I agree, after thinking about what {ben} means, there's actually no reason not to use it. It just seemed unusual to me. 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". 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". 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. - André 2016-12-06 18:04 GMT+01:00 SuStel <sustel@trimboli.name>:
I can understand the hesitancy with using *ben law'.* As a time expression, *ben* 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 *ben*? What are *benmey*?
Surely we already know the answer to that: *cha' ben* means *two years ago,* so *cha' benmey* also means *two years ago.* Multiple *benmey* means exactly the same thing as singular *ben*. So I see no grammatical reason why we can't speak of *ben law'*. *wa' ben, cha' ben, ben law'** one year ago, two years ago, many years ago.*
As for the original question, I'm not sure I see any significant difference between *SaD law' ben* and *SaD ben law'.* 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.
On 12/6/2016 11:46 AM, mayqel qunenoS wrote:
Andre Muller:
I might also accept {ben law'} as many years ago, although I'm not sure it works well.
I remember voragh once writing: {ben law'qu'} has been used many times on this list to indicate "once upon a time".
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:
{SaD DIS ret law'} = many (thousands of years ago)
{SaD DIS law' ret} = (many thousands of years) ago
{SaD law' DIS ret} = (many thousands) of years ago
If the above analysis is correct, then perhaps this all comes down to personal preference.
qunnoH jan puqloD ghoghwIj HablI'vo' vIngeHta'
On 6 Dec 2016 6:32 pm, "André Müller" <esperantist@gmail.com> wrote:
Don't forget that "years ago" is {ben}, so you can either say: 1) {SaD DIS law' ret} = many millennia ago, or 2) {SaD law' ben} = many thousand years ago. And these essentially mean the same.
I might also accept {ben law'} as many years ago, although I'm not sure it works well.
- André
2016-12-06 16:01 GMT+01:00 mayqel qunenoS <mihkoun@gmail.com>:
In order to indicate "many millenia ago", which is the correct choice ?
{SaD DIS ret law'}, {SaD DIS law' ret} or {SaD law' DIS ret} ?
-- SuStelhttp://trimboli.name
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