8.3 Quantifiers — "all, every, much, a little, none"
8 · Particles — the little connecting words · a plain-language guide to Assyrian (Sureth) grammar
A quantifier just says how much / how many.
| Assyrian | English | example |
|---|---|---|
| raba, roba | much, many, a lot | raba spay — very good |
| kulle | all | kulle beta — the whole house |
| kul, ku | every, each | kul yuma — every day |
| kma, khakma | a few, some, a little | khakma — a few, some |
| khachcha | a little, slightly | khachcha nikha — a little slowly |
| khachchunta | a tiny bit | khachchunta — a tiny bit |
| ukhcha | so much | ukhcha — so much |
| hech | no, none, not any | hech — none at all |
raba is your everyday "a lot / very" (it doubles as "very" with adjectives). kulle "all" vs kul/ku "every, each" — kulle beta "the whole house / all of it," kul yuma "every day." And hech is the "none / not any" word that pairs with a negative verb: hech …le… "there isn't any …at all."
A few in use — note the intensifier usually comes first: raba spay "very good", khachcha nikha "a little slowly", kul yuma "every day", kulle beta "the whole house". And two attested from the dictionary: merre raba spay "he said, 'very well'", kulle shkeltela "it's all plated / covered."
Go deeper
"Every" is printed in Khan's dictionary as kut, and it fuses onto its noun (p.124):
| Assyrian | English | from |
|---|---|---|
| kut-yum | every day | dict. p.124 |
| kut-kha | everybody | dict. p.124 |
| kut-dukta | everywhere | dict. p.124 |
| kut-dana | always | dict. p.124 |
"All of", "the whole":
| Assyrian | English | from |
|---|---|---|
| kulle-yuma shima | the entire day | dict. p.123 |
| kulle dunye | the whole world | dict. p.123 |
| kulle akh uydaleva | they were all like one another | dict. p.123 |
"No more", "nobody else": zoda "more":
| Assyrian | English | from |
|---|---|---|
| akhchi a pt-akhlatla, la zoda | you may eat only this, no more | dict. p.348 |
| zoda hech-nasha lele beddayo ayya | nobody else knows it | dict. p.348 |
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