Re: Virus Translation Exercise

On Fri, Mar 01, 2002 at 07:45:00PM -0600, Peter Clark wrote:
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>         Inspired by a recent thread, I have a proposal for a translation exercise:
> virus messages. For example, the recent SirCam virus popularized the phrase,
> "I send you this file in order to have your advice". Then there's an easy
> one, the ILOVEYOU virus, which had "ILOVEYOU" as a subject. You can translate
> one or both of these, and/or add your own favorite virus message. Bonus
> points if you replicate the abuse of grammar or ackward use of language.
[snip]

My conlang's vocab hasn't grown in a while, and my anticipated grammatical
fixups haven't been resolved, so I'm skipping the first one. "I love you",
however, can be translated in several ways:

1)      eb0'        3m33j3'      3chidu'.
        I(masc,org) love(pl,cvy) you(epi,sing,rcp)

        I'm assuming the speaker/writer is male; if it were female, it'd
        be _`yb0'_ instead. The plural distant epicene pronoun _3chidi'_
        is used for "you", which is a deliberate mockery. If you truly
        loved someone, you'd refer to that person with an intimate
        pronoun, and with the correct gender. Using the epicene conveys a
        sense of formality and lack of intimacy. This form probably most
        reflects the intentions of the virus author, since he would not
        consider his victims any more than some distant people with
        generic gender.

        Note also that "love" here is a plural noun. Literally, you could
        translate the sentence as "I have much love towards you". (In
        Texan, you might render it as "I have much love towards yall!")
        Here, of course, it is used sarcastically, esp. when used with a
        distant pronoun (it's like saying, I love you all soooooooo much,
        strangers!)

2)      eb0'   m33j3'         comu'.
        I(org) love(sing,cvy) you(epi,sing,rcp)

        Here, the *singular* intimate pronoun _comi'_ is used. This is a
        slightly warmer expression, although still a bit formal because
        _comi'_ is epicene, and in Ebisedi custom, you only ever use the
        epicene with people whose gender is not yet known to you. (It is
        pedantically considered very rude to use the epicene to refer to
        anyone whose gender you already know.) This implies that you don't
        know that person very well.

3)      eb0'        3m33j3'      jobu'.
        I(masc,org) love(pl,cvy) you(fem,rcp)

        Here is something that a husband might say to his wife or close
        female relative. The singular feminine intimate pronoun _jubi'_ is
        used here. This implies that the speaker is very close to the
        woman he is speaking to. Intimate pronouns are used to refer to
        relatives, friends or people in the speaker's "inner circle".


T

--
Why do conspiracy theories always come from the same people??

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