Re: TRANS: love is the law
| From: | Barry Garcia <barry_garcia@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, February 9, 2000, 8:14 |
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wpii@scs.howard.edu writes:
>With the recent flurry of TRANS messages, and the discussion of
>copula-less languages, I thought it might be interesting to see how others
>would translate this into conlangs. When I came across this a while ago,
>it truly fit the draqa way, and I wanted to translate, but ran into the
>copular problem... Anyway:
>
>"Love is the Law"
There are two different words for love, and two different words for law.
The first love (tal) is the love one has between family and friends. The
second love (anlál) is sexual, intimate (what one finds in a serious
relationship between two people), as well as spiritual love (said to be an
intimate relationship between spirits and humans). For law, the first
(kunggán) refers to social responsibility (same connotation as in
English). The second word for law (réki) refers to spiritual
responsibility, such as duties people, families, villages, etc. must keep
to keep the spirits happy.
Since Saalangal is without copulas, the word love becomes an adjective,
and takes the adjectival prefix of sa ( from "say", which means "in
posession of", "having").The syntax for a simple descriptive phrase is:
adjective + linker + noun (In essence, "to be" is implied). Since we are
describing love, and describing it as law, the root for law takes on the
adjectival prefix.
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Translations (with a deeper explanation of what it would probably mean to
a Saalangal. In all of these examples, the linker is '-ng', at the ends of
the adjectives):
Sakunggáng tal - Familial love (love for family, friends, and the
community) is social law. To keep social harmony, we must love one another.
Saréking tal - Familial love is spiritual law. Spiritual law demands we
love those around us.
Sakunggán anlál - Intimate/spiritual love is social law.. Social law
demands that couples have intimate love, and people keep love for the
spirits, in order to keep social harmony.
Saréking anlál - Intimate/spiritual love is spiritual law. Spiritual law
demands that couples keep intimate love, and people keep love for the
spirits, in order to keep spiritual harmony.
Looking back on these translations, they would probably fit quite well
into Saalangal culture. For the Saalangal, social, spiritual, and familial
harmony is very important.
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