Re: The translation exercise in Valdyan

In message <Pine.LNX.3.96.990401093654.1077A-100000@...>,
Irina Rempt <ira@...> writes

>_Neasut_ is in the past tense and sets the story in its time; once
>it's there, all other verbs are in the present tense. Otherwise it
>would seem as if the events told were even *before* the time that the
>story is set in.
That's very familiar to me.  In the Elet Anta version, there isn't even
an initial past tense, as the clause "when my g.g.father was a young
man" sets it in its time, and the question of whether that's past or
present isn't important (it's obviously in the past, but that doesn't
much matter).  It happened when it happened.  (You could insert "Many
years ago" or something if you wanted to emphasise the time.)  And just
as in the Valdyan version, using tenses later would definitely put the
clause before the time of the story.

>vestie... cyne... cyne... farie: the usual way to express a sequence
>of events in a story.
EA similarly uses "lacorgaw"="before it all", "yafgaw"="after that"
and "lacafgaw"="after it all", although they are all adverbials.

--
John Fisher   john@drummond.demon.co.uk   johnf@epcc.ed.ac.uk
Elet Anta website: http://www.drummond.demon.co.uk/anta/
Drummond ro cleshfan merec; fanye litoc, inye litoc