Re: A Charyan Brothel Song in Teonaht

Boudewijn Rempt <bsarempt@...> wrote:

> Dear people,
>=20
> I'd like to offer some further particulars on the song _lamay-neranmen_.
>
> Since the object of the exercise is to make a translation from Issytra
> Seppelnarmyeeb's version, and not of the Denden original (though takers
> are welcome) I present here an interlinear version of the song, with
> some linguistic notes. (The Teonaht version seems to be sufficiently
> original that I think I will attempt a Denden version of the Teonaht
> version, myself).
I'm trying the Teonaht version. The Charyan original
is a bit more difficult, and also I think a literal
translation would be at least... hm... improper for
the Dr=E1selhadh culture. But I'm not being a puritan
over here -- indeed the song made me realize my
Drasel=E9q dictionary lacked a few *very* important
concepts.


> lamay-neran.men
> song-stroll.AMA
What does this mean? I don't get it. What's the master-
subordinate order?

>    The amatory attitudinal qualifier <-men> is necessary because
>    of the tender relations between singer and the person sung-to
>    (why isn't there something in English I can use to translate
>    'bezongene' with?)
(For Sally and John:)
Now that I think of it, _n=E0vnen_ "to sing" would be
one of the D. verbs which use _i_ in ditransitive mode:

_i   =EDngiman n=E0v     Elann_
 PRT prayer  sing.3s God.ACC
"He sings a prayer to God"

(For Boudewijn:)
So your "person sung-to" would be _n=E2vnimbal_
(-n- for the -nen ending, -imban ending for passive
voice, changed to -l for active participle: "(the one)
being sung [to]" -- ambiguous, it could mean the song
too. But

_i =EDngiman n=E2vnimbal b=FCnd_
"the one being sung a prayer to"

is unambiguous. (_b=FCnd_ =3D 3rd person common gender pronoun,
accusative and relative).


--Pablo Flores