Re: My 500th post! The Babel Text in Old Albic

Hallo!

On Sun, 24 Oct 2004 21:59:19 +0200,
Henrik Theiling <theiling@...> wrote:

> Hi!
>
> Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...> writes:
> > This is my 500th post to CONLANG, and on this occasion I'd like to
> > present you the Babel text in Old Albic.
>
> Congratulations! :-)
Thank you!

> >...
> > 1. Mar ahara        cvanthas  Aramaras
> > 1. but AOR-be-3SG:P whole-LOC world-LOC-LOC
>
> Why suffixaufnahme in 'Aramaras'?
In Old Albic, _cvanth_ is a noun which has a locative argument:
`the whole *OF* the world'.  The locative in Old Albic also has
partitive meaning, and is also used to mark inalienable possession.

> >    sam     tañemas         a   sam     cvararemas.
> >    one-OBJ language-PL-LOC and one-OBJ speech-PL-LOC
>
> Hmm, I don't seem to understand the structure of the sentence.  Why
> LOC with 'language' and 'speech'?
Numerals are treated as nouns with the counted entity in the
plural locative case.

> Ah, maybe 'to have' = 'be with' = 'be' + LOC?  (Like Finnish?
> 'Ja kaikessa maassa oli yksi kieli ja yksi puheenparsi')
> Is that right?
Old Albic indeed doesn't have a verb `to have', but uses `to be'
with the possessor in the dative case:

Hará          mana    chvanam.
be-PRES-3SG:P 1SG-DAT dog-OBJ
`To me is a dog.' = `I have a dog.'

> >...
> >    apheni         phalas    ndoras   Senararas
> >    AOR-find-3PL:A plain-OBJ land-LOC Senar-LOC-LOC
> >...
>
> Hmm, at this point, I'm really lost with 'Seneraras'.
> Should be an apposition to 'ndoras'.
There are indeed two possibilities.  Apposition, which would be
_ndoras Senaras_, or the possessive construction (`in the land
*of* Senar') I have used in the text.

> Please explain, it's interesting! :-)
At your service, and thank you for your interest!

Greetings,

Jörg.