Re: R: Re: New to the list

> Which brings me to an ob/conlang: how do you say I'm X years old in your
> conlang, and does that mean that you have had X anniversaries of your
> birthdate (as in English) or that you have lived in all or part of X number
> of years (as in Chinese).  Do you count from birth, conception or some other
> event?
>
> Adam
>
For Gevey, I borrowed the French system, where you "have" a number of
years, rather than "being" a number of years. Years are counted from
date of birth (though I have not yet decided how important birthdays
will be in the conculture), and assumes whole years lived. Thus:

  I am 36 years old ->
  Te bene yuuzh beski-dizu ebz

  te - I [subject]
  bene - have [verb]
  ebzuu, yuu ebz - year [direct object]
  beski-dizu - 36 [adverb of quantity]

with the only interesting thing to note being the placement of the
adverb, between the direct object and its detached, preceeding affix.

The corresponding question is:

  De bene yuush kontos ebz?

  de - you, secular singular [subject]
  kontos - how much/many [adverb of quantity]

Rik

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