Re: "Colorless Green" (was Re: Lahabic Syntax)

In a message dated 9/30/00 9:33:54 PM Eastern Daylight Time, fortytwo@GDN.NET
writes:

> Conlang text, morphemic breakdown, and literal retranslation would be
>  great.  English text is optional.  And an image of the native writing
>  would be superb.  In fact, you'd be the first conlang in which I'd have
>  the native writing.
>
it may not be first by the time it happens!

>  You use a syllabry too?  Syllabries rule!  :-)
>
syllabries are wonderful. I took a year of Japanese and fell in love with
them, although the one I'm using is a regular syllabry like that of Hebrew or
Sanskrit instead of having seperate ones for each CV combination.

>  Do you have a website about your language and syllabry?
>
not yet..... rather, I have the site, I've even got most of the actual
pages..... they're just empty. once things are on the site, I'll inform the
list.

There was a web page
>  (http://hcs.harvard.edu/~igp/glass.html) that had translations of the
>  phrase "I can eat glass, it does not hurt me" in over a hundred
>  languages.  :-)
"had"? is it gone?
still, I like it. I'll have to translate that one too.
>
what language is this?
>  Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
>  Zazánva piziaziulán uafiaanísi uadiáskun fil ku uafmaisiásai.
>  Zazá -n     -va  pi-ziaziulá-n  uaf- iaaní-i  ua-diásku-n   fil ku
>  Sleep-3PlIrr-Hab G7-anger  -COM G6PL-idea -PL G6-color -COM not and
>  uaf- maisiása-i
>  G6pl-green   -PL
my goodness.....what does all that mean?

>  Pronunciation:
>  [za'zam)'vA piZaZu'lam Afj_0a:'ni'Si wA'dZas'kom) fel ku wAfmaI'Sa'saI]
>  m) = labiodental nasal
>  ' = high tone (also, the first high tone in a word is pronounced with
>  greater volume)
I wish I could read this sort of thing, but I can't even read IPA with all
the characters in. yipe.
>
>  Koine form (not yet fixed):
>  Zazánva piziaziulán ufiaanísi udiáskumai ku uvmaisiásai.
>  [z@'zam)'vA piZaZU'lan ufj_0a:'ni'Si U'dZas'ku'meI kw_0ovmeI'Sa'seI]
>  u- and uf-/uv- instead of ua- and uaf-
>  -mai as a "without" case (<-n fai < -n fil)
>
>  Abstract nouns in the commitative (generally "with"; the native name is
>  _pifdunláana_ "Friend-form") are used for adverbs.  A more-or-less
>  literal translation would be:
>  Green and without-color ideas sleep angrily ("with anger")
>
>  Somehow it seems even more senseless in translation than the English
>  original.
isn't it great?
however, if you could please send me the translation in the form
"translation" -language, name to put with it
I'd greatly appreciate it-- I'm not putting up any of the detail, so much,
just the translation.... these look like two forms of the same language; if
you could explain what each form is that'd be great.
>
>  And for the "I can eat glass, it does not hurt me":
>  Taklanfataspásuv, guáliuv fil
>  Taklan-fatas-pás-u-v   guáli-u-v   fil
>  glass- chew- can-I-hab hurt -I-hab not
>  Pronunciation:
>  [taklam)fAtas'pA`sov 'gwa.ljov fel]
>  ` = high-low tone
>  Their are two verbs for "to eat", láu and kaftí, but neither works in
>  this context.  Láu indicates that the eating is in a social context,
>  usually eating with others.  Thus, it would imply that you're part of a
>  group of glass-eaters, while kaftí is used for eating solely for the
>  purpose of sustaining life, thus using that would imply that eating
>  glass is somehow a necessity for health.
what about a verb for "swallow"? the chewing doesn't seem to be quite the
point of this sentence.
> we have lots of translation exercises, ranging from simple
>  sentences to lengthy texts.
cool. just please send translations of the colorless green sentance to me
individually as well.


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