<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>I agree, after thinking about what {ben} means, there's actually no reason not to use it. It just seemed unusual to me.<br></div>However, there is a slight difference between {ben} and {benmey}. The latter means "years ago" and could be anything between 2 and 13 billion. {ben} itself can be interpreted as singular or (unmarked) plural, so it can mean "a year ago" or "years ago". {benmey} cannot mean "a year ago".<br></div>But I wouldn't just use {ben} alone. If I'd see it in a text, I'd interprete it as meaning "one or more years ago".<br><br></div><div>I wonder if {DIS ret} is possible as a kind of synonym of {ben}. I wouldn't use it. But it might not be strictly wrong.<br></div><div><br></div>- André<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">2016-12-06 18:04 GMT+01:00 SuStel <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:sustel@trimboli.name" target="_blank">sustel@trimboli.name</a>></span>:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div class="m_-2598464702235556176moz-cite-prefix">
<p>I can understand the hesitancy with using <b>ben law'.</b> As
a time expression, <b>ben</b> by itself points to a time,
albeit a vague one. But it's a noun that indicates a point in
time. So what does it mean if you have more than one <b>ben</b>?
What are <b>benmey</b>?</p>
<p>Surely we already know the answer to that: <b>cha' ben</b>
means <i>two years ago,</i> so <b>cha' benmey</b> also means <i>two
years ago.</i> Multiple <b>benmey</b> means exactly the same
thing as singular <b>ben</b>. So I see no grammatical reason
why we can't speak of <b>ben law'</b>. <b>wa' ben, cha' ben,
ben law'</b><i> one year ago, two years ago, many years ago.</i></p>
<p>As for the original question, I'm not sure I see any
significant difference between <b>SaD law' ben</b> and <b>SaD
ben law'.</b> I think I'd go for the former, since it makes
more sense to me to speak of years ago counting in the many
thousands, rather than having many thousand-years-agos.<br>
</p>
<br>
On 12/6/2016 11:46 AM, mayqel qunenoS wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<p dir="ltr"><br>
Andre Muller:<br>
> I might also accept {ben law'} as many years<br>
> ago, although I'm not sure it works well.</p>
<p dir="ltr">I remember voragh once writing: {ben law'qu'} has
been used many times on this list to indicate "once upon a
time".</p>
<p dir="ltr">Now, as far as the three possible choices I wrote are
concerned, I think that they are all valid with the meaning only
slightly changing from one to the other:</p>
<p dir="ltr">{SaD DIS ret law'} = many (thousands of years ago)</p>
<p dir="ltr">{SaD DIS law' ret} = (many thousands of years) ago</p>
<p dir="ltr">{SaD law' DIS ret} = (many thousands) of years ago</p>
<p dir="ltr">If the above analysis is correct, then perhaps this
all comes down to personal preference.</p>
<p dir="ltr">qunnoH jan puqloD<br>
ghoghwIj HablI'vo' vIngeHta'</p>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On 6 Dec 2016 6:32 pm, "André Müller"
<<a href="mailto:esperantist@gmail.com" target="_blank">esperantist@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br type="attribution">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div>
<div>Don't forget that "years ago" is {ben}, so you
can either say:<br>
</div>
1) {SaD DIS law' ret} = many millennia ago, or<br>
</div>
2) {SaD law' ben} = many thousand years ago.<br>
</div>
<div>And these essentially mean the same.<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I might also accept {ben law'} as many years ago,
although I'm not sure it works well.<br>
<br>
</div>
<div>- André<br>
</div>
</div>
<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">2016-12-06 16:01 GMT+01:00 mayqel
qunenoS <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mihkoun@gmail.com" target="_blank">mihkoun@gmail.com</a>></span>:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<p dir="ltr">In order to indicate "many millenia ago",
which is the correct choice ?</p>
<p dir="ltr">{SaD DIS ret law'}, {SaD DIS law' ret} or
{SaD law' DIS ret} ?</p><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
</font></span></blockquote><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
</font></span></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
</font></span></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
</font></span></blockquote><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
</font></span></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
</font></span></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
</font></span></blockquote><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<pre class="m_-2598464702235556176moz-signature" cols="72">--
SuStel
<a class="m_-2598464702235556176moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://trimboli.name" target="_blank">http://trimboli.name</a></pre>
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