16th Lexember Word

retáp [ɾe̞ˈdäˑp], intransitive verb: “to live, to be/stay alive; to survive; to be born“

What we have here is essentially the opposite of kúr: “to die, to be dead“. This verb refers to the state of being alive, but also to the concept of reaching that state, and of maintaining it despite adversity.

While it somewhat corresponds to the English verb “to live”, it is more restricted in its use than the latter. In particular, it cannot be used when “to live” means “to dwell, to reside” (in Haotyétpi ás: “to be, to exist” is sometimes used in that sense, although there are other verbs for that specific meaning), nor is it used when you want to talk about “living in a certain way” or when you want to mention that someone is “still alive” despite their age (here again, ás will usually be used to cover that sense). Rather, it is used whenever the notion of “being alive” is connected to that of “surviving”. Basically, if you want to say: “he has lived for a long time”, you use retáp. If you want to say “he has lived for a long time in that house”, you use ás or another verb of dwelling. If you want to say “he has lived a long time with his wife”, you use ás as well.

Also, in its dynamic sense, retáp means “to be born” in the conceptual, abstract sense, not the biological one. It could be more accurately translated as “to come into existence”, but that’s a mouthful :-P. Also, while it does not refer to birth as an actual, biological event, it still refers to someone or something “becoming alive”, so it cannot be used to refer to something that is not alive coming into existence. Here again, ás can be used for that (in its dynamic sense).

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