Re: Some or any

On 26 May, Steg Belsky wrote:

<snip>

> "something" in Hebrew is |mashehu|, which roughly translates literally as
> "that which it is".
Agreed.

 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.
    I don't think that I personally would use |ezeshehu| in the sense of
"any". IME it carries more the sense of "some-kind-of".
    As it happens, shortly after reading Steg's post during a break
at work, I found myself discussing a person's medical treatment
with a native Hebrew speaker. The speaker hadn't wanted to
disclose (or didn't know) the exact substances being used, and
so said something about "|ezoshehi trufa|" = some kind of medicine.
(|ezoshehi| is in the feminine form because |trufa|, medicine, is feminine.)
    One might get away with using |ezeshehu davar| as "anything" in
the sense of "What do you want on your pizza? Oh, anything!"
but in this case, I'd probably use |ma she yesh| = what which there-is.
    FWIW, my English-Hebrew dictionary lists |ezeshehu| as one translation
of "any" and goes on to list 9 examples of  English uses of "any"
and their translations into Hebrew, and  _none_ of them
include the word |ezeshehu|!


ObConlang:

( Note:    r = [r],  r` = [R],   g~ = [N]. )

rtemmu has a list of prefixes:
    we-         =  question
    tr`ko-      =  any
     r`ko-       =  every
    br`ko-     =  some
    g~am-     =  none (lack of)
    rbug~-    =  subjectively yes, objectively no
    g~ubr-    =  objectively yes, subjectively no
    g~ag~u-  =  not objectively nor subjectively

these are commonly joined to the words

    ris    =  location
    rtun  =  person
    rbihn =  reason
    br`    =  selection
    shye  =  existence
    xdil   =  procedure

resulting in the words for  "where" ( question-location, etc.),
everywhere, everyone, always, never, sometime,  anyone, etc.

    In addition to the 6 words listed above,
the prefixes may be prefixed to any content-word.
For example:  shpiti = the process of raining.

    weshpiti   =  questionable rain (is this stuff comining down
                                       hard enough to qualify as "rain"? )
    tr`koshpiti  =  any-rain
     r`koshpiti       =  every-rain
    br`koshpiti     =  some-rain
    g~amshpiti      =  drought
    rbug~shpiti    =  imaginary rain
    g~ubrshpiti    =  the world may be wet, but
                                I don't feel a thing!
                                (I'm in love!  ;-)    )
    g~ag~ushpiti  =  a drought so severe that
                             I can't even comprehend it!

And so on.



Dan Sulani
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likehsna rtem zuv tikuhnuh auag inuvuz vaka'a

A word is an awesome thing.