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Re: Translating from a conlang into a conlang

From:Irina Rempt <ira@...>
Date:Tuesday, April 20, 1999, 19:02
On Mon, 19 Apr 1999, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:

> I present a text in Northern > Colloquial Charyan with interlinear glosses.
I admit that I have an unfair advantage, having known the text in Charyan and Dutch for years; but I'll try not to use what I already know.
> The text:
With my translation (that I will give in full as well as interlinear at the end) and comments on the process.
> Xipu!
Lhyp! I put the knob on Valdyan and tried to hear the sound that a very ripe fruit makes when it hits the ground. The voiceless lateral fricative seemed to do the job best. "Splat!"
> Manxuri penerar
Badin gulynayt! Easy, though I had to find a word for "plum" in the Spare Roots File. "The plums are falling".
> Sero
Ine Valdyan has no high grade honorific pronoun for the first person, only a general-purpose honorific pronoun for the second person. I did use an emphatic pronoun here, which is not strictly necessary for syntactic purposes, to express "as for me, I..." or "I for one..."
> t'erneno beryakari yashnar
iran moch farinenas chalenan This is where it becomes difficult. The normal Valdyan way to say "I'm fourteen years old" is either _iran zaran relyinen amran_ "I'm living in my fifteenth year" or _iran moch relyinan amrenan_ "I've lived fourteen years"; if someone says that she's lived fourteen springs, people will be tempted to ask what she did in summer, autumn and winter. _Farinas_ "spring" is a new compound, a use for the participle at last: "greening" from _farina_ "to become green", _lea farinat_ "spring is beginning". "I've seen fourteen springs".
> Yan t'eheranmamen t'imti esero u?
Ei! Culea i bastean a bychesat? I put the exclamation at the beginning, because at the end it would be too much like "..., eh?". _Culea_ "who" has no masculine form, even though it's perfectly obvious that a male is being looked for. _Bycha_ "to demand" has the inceptive aspect and present tense: she's expecting it to happen any moment. "Oh! Who is going to demand the heart from me?"
> Galla esero ka chenam ye bangu
Had in craz so cach Easy, though I couldn't do anything with the nominalizing particle ("topic marker", Boudewijn?) and had to get _cach_ "thick" from the Spare Roots File. It means "growing thickly, closely planted" rather than thick in itself - this girl has a lot of hair, but the individual hairs may be fine. It's also used of dense woods and of the town of Ildis where the streets are so narrow that one can jump across the street from one upstairs window to another. "My hair [is] black and thick".
> "Sero laya", Yudirza yetashmerzo
Doparne ine cunie laynynat There's some ambiguity here: either the big sister says that she (herself) is pretty, or that her little sister is pretty. The Valdyan, unintentionally and fortunately, also has it. _Doparne_ could also mean "big brother", by the way. _Cunie_ "pretty" is a new word from the Spare Roots File. "My big sister says I'm pretty".
> P'a ajir avaneranmamen sero
Ei, salei i ryleset! _Salei_ "someone" is the masculine form (the common-gender form is _salea_). _Ryla_ (from the Spare Roots File) "to court" is irrealis, and has the inceptive aspect; this is a wish, and she's not sure that it will be fulfilled. "Oh, for someone to court me!"
> Tima lyn sero lodha manve.
Norenin lastinin hune abruve. _Noren_ "cherry" and _lasten_ "flower" (here in the collective plural: "blossom") are new words from the Spare Roots File. "Because I'm as beautiful as cherry blossom". Lhyp! Badin gulynayt! Ine iran moch farinenas chalenan. Ei! Culea i bastean a bychesat? Had in craz so cach Doparne ine cunie laynynat Ei, salei i ryleset! Norenin lastinin hune abruve. Abbreviations: nom nominative acc accusative gen genitive abl ablative s singular p plural 1 first person 3 third person PRS present IRR irrealis PERF perfective INC inceptive Q question particle EQ equative AUG augmentative lhyp badin gulynayt splat plum-nom-p fall-PRS-3p ine iran moch farinenas chalenan I ten four spring-acc-p see-PERF-PRS-1s ei culea i bastean a bychesat oh who me heart-acc-s Q demand-INC-PRS-3s had in craz so cach hair my black and thick doparne ine cunie laynynat AUG-sibling I pretty say-PRS-3s ei salei i ryleset oh someone me court-INC-IRR-3s norenin lastinin hune acunie cherry-gen-p blossom-abl-p because EQ-beautiful Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastinay. irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself) http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/frontpage.html (English) http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/backpage.html (Nederlands)