of a certain age

["Sean M. Burke" <sburke@cpan.org>]

As I catching up on list mail, I see that there was some discussion a few 
days ago that involved how one should express the idea of being X years 
(etc) old, including whether {ben} ("ago") could be used for this.

So, was the question of how to say "be X years old" ever settled?


It occurs to me that one could make do with {ben} and a repertory of verbs 
referring to when the person/thing came into existence.  ("be born", "was 
created", "was written", etc.).  Or one could use a verb referring to the 
continued existence, maybe even something generic like {taH}:

   {'ar poH taHpu' targhHomlij?}  {loS Hogh taHpu'!}
   ("How long has your targlet survived/lived?" "She has survived four weeks.")

(Or is there a better word for 'how long [of a duration]'? {'ar-nI'} maybe? 
{'ar poH}?)


Or something more periphrastic:
   {'ar DIS ghaj taj?}  {cha' DIS ghaj.}
   ("How many years goes the knife have?" "It has two years.")
or even
   {'ar DIS tebpu' taj?} {cha' DIS tebpu'.}
   ("How many years has the knife filled/completed?" "It has 
filled/completed two years.")


--
Sean M. Burke    sburke@cpan.org    http://www.spinn.net/~sburke/