Re: Mini translation excercise

Yscrews le gouenoer il Talesin:

> How do your languages deal with the following triplet:
>
> -to go up to somewhere
> -to be up to someone
> -to be up to something
In Kerno:

1. domonirsi a: munimos.nus le jowes a Castreleu.
    We went us up to Caerleon Thursday last.
2. doaccazer li: Aur doaccazs li mew ychoer, cesta digoeuorcea.
    Now it onfalls to me wife, this divorce business.
3. facer: Que faciont?
    What are they doing?

Monir, while it can mean "go", has more of the ideas of climbing, mounting, and
getting onto. The ubiquitious preverb do- gives the idea of towards, as does
the preposition 'a'. Monirsi is medio-passive, thus requiring the object
pronoun attached to the verb.

Doaccazer is a fairly conventional idiom, being constructed of two preverbs and a root.
In this case, do- and ad- both serve to indicate "to" or "towards". ad-
assimilates to ac- before "c" and "g". The "li" is a relic of the old dative
case (it is the dative form of the definite article) and is retained in some
verb phrases like this one.

There is no equivalent to "be up to something" in Kerno. Some of the English idiom's
flavour can be captured by adding an intensifying preverb to the root or by
using a humorous word for the (unrequired) subject: que enfaciont ces jockouw?
[What _are_ those rascals doing?]

Padraic.
--
Tbmwjuvs bncvmboep@ (1<)