Sevvuferyn Semantics

Hyla vs yyizyn

Both of these words mean "a lot of/many" in theory, but in practice they are not used interchangeably. For starters, one word, "hyla" is usually followed by the genitive of the noun it is describing, which is not the same for "yyizyn", which takes the nominative.

From observations of its use, it is evident that "hyla" is used for continuous groups of data and uncountable items (e.g weight of an object, emotions) whereas "yyizyn" is used for discrete groups of data and countable items (e.g number of leaders in an army, number of elements in the periodic table)

Compare the following:

"Søn hyla meltamim ë telig dõkijý"

(There is a lot of worry among my friends)

And

"Søn yyizyn dõkijý"

(There are many friends)

Saying, for example, "søn hyla dõkijý" just does not sound right, and equally so if one were to say "søn yyizyn meltam ë telig dõkijý". This may stem from the grammatical differences between the words - after all, having much of something may be linked to something like sand, which one can pick up from a seemingly smooth, continuous pile, whereas simply having "many" may be linked to being able to point out each one of the "many". But this is mere speculation and Sevvuferyn scholars are still in disagreement as to where this semantic difference came from.