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Mike:-> duration (answers "how long?" = <taym>):
"I have lived in California for a long time."
"We didn't have enough time to finish the meal before the movie."
Ray:-> Have you already used "dur" or "durtaym" which could be used when "time". You have "gi" for "during" - does it also mean "duration"? If so then how about "gitaym" to mean "duration of time.
gi can mean during, but I think we need a morpheme instead of a compound here.
Mike:-> point in time (answers "when?" = <???>):
"I was very angry at that time."
"At this time, we are unable to help you."
"At the time when we were in the movie, he started fighting with his brother."
Ray:-> You've got "sta" for "at a point (of time or space), then how about "stataym" for a point of time. Does "sta" mean "point" as well as "at"?
Sta can mean at at point in time, I suppose, but only in the same way the English is used. To say "sta ke da pa ven" would mean much the same as "do ke da pa ven." But 'do' would be better and clearer.
Mike:-> It may be that the Hindustani /z@mana/ or its Malay cognate, /zaman/,
would do. I see both used for things like "ancient time", which seems
similar to "point in time"--though they may be more like "epoch, period".
Ray:-> Oh, it must come from Arabic if it is almost the same in Hindustani, Malay and Hebrew ("zman"). Also in Hebrew "b'zman hazeh" can mean "at that time or at that period" referring either to a point of time or to an ancient epoch, or to some time or period last week or to some time or period tomorrow. You say: "b' eyzer sha'ah?" ("At what hour?" meaning at what point of time) but you can also say "b'eyzer zman" which could mean "at what time/season/period" depending on the context.
Mike:-> It would be nice, though, to have a one-syllable word to combine with
the correlative modifiers. If nothing else appears, I suppose "momen"
could be further shortened to "mom".
Ray:-> Well since "mom" doesn't suit, and since we cited three or four languages with "z-m-n" as semitic style root for the vague meaning of time, we could have "zom, zam, zem, zim, zum. ."zum" sounds like it might be a duration of time and "zim" might be a point of time, with "zem" as the vague word that could be either. Otherwise "zumzem" could be "duration of time" and "zimzem" could be "point of time". That now makes "zum" mean "duration" and "zim" mean "point" which could be used with a spacial term to mean a "point in space", for example "zimsas" if "sas" meant "space".
Intriguing, but I think the point of time word should be different from fwa and taym, and perhaps zman will do. Also possible are vrem, from Russian, kron from Greek.
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