Fadawana si Buruda

     I'm working on a translation of some of Aesop's Fables.  Here's the
start of one that some of you might find interesting.  It's actually
taking a rather circuitous route, as I'm starting with a Spanish
translation (of what are originally Greek fables), translating them into
my language, then back out into English for you to read.

     Any feedback on the grammar, syntax, feel of the language overall
would be very appreciated.  When pronouncing words, all the spellings
should be quite straightforward.  "ng" represents a velar nasal.  "r" is
an alveolar tap.  Stress tends to be on the last syllable, especially in
longer words, and the stress generally is raised in pitch as well.  I'm
aiming for something a bit unusual...

     Here goes:


Fadawana si Buruda
   "The Travellers and the Bear"
   Los Viandantes y el Oso

Gi bavi yantumina tumi ampaka.
   "Two friends were walking down the same road."
   Marchaban dos amigos por el mismo camino.

Maki miyafa, buruda ngiru tasi.
   "Without warning, a bear was suddenly there before them."
   De repente se les aparecio' un oso.

Zi shiyurpu si kinamiyara arkaminaka manku.
   "One climbed right up and hid himself by going in a tree."
   Uno se subio' rapidamente a un arbol ocultandose en el.

Rafa maku ampantimi, milza kinavirkaziru tarka si nakakaruku.
   "The other nearly being eaten by the bear, he put himself down on the
ground and feigned death."
   El otro, a punto de ser atrapado, se tiro' al suelo, fingiendose muerto.


     Now let's look at it word by word.  Some of the morphemes are easy
to break out (like the common -ka suffix), while others are changes or
shifts that apply to the entire word (sort of like "goose" > "geese" or
"arab" > "uruba").  Those I'll show in [brackets].

-----

Fadawana
   ka-mina-ti-[paucal]
   complete-go-doer.of.action-paucal
   a few who go quite far

si
   and

Buruda
   bear

-----

gi
   du-[adjectival]
   pair-adjectival
   two

bavi
   maya-[paucal]
   friend-paucal
   a few friends

yantumina
   yantu-mina
   foot-go
   walked

tumi
   kina-[adjectival]
   same.thing-adjectival
   same

ampaka
   vaka-[instrumental]
   road-instrumental
   by means of the road

-----

maki
   matu-[negative]
   have-negative
   don't have

miyafa
   tinta-[infinitive]-ka-[patient]
   warn-infinitive-action.noun-patient
   warning

buruda
   bear

ngiru
   zayi-[instantaneous]
   there.is-instantaneous
   is suddenly there

tasi
   maya-[paucal]-[dative]
   friend-paucal-dative
   to the few friends

-----

zi
   one

shiyurpu
   alza-zhiku-[instantaneous]
   upwards-climb-instantaneous
   suddenly climbed upwards

si
   and

kinamiyara
   kina-miyara
   self-hide
   hid himself

arkaminaka
   arka-mina-[infinitive]-ka-[instrumental]
   in-go-infinitive-action.noun-instrumental
   by going in

manku
   talzu-[patient]
   tree-patient

-----

rafa
   raka-[patient]
   other.one-patient

maku
   eat

ampantimi
   buruda-[partitive]
   bear-partitive

milza
   this.one

kinavirkaziru
   kina-virka-ziru
   self-down-put
   lowered himself

tarka
   barka-[dative]
   ground-dative
   to the ground

si
   and

nakakaruku
   naka-[infinitive]-ka-ruku
   die-infinitive-action.noun-feign
   feigned death


A few notes:
 - There are two tenses, past and non-past.  Subject-verb order
indicates past tense (generally), while verb-subject indicates non-past.
 - When a noun is in the partitive agent case, it can mean that either
part of the noun did something, or that the whole noun didn't quite
accomplish something.  There are ways of resolving the ambiguity, but
usually it's obvious from context.

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