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Altsag Venchet Text

From:Joseph Fatula <fatula3@...>
Date:Wednesday, November 27, 2002, 2:10
Here, as promised, is a translation of "The Sheep and the Horses", a tale by
August Schleicher.  It is in Altsag Venchet, each line followed by a
morpheme by morpheme translation, with a freer translation after that.

Geit ka Sengatukh
sheep and horse-pl.
The Sheep and the Horses

Je gantang,
je ganta-ang
upon hill-dat.
On a hill,

viranun geit tanun jeng ra khuluzen a sengatughen,
see-past sheep have-past who no wool-acc. end-clause horse-pl.-acc.
A sheep who had no wool saw horses,

birun senga tsevuril döm sheyeren,
pull-past horse 3rd-pl.-gen. is-heavy wagon-acc.
one of them pulled a heavy wagon,

bazagun senga döm idmuken,
carry-past horse is-heavy object-acc.
one carried a heavy load,

ka echat bazagun senga tumeqen.
and is-fast carry-past horse man-acc.
and one carried a man quickly.

Dalun geit sengatughang,
say-past sheep horse-pl.-dat.
The sheep said to the horses,

"Janat viratse makilka tumeq sengatughen,
when see-1st work-causative man horse-pl.-acc.,
"When I see a man making horses work,

tantse izaken ög teil chemurang."
have-1st pain-acc. in 1st-gen heart-dat.
I have pain in my heart."

Dalun sengatukh,
say-past horse-pl.
The horses said,

"Kazebarad geit,
hear-intentional-2nd sheep
"Listen sheep,

tantse izaken ög tetughil chemururang janat viratse kartanen:
have-1st pain-acc. in 1st-pl.-gen. heart-pl.-dat. when see-1st this-acc.
we have pain in our hearts when we see this:

kuchar tumeq rikhat geitil khuluzen jöldö chertavang tsevang.
make man ruler-pred. sheep-gen. wool-acc. is-warm coat-dat. 3rd-dat.
man, the ruler, makes the sheep's wool into a warm coat for himself.

Ka tan geit ra khuluzen."
and have sheep no wool-acc.
And the sheep has no wool."

Janat kazungke kartanen, kovirun geit ög venchenang.
when hear-past-perf. this-acc. flee-past sheep into field-pl.-dat.
When the sheep heard this, he fled into the field.

----
Any thoughts on this?  Does the structure make sense?  I don't speak a VSO
language, so it took some thought to figure out what seemed most logical to
do, but I may have overlooked some things.