Forming questions. (In ASCII even!)

Warning: this is a very AFMCLy post, but I hope it at least a little
newbie-friendly, 7-bit computing friendly and perhaps even interesting.


I've FINALLY managed to at least glimpse how questions are formed in
Taruven, so here's a little something to show it all off.

If this had been in 8 bits, U, Y, I and E would have been the
corresponding lowercase letters, umlauted. All {i}s after
{a} or {e} would have had a grave accent, marking a falling
diphthong. The one exception is what is here written {te.iD},
where now a dot marks hiatus. The {A} stands in for a with
circumflex, that is: it is marked for length. {D} is instead
of edh.

Transliteration/orthography...

J: Yysa,i
Y: Y,ehan tcaia; sUkai
J: Ibren iru saies
Y: sul brenru saies yharra seh
J: s'Etcahkai; vacave fammra setanandulein
Y: keigah
Y: te.iD setanandu s'uleine;
Y: mhAr; taxalen


Rough translation...

Jehan: Ysaji!
Ysaji: Jehan, proceed. What is it?
Jehan: It's the car, it's in the river.
Ysaji: Given that the car is in the river, how did it get there?
Jehan: I didn't see it myself. Setanandu said it fell from the pass.
Ysaji: Indeedy...
Ysaji: I'll speak with Setanandu.
Ysaji: Wonderful... Dismissed.


Interlinear...

orthography-line
pronounciation-line (strict XSAMPA, but probably not perfect)
morpheme-line
translation-line

PS! _O (more rounded) is not _0 (voiceless)

Yysa,i
[jy_O"sAji]
Y-        ysa,i
Vocative- Ysaji

Y,ehan tcaia; sUkai
[y_O"jehAn "tSAi.A  sA_X"kAi]
Y-        ,ehan  tcaia      sUkai
Vocative- Jehan 'I see you' Question.Event

Ibren iru saies
["ibren "ir} "sAi.es]
I-     bren i  -ru         sai   -es
Focus- car  it -Be_located river -Location

sul brenru saies yharra seh
[s}l "brenr} "sAi.es y_O"hAr:a seh]
sul      bren -ru         sai   -es       y-            harra       seh
Question car  -Be_located river -Location Same_Subject- Manner.Past huh

s'Etcahkai
[se"tSAkAi]
sA -el          E-   tcah kai
I  -Experiencer Not- see  Event

vacave fammra setanandulein
["vASAve "xpAirA setA"nAndulein]
vaca -ve   famm -ra   setanandu -lein
pass -from fall -Past Setanandu -Reported_speech

keigah
[keigAh]
keigah
Really (sarcasm, feigned surprise/wonder)

te.iD setanandu s'uleine
["te.iD setA"nAndulein s}leine]
te   -iD          setanandu sA -el          uleine
with -Benefactive Setanandu I  -Experiencer sing

mhAr taxalen
[m_tA_t:::r_t tA"xAlen]
mhAr  taxalen
damn 'stop no talk'


What's new

{s'}
    clitic-version of sAel, first person singular pronoun in
    experiencer-case. All other verbs but experiencer-verbs have
    the f.p.s.p built-in, with the exp-verbs one must be explicit.
sul, sUkai, yharra
    Question-verbs. The underlying morph in the two first is {sul},
    marking a question. How/if the vowel is pronounced when {sul} is
    combined with the morphs for MANNER, TIME, PLACE etc. depends on
    dialect. The morph after {sul-} can be thought of as the verb
    proper. {yharra} starts the sub-question of a double-question.
sul... y[Question-verb]
    Double-question formation.
    Question(1) IF X is_true/exists, THEN Question(2) about X. X is
    implicit in question 2.
tcaia, taxalen
    Greeting and farewell. Ysaji is being *very* formal and redundant
    here. {tcaia} is quite unneccessary, after all (s)he explicitly
    recognizes Jehan's existence by using the vocative. {taxalen}
    stands in for the usual short nod (reserved for equals/respected
    or loved ones) and/or grunt/growl (for anything else). This, and
    the pronounciation of sUkai, points to Ysaji's origins: xalde.a
    or possibly xAri.a
the names
    They are all clearly names. Ysaji for starting with {y} or {i},
    (it being {y} pointing towards xAri.a again,) Jehan for being of
    the form CVCVC (ending with an n, even), and Setanandu for having
    four syllables and ending with -ndu.

Ask away!


t.

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