Re: translation exercise

On Thu, 1 Apr 1999, Fabian wrote:

> Father, what are those lights?
>
> That is the city of the Goyanim. They are a strange people. They light their
> cities at night, as if the stars weren't sufficient for their needs. They
> fight and kill eachother, not realising the greater danger beyond their
> small world. And they do not hunt eachother with bows and arrows. No, they
> have strange devices that kill from far away without arrows. And take care
> near their strange iron horses they use to travel. They travel faster than
> any natural beast ought to, and ignore the strength of the bow and arrow.
> Best if you avoid their cities, my son.
>
> Father, whats a city?
New roots:

_hist_ "familiar"
_len_ "distant"

New compounds:

_irashina_ "to suffice" from _irashin_ "a dozen, enough"
_folsin_ "device, machine" from _fola_ "to make"

New grammatical construction:

an <subject> fel "as if"


Tate, cuali shenyin yom?

Yom dol Goyenin. Alea rastin nahisti. Dolena havien shenayt, an ni
lazi fel na irashineyt velenen aleinen. Imustinayt ale so trudayt,
falean domoya tayarleni nys aleinin. Ni ale so cashenen na sorynayt.
Nay, alea folsin nahisti lea lein trudayt cashenen liz. Tine so
shalay bornene tylene duz nahistene lea da fareyt fere ryshayt.
Rychin salea neasa le lea perat dovyste neasayt cashenin rystea so
nachalayt. Dolene aleinen na faray, peray, nute in.

Tate, culi dol?


tate   cuali  shenyin yom
father what-p light-p there

yom   dol  goyenin [1]
there city Goyan-gen-p

alea rastin             na.histi.
they intelligent-beings NEG.familiar

Dolena     havien    shenayt,
city-acc-p night-loc illuminate-3p-PRS

an ni  lazi  fel    na  irashineyt     velenen    aleinen.
if NEG stars though NEG suffice-3p-IRR need-dat-p their-dat-p

imustinayt  ale          so  trudayt, [2]
duel-3p-PRS each.other-p and kill-3p-PRS

falean       domoya          tay.arleni    nys     aleinin
danger-acc-s AUG.great-acc-s DIM.world-abl outside their-abl

na  rastayt           hune
NEG understand-3p-PRS because

ni  ale        so  cashinen [3]        na  sorynayt
NEG each.other and bow.and.arrow-ins-p NEG hunt-3p-PRS

nay  alea     folsin      na.histi     lea lein           trudayt
no   them-dat devices [4] NEG.familiar REL distance-abl-s kill-3p-PRS

cashenen    liz
arrow-abl-p without

Tine [5] so  shalay             bornene     tylene     duz
2sS      and be.attentive-imp-s horse-loc-p iron-loc-p around

nahistene          lea da          fareyt         fere ryshayt [6]
NEG.familiar-loc-p REL in.order... go.to-3p-IRR  ...to use-3p-PRS

rychin        salea neasa      le  lea  perat [7]
living.beings any   travel-INF RES [it] is-permitted

dovyste neasayt
AUG-fast travel-3s-PRS

cashinin            rystea       so  nachalayt. [8]
bow.and.arrow-gen-p strength-acc and NEG.see-3s-PRS

dolene     aleinen     na  faray,      peray  nute  in
city-loc-p their-loc-p NEG go.to-imp-s please child my

tate   culi dol
father what city


Notes:

[1] -im looked so much like a plural suffix, and the word without it
looked so Valdyan, that I applied some popular etymology and
pluralized _Goyan_.

[2] I took this to mean "they fight / and kill each other" rather
than "they fight and kill / each other".

[3] _Cashen_ means "a hurled object" (this one is for Sally!). The
collective plural _cashin_, genitive _cashinin_ (normal plural is
_cashin_, _cashenin_) means "bow and arrow"; there's a separate word
for "bow" but it's only used when talking about the bow as a separate
object, as in "This bow has too heavy a draw for me".

[4] _Folsen_ is something made, a construct; the collective plural
_folsin_ refers to something intricate, a mechanical device like a
windmill or a pulley.

[5] The pronoun gives emphasis: "*You* watch out around iron horses
that you don't know". Usually, the imperative does without a pronoun.

[6] "that they use in order to go somewhere". Later on I've used
_neasa_ "to travel" because it's about the speed of travel, not about
its use.

[7] I've glossed _le_ as RES(umptive), though it comes before what it
resumes (the implicit subject of _neasayt_). _Dovyste_ "faster
(than)" takes the ablative, but the thing being compared to is either
_neasa_ "to travel" or _lea perat_ "it is permitted" and verbs, even
infinitives, are indeclinable.

[8] The conjunction _so_ comes after the first constituent when it
joins clauses, and in its predictable place when it joins parts of a
constituent. This would really need two different conjunctions, but
unfortunately there's only one, and that's not something I can change
after the fact.

   Irina


            Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastinay.
                     irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself)
     http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/frontpage.html (English)
    http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/backpage.html (Nederlands)