Re: Weekly Vocab 26

Padraic Brown wrote:


> --- Christian Thalmann <cinga@...> wrote:
> > Note:  I took the liberty to replace "whither"
> > with "whence", which appears to make more
> > sense here.
>
> Whither as in "where did it go!? I had it, but
> now it's gone."
>
I have to admit, it took a while for me to figure out this archaism,
although Indonesian makes the distinction:

Hither -- 'to here' as in "come-hither looks" (kesini)
Whither-- 'to where' as in "Whither goest thou?" (the translation of the old
novel/movie "Quo Vadis?" (kemana)
Thither -- 'to there' not encountered enough to have a catch-phrase (kesitu,
kesana)

Hence -- 'from here' as in "get thee hence!" (dari sini)
Whence -- 'from where' as in "whence cometh....?"  (darimana)
Thence -- from there (dari situ, dari sana)

ObConlang:  Kash also makes part of the distinction although the forms are
not transparent:

ritan 'here' ri+ta- 'near dem.' + -n acc. (locative) ending
riyan 'there' ri + iya- 'far dem.' + -n

riyena '(at) where?' (-a or -0 representing a neuter acc.)
riyene '(to) where?' (-e 'dative')
riyeni '(from) where?' (-i 'genitive')

(The root en- or ena- (or perhaps **yen(a)- ) is not analyzable in the
modern language)

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