "huh"? and
> verbs.
That's really interesting. Do you ever find yourself
needing to make the distinction we feel the need to in
English in Rokbeigalmki between, say "something" and
"anything"? If you ever do run into a "problem", what
is that conlang's solution?
Stephen
______________________________________________________________________
Find, Connect, Date! http://personals.yahoo.ca