Re: Virus Translation Exercise

Well, my nameless lang is undergoing severe surgery, to fix it's lack of
syntax and it damn grammar-eating 30-letter verbs, but technically the
new version is a related language, so I'll give both. (The new one is a
definite improvement - I don't need to constantly refer to charts and
tables in order to write it).

In writing this I've just realised how little I liked the old language,
and how much I like the new one ;)

> >> "ILOVEYOU"
OLD
8bit: fósatyefsa      OR    fósatyef
7bit: foosatyefsa     OR    foosatyef
ipa :/fo:sAcEfsA/     OR   /fo:sAcEf/

      foos- a-          tye- f/fsa
      love  present.aor I    you


NEW (VOS!)

      sfohev et
ipa: /sfohEv Et/

      sfoh- e-     v   et
      love  pr.aor you I


Added illiteracy?
NEW: SFOHEVTE (almost legal; see the word "evte" below)


> >>  "I send you this file in order to have your advice"
OLD (uurgh, it's real ugly - skip ahead to the new maybe??)

8bit: guiveiynetyuwraf  haty ranu kyn féagh  tetemadhèynaethafsawrety cagdafsu
7bit: guiveiynetyuwraf  haty ranu kyn feeagh tetemadh'ynaethafsawrety cagdafsu
ipa :/g.uiv.eiynEcuwrAf hAc  rAnu qyn fe:AG  tEtEmAD@yn.aeTAfsAwrEc   kAgdAfsu/

      guiveiyne-             tyu- wra-       f   haty ranu kyn feeagh te-    temadh 'yn-
      send+valence+pres.perf I    nounmarker you this file -so-that-- future tell   valence

      aetha     fsa wre        ty  cagda- fsu
      subj.pres you nounmarker me  advice yours


And now, new, streamlined, and faster than ever before ---

      rano ate ghebe de evte gennu sfae  ghaune tetremafe etve
ipa: /4Ano AtE GEbE  dE EvtE gEnnu sf.ae G.aunE tEt4EmAfE EtvE/

      rano ate  gheb- e de                  evte  gennu   sfae  ghaune  te-    tremaf- e etve
      file this send  * perfective_particle you-I so-that your  advicea future tell    * me-you

* = "for future expansion" ;) I just started this project last night,
  so I don't know entirely how the verbs will work yet...

I'm not happy with the 'evte' thing, and also this is the first phrase
I've written that has an indirect object, and my intuition has been to
treat the indir obj as a kind of adverbial phrase, putting it before the
verb, unmarked as to case.

Oh yes, the 'de' is stolen from mandarin, the spelling coming from two
particles called 'de' and the meaning from one of the many uses of that
marvelous word 'le'. ;)

Added illiteracy? well the old one is illiterate enough, by it's very
nature. As for the new one, maybe one could missay

correct : rano ate ghebe de evte gennu sfae ghaune tetremafe etve
unlitret: rano ate gebe evte gennu thee sfae  gaune tetremafe etve

What's wrong?

gebe for ghebe - the past tense of a hypothetical verb 'gebe' would be
  'ghebe', while the past tense of the actual verb 'ghebe' is 'hebe'.
  The writer removed an apparant past tense marker that was in fact part of
  the verb. Like strong-verb mistakes in english. (? "I SUNT YOU THIS FILE" ;)

missing de: not grammatically wrong, but suggests the sending is still
  going on. This is the opposite of elegant - suggesting labour that isn't
  there ;). Probably wouldn't be noticed since 'gebe' is nonsense anyway.
  (except to the writer!). Still, duplicates the continuous effect of
  "I send you this file"

added thee: wrong register. Over-the-top subjunctive particle - Paralells the
  awkward use of "in order to" in the original ;)

gaune for ghaune: dictionary form is gaune, but is affected by
  lenition/seimhiú after the posessive 'sfae'. Not sure if this
  is ungrammatical yet, or simply the wrong meaning. e.g. Irish
  distinguises between 'his' and 'her' by presence or absence of
  lenition following the possessive: 'a mhadra' /A wAdrA/ his dog,
  'a madra' /a mAdrA/ her dog.

I could have added 'tretremafe' for 'tetremafe' - overenthusiastic
reduplication to indicate the future. ;)

OK, I think I've insulted the ficitonal writer enough.

stephen

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