Re: of a certain age

[SuSvaj <zayericd@pilot.msu.edu>]

KFGT, page 211:  ben - "Years old"


At 06:40 AM 04/01/2002 -0700, you wrote:
>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/
>
>