a. keʰ ˁö́mor hek ľa wa-ˀaḷ-ˁerέbek dakkár toʸh ‘If he says no and doesn’t acknowledge you, remind him’ (CSOL II 1:21)
b. keʰ ṣibóḥoʰ šérḳaḥk gédaḥk meʸh ˁággi ‘At sunrise I came out and went to the men’ (CSOL I 16:22)
c. keʰ ṣibóḥoʰ wa-ˁemédoʰ ‘At dawn and at sunset’ (CSOL I 23:43)
d. náˁaʰ tegodíḥin des aḏ̣-ḏ̣uhr kor taˁámer hek wáˁdaʰ keʰ ˁemédoʰ ‘Now, go to her at noon, so she can make an appointment for you this evening’ (CSOL I 1:23)
e. méraṭk tóyki mugšími énneʰ deʰ mébrehe be-mɛr ti di-bíyyoʰ keʰ ṣámik aḷľirέt díˀʸho be-mɛľ ľiˀénneʰ deʰ mébrehe aḷ-bɛrníˀho ‘I warn you, oh my sons: this child in the womb of your mother— when I die, he shall not inherit any of my wealth, because this child is not my son’ (CSOL II 14:15)
f. wa-ṣet ṭahedédšen wa-gézem έˀɛfo keʰ ˁad ľinféˁ iṭáʰ deʰ nέfaˁ diyáˁ ‘They looked at each other and swore that they would not behave like this again’ (CSOL I 5:43)
g. egzémes keʰ teẓ̂ẓ̂áˁ wa-gezέmoʰ keʰ teẓ̂ẓ̂áˁ ‘He made her swear that she would not tell anybody, and she swore that she would not’ (CSOL II 4:22)
h. émme kíľyɛ eboḷégʸhen di-ḳáneʰ di-béstan di-feľán kor aḷ-ľaˁʸhéf ḥeb keʰ bɛʰ yeḳóẓ̂eˁ ‘As for the calves, I’ll put them in the palm grove of such-and-such a man so they don’t get lost, even if they do damage his trees’ (CSOL II 24:12g)
The meaning ‘when’ seems to be reliably attested only in the expressions keʰ ṣibóḥoʰ ‘at dawn’ and keʰ ˁemédoʰ ‘at sunset’ (see examples b–d), other possible examples are few and may be interpeted as ‘if’: examples e.
With gézom ‘to swear’ keʰ introduces a negative promissory oath (‘he swore not to do something’): example f.
ḥeb keʰ bɛʰ ‘even if’: example h.
- kaḷ if not, unless, except