Re: Weekly Vocab again?

Emaelivpeith Chris Wright:
>I thought it would be nice to start it up again, so here is the new
>Weekly Vocab. I will neither flag nor fail, even though there be no
>responses for months! Mulahahahaha!!!!!
Thanks for the vocab exercise!  :)


>1. to think
>I think about many things.
    Va'llavni vao'gir nom kao.
    /vAl@_X"lAvni vao"gir n=om kao/
    va'llav-ni   vao-  gir     ne-  no-im  kao
    think   SELF about many[1] OBJ: it PLR /about

[1]  |gir| originally only mean "more", but then became used as a prefix
similar in meaning to the English comparative |-er|, and now takes on the
meaning of "many" as well.  I think |gir| will just be one of the
multiuseful words that's difficult for foreingers to master -- like Spanish
"ya", or Dutch "maar" (says Christophe :).


>2. to plan
>I plan to go to town today.
    Vel'aimenad monvtodnileni vek'nejhuna.
    /vElai"mEnAd "mAnvtOdni,lEn=i vEknE"Zun@/
    vel-   aimenad monv-t   -o- -d  -ni  -l- -eni  vek- nejhuna.
    toward town    go   FRC [2] FUT SELF OBJ SELF  when today

FRC means forced, ie the subject was forced to do the verb by the object.
When subject and object are the same AND the verb is future tense, it's
like saying you plan to do something.

[2]  |-o-| in a verb is an epenthetic vowel used to separate consonant
suffixes, in this case |-t| and |-d|.


>3. road
>I will go by the low road.
    Monvdoni ve'emisaer gir má'en.
    /"mAnvdOni vE?EmI"ser gir"mA?En/
    monv-d  -o-ni   ve- emisaer[3] gir'má en[4]
    go   FUT   SELF ADV low        road

[3]  |emisaer| is derived from |saero| which literally means "black" but is
often associated with the concepts "down", "dark", and sometimes
"dangerous".  "Down" is the relevant one here.

[4]  |gir'má en| is one word, but because of the orthography rules
governing romanization, it has a space in it.  |má'en| means "trail" and
there's |gir| again, acting this time as a prefix -- an emphasizer? an
enlarger? -- that turns "trail" into "road".  Normally, when |gir| is a
prefix it is attached with an apostrophe.  The rules say that only one
apostrophe can appear per word, and if more than one would be in the word
then the second one becomes a space.  Thus |*gir'má'en| > |gir'má en|.


>4. cloak / coat / culturally acceptable heavy outer garment
>I took my warmest cloak.
    Direvponi ne gemi gyecastál seni.
    /dI"rEvpOni nE "gEmi gjEcAs"tAl "sEn=i/
    direv-p- -o-ni   ne  gemi gyecastál[5] s-  -eni.
    take  PST   SELF OBJ most overcoat     POS SELF

[5]  |gyecastál| is a Terran's overcoat, which I used in my translation of
the North Wind and the Sun.  In their native form, the Cresaeans are
quadropedal furred critters, and they haven't told me yet if they wear
clothing and what it looks like if they do.  :)


>5. to stumble
>I stumbled on the road.
    Ve'gir má'en seikémivponi.
    /vEgir"mA?En se"kEmIv,pOni/
    ve- gir'má en seikemiv-p  -o-ni
    ADV road      stumble  PST   SELF

"Roadly I stumbled."  :)  It's also acceptable to substitute |vola'|
"where" for the general adverbializer |ve'|, but in common usage you're
more likely to hear plain |ve'|.

>6. wind
>The wind was fierce.
    Jhor'mmesu t'aejíridh.
    /Zorm@_X"mEsu t@e"dZirID/
    jhor- mmesu te- aejíridh
    EQUAL wind  AND fierce

Asha'ille has no was of saying this was a past-tense equality, since there
is no verb in this idiomatic construction.  If you did include the past
particle |pas| and made the sentence the grammatically correct |Pas
jhor'mmesu t'aejíridh|, it would imply that the wind is no longer fierce.

Now, this _could_ be what you want to say in certain situations.  Say it
was really windy half an hour ago, but now it's perfectly still.  If
someone asks you what the weather's like, you could say "the wind WAS
fierce", implicitly saying that's no longer the case.

However, when you're in the middle of a narrative and you're saying the
wind was fierce _in_the_story_, then it currently _is_ fierce for as long
as you and your listeners are in the story.  Incidentally, narratives in
Asha'ille exhibit other signs of a more immersive experience than English.


>7. to snap
>It snapped my cloak.
    Mmaejirivpec ne gyecastál seni.
    /m@_X"medZirIv,Ec nE gjEcAs"tAl sEn=i/
    mmaejiriv-p  -ec ne  gyecastál s- -eni
    snap      PST NG OBJ overcoat  POS SELF

NG means "no gender".  Hehe... the |mmaejir| of |mmaejiriv| sounds quite a
bit like someone studdering "major".  :)


>8. to freeze
>My ears are freezing.
    Jhor'mleni kormadim t'urumath krith'tal dasaea.
    /Zor"m_lEn=i "kormAdm= t@?u"rumAT krIT"tAl da"saea/
    jhor- ml- -eni kormad-im  te- urumath tal-krith dasaea
    EQUAL POS SELF ear    PLR AND wet     fur -less Cresaean

This is an idiom, obviously.  The template is pretty simple:

    Jhor'X t'urumath tal'krith dasaea.
    "X is (like) a wet, furless Cresaean."

If you want to add emphasis (ie, "my ears are *!@#ing freezing!") but with
a bit lower level of vulgarity, you'd say:

    Jhi jhor'X t'urumath tal'krith dasaea vola'sheshnar.
    "X is (like) a wet, furless Cresaean in the mountains."

Idioms are fun to play with.  :)


>9. ice
>I think they have become ice.
    Esthecim jhor'kaerim t'sheiruman.
    /"EsTEkm= Zor"kerM= t@Se"rumAn/
    es-  th-ec-im  jhor- kaer-im  te- sheiruman
    PROG *  NG PLR EQUAL NG   PLR AND ice

* See glossary of new words, "Bia Sharidim".

This was the hardest sentence for me to translate, because I didn't have
the grammatical constructions for "I think X" or "X becomes Y".  But now I
do.  :)


>10. inn
>I arrive at the inn half-dead.
    Vel'maresin saemirvni egik chipal krilorith.
    /vElmA"rEsIn se"mIrvni "EgIk "tSipAl krI"lorIT/
    vel-   maresin saemirv -ni  egik chipal[7]  krilorith
    toward [6]     arrive  SELF SUBJ sproutling dead

[6]  |maresin| is a general term for any place you stay while you are
travelling.  I don't know what the word is for a Terran-style inn.

[7]  |chipal| literally means "sproutling"[8] but when used serially with
another adjective takes the meaning of "half", "partial", "incomplete", or
"incipient" depending on context.


Bia Sharidim
============

|aimenad| /ai"mEnAd/  "town"; strictly speaking, this describes however the
          Cresaeans live together, which isn't the build-homes-and-stores
way we
          do, but I don't know any more details than that

|agormalev| /A,gormA"leV/  "to listen"; from |*alh| "to", |kormalev| "to hear"

|chipal| /"tSipAl/  "sproutling"[8]; from diminutive |chi| and |palae| "grain"

|emisaer| /EmI"seir/  "low", esp. when the difference between it and the "high"
          thing are great

|gemi| /"gEmi/  "most"; from |gir| "more" and |-i|, explained below.

|-i| /i/  plural pluralizer; follows after the normal |-(i)m| plural suffix;
          not sure if is a collective suffix or not.

|kormalev| /kormA"lEv/  "to hear"

|krith'| /krIT/  "-less"; from |kre'tei| "without"

|maresin| /mA"rEsIn/  a place to stay while you are travelling; from |mmav|
          "to move" and |cresin| "home"

|mmaejiriv| /m@_X"meidZirIv/  "to snap, whip"; from |mmav| "to move" and
          |aejíridh| "fierce"

|nejhuna| /nEZ"un@/  contraction of |nes chuna|, "this day" ie "today"

|seikémiv| /sei"kEmIv/  "to stumble"; from |saero|, |kre|, and |mmav|

|shei| /Sei/  "cold"; from |sheshnar| "mountains" and |saero| "black"

|sheiruman| /Sei"rumAn/  "ice"; from |shei| "cold" and |uruman| "water"

|tal| /tAl/  "fur"; backformed from |vastali| "Arcathyan wing" and |gyecastál|
          "overcoat" (itself derived from |vastali|)

|-th-| /T/  verb suffix showing that the subject believes the statement to be
          true but allows that it is only his understanding of the situation[9]

|urumath| /u"rumAT/  "wet"; from |uruman| "water"

|va'llav| /vAl@_X"lAv/  "to think"; from |vastille| "beauty, freedom" and
          |llav| "to know"


[8]  "sproutling" _should_ be a word, you know.  "Sproutling" is such a
nice word...  I'm talking about the sprout when it's just sprouted.  But I
think you knew what I meant.  :)

[9]  Yes, |-th| remains unvoiced no matter its environment.  |shavthni| is
/SAvTni/.


--
AA