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} ?

-- 
SuStel
http://trimboli.name