Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 21:11:08 +0200 Subject: TRANSLATION: Grandfather and the dragon From: taliesin the storyteller To: CONLANG-L Message-ID: <19990712211107.A567@rhiann.nvg.ntnu.no> I tried sending this on thursday last week, but it never seemed to reach the list, so here's the second attempt :) > Message-ID: > Date: Wed, 31 Mar 1999 08:55:52 +0100 (GMT-1) > From: Irina Rempt > Subject: A new translation exercise (was: lexicons) kaìrfaì a gvaìr kaìrfaìdudjal:; i:ru djinra eìcavy i: xvuaìc ryú's; rael:ia aò i: xvu 'ryc; syel:ia aò i: xvu lyè's; ju:ar:in: vaeren a kaìrfaì ct'aëlan: i:el 'syardris djin xvu ksy's; k'a:on; ta'aon; brenon; a tiron i:ruel ksy'seles tca'ra geàlar:eið gaìnruið eìcaiðes "Grandfather and the dragon When my great-great-grandfather was a young man, he travelled out into the world. First he went west; there was only sand there. Then he went north; there was only snow there. Then he went east; there the mountains were too high and great-great-grandfather couldn't climb them. At last he decided to travel south, on foot, on horseback, by cart and by boat. In the south he saw the largest city in all the world." Orthographic and phon(etic|ologic) notes: Vowels with accents form a diphthong with the preceding vowel. If the accent is a grave, the unmarked vowel is the dominant one, the opposite is the case if the accent is an acute. Umlauts are used only to disambi- guate homonymous morphemes. Colon marks the preceding sound for length, semi-colon is a short pause like our comma, apostrophe marks breathiness/ devoicing if placed before a sound and aspiration if placed after. /g/ is always hard, the /r/ is an alveolar trill, /u/ is nicked from Norwegian, everybody seems to mix them up with the French in , which is in fact closer to the /y/ than the /u/, both are rounded, the /y/ more so. /c/ is a post-alveolar fricative (or retroflex s, take yer pick), /j/ is voiced /c/, the /a/ is more backed than mid, the /x/ is an un- voiced, velar approximant and thus not -quite- like in Scottish , the /o/ is what the rest of the world knows as /u/. The Interminable Interlinear, for those who like such things: Cryptic abbreviations: 4 the number four 3s.+ third singular animate LOC.g marks located thing LOC marks location, more or less exactly PAST past tense :) PL plural EXP experiencer, see [*] INSTR instrumental (not comitative!) BEN bene-/malefactive, dative, catch-all oblique, see [*] kaìrfaì a gvaìr kaìr - faì a gvaìr 4 - parent and "dragon" "Grandfather and the dragon" kaìrfaìdudjal:; i:ru kaìr - faì -du =djal: i: -ru 4 - parent -young =time_of 3s.+ -LOC.g djinra eìcavy djin -ra eìca -vy travel -PAST world -LOC.moving.fixed "When my great-great-grandfather was a young man, he travelled out into the world." i: xvuaìc ryú's; rael:ia i: xvu -aìc ryú's rael: =ia 3s.+ approach -first west sand =land.of "First he went west; there was only sand there." aò i: xvu 'ryc; syel:ia aò i: xvu 'ryc syel: =ia and.then 3s.+ approach north snow =land.of "Then he went north; there was only snow there." aò i: xvu lyè's; ju:ar:in: aò i: xvu lyè's ju: -ar:e -in: and.then 3s.+ approach east high -most -too_much vaeren a kaìrfaì vaer -en a kaìr - faì mountain -PL and 4 - parent ct'aëlan: -ë- ct'a =lan: -not- pass =capable.of "Then he went east; there the mountains were too high and great-great-grandfather couldn't climb them." i:el 'syardris djin xvu ksy's; k'a:on; ta'aon; i: -el 'syard' -ris djin xvu ksy's k'a: -on ta'a -on 3s.+ -EXP decide -last travel approach south foot -INSTR ride -INSTR brenon; a tiron bren -on a tir -on car -INSTR and ship -INSTR "At last he decided to travel south, on foot, on horseback, by cart and by boat." i:ruel ksy'seles tca'ra i: -ru -el ksy's -el -es tca' -ra 3s.+ -LOC.g -EXP south -EXP -LOC see -PAST geàlar:eið gaìnruið eìcaiðes geàl -ar:e -ið gaìn -ru -ið eìca -ið -es big -most -BEN city -LOC.g -BEN world -BEN -LOC "In the south he saw the largest city in all the world." [*] The experiencer (EXP) marks the subject, if an agent and animate of verbs of the experiencer paradigm. Experiencer-verbs (daft name but I haven't bothered looking for a better one yet) functions as conjunctions, some experiencer-verbs are: think, consider, feel, hate, love... When the experiencer-verb only governs a phrase and not a new sentence, that phrase is marked with the benefactive (BEN). Example: sa:el a:r u: teì i:aþ I-EXP thinks.that you love he/she-PAT (PAT patient) u:el teì i:ið you-EXP love he/she-BEN Valid permutations: 'S' subordinated sentence/benefactive 'V' experiencer-verb 'E' experiencer E V S V E S S V E tal.