Re: Marking time.

Hi!

First of all, I think I had read about adverbs using instrumental case
in some lang without a distinct category of adverbs, but I forgot
which one it was.  (I personally find the locative more intuitive, but
natlangs are not engelangs, so a logical reason for using a certain
case is, of course, quite irrelevant... :-))

Lars Finsen writes:
>....
> More specific time specifications can be done too. Specifying a time
> interval is very straightforward, from A to B is "A+abl B+acc". It
> can be used for other intervals as well.
I kind of generalised locative, allative, ablative, and, if present,
perlative cases to not only spatial but also temporal and notional
marking in recent artlangs.  It was a suggestion from this list that
made me do so.

> A duration can use the dative.
Is there a particular reason why the dative would qualify to specify
durations well?  Of course, it's ok to use the dative, but maybe there
is an additional reason?  (I'd use perlative in langs that have it.)

> In Urianian I have used locatives for time specifications within
> other time specifications: "At 3 o'clock on Wednesday" = "Driu
> uttuni" (3+loc Wednesday+inst).
Interesting.  Why two different cases here?  A relict from the
previous locative usages?  I would have expected 3+inst
Wednesday+inst.

**Henrik