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.