Re: All-important phrases

Whee!  A translation exercise!  We haven't had too many of those
lately.  And the sentences are fun.  =)

In Obrenje:


> Bears don't drink beer, do they?
Tash  olje      ny   mowa    u    frash,  vy?
/taS  "Olj@     ny   "mo:wa  M    fraS    vy/
not   drink:3e  CAT  bear    PRE  beer,   yes/no?

|Ny| is the categorical quantifier.

Hm.  I like the sound of this sentence.  I should record it and add
it to my homepage as a sample.  I already have |Naqze i tse le pwos
warve| meaning "I like the fact that a dog bit you".  ;-)



> I would like French fries with my painful death.
O    ramze      u    sosse        onge    laq  xim    ponda.
/O   "ramZM          "sOS,SONg@           lanzim      "pOnda/
OPT  receive:1  PRE  fry:PST:PSV  potato  COM  POS:1  death

|O ramze u ...| "That I may receive ..." is a common formula for
ordering something in a restaurant.  I assume the tagline is alluding
to the classical "Would you like french fries with that?" question
one commonly hears in an American restaurant.

In |sosse onge|, the participle |sosse| "deep-fried (stuff)" is
the head noun, while |onge| "potato" modifies it.  A literal
translation of the phrase would not be "deep-fried potatoes" but
rather "deep-fried food made of potatoes".



> Am I truly like such a fellow?
Vy      ow      lajoze   u    tinje   (laj)?
/vy     ?ow     la"jo:ZM      "tinj@  (laj)/
Yes/no  indeed  be_akin  PRE  such    (fellow)

The |laj| isn't really needed there, since Obrenje doesn't
grammatically distinguish adjectives from nouns, so |tinje| can
act as a full noun phrase by itself.



> Salutatory phrases are much harder, though, because they change so much
> and don't seem to be related to other words. I guess "hello" is related
> to "health", but Spanish people don't say "salud" when they meet you.
> Germans, I don't know about, even though I have a German language
> textbook which is almost as old as my father. Both it and the German
> dictionary (which is slightly older than the textbook) seem to agree that
> there is no equivalent of "hello", and phrases like "Guten Tag" are used.
"Guten Tag" sounds a bit formal.  The German word "Hallo" exists and
is applicable over a wide range of social strata, therefore making a
good choice when you don't quite know whether to address someone with
as "Sie" or "du".

As in English, "Hallo" can furthermore be used to catch someone's
attention, or even express surprise ("Aber hallo!").


-- Christian Thalmann

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