USAGE: Speak-Say-Tell

Hi,

I was thinking about the English words "speak", "say", "tell" (and "talk"),
and trying to quantify the exact difference between them.

Specifically, I was wondering whether all the words were strictly necessary
in a language, or whether you could postulate a language with only one word
meaning speak, say, tell or talk, depending on context.  How realistic is
this?

(Kazakh has 3 words: /ajtu/ to speak or tell, /deu/ to say, and /s2jleu/ to
talk, plus the compound /djep ajtu/.)
What about other natlangs?

Geoff

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