Re: All-important phrases

--- Christopher Wright <faceloran@...> wrote:
> Bama!
>
> I guess the following aren't all-important phrases.
> They are, however,
> useful for testing basic grammar and vocabulary.
Tenxwwana Haryusha (in the Noble tongue):

For the Talarian romanisation, doubled vowels are
long; x = [x]; sh = [S]; ff = [f] (< [P] < [p]).

> Bears don't drink beer, do they?
shaltos-ne hercto-ca sewemam-ta-he; na-mat?
drink-them-not bears-the soma-the-and; not.so-is.it?

shaltos is 3du. generic ending of "shalomam"; -ne is a
negative particle.
hercto is nom. dual of "herctas"; -ca is the nearby
generic spatial pronoun (i.e., literally "this").
sewemam is acc. s. of "sewemas"; -ta is the faraway
generic spatial pronoun (i.e., literally "that"); -he
is a discourse particle, roughly meaning "and", "now",
etc.
na is a negative particle; -mat is an interrogative
particle.

[The dual in Talarian has a number of uses beyond the
simple paral dual. In this case, the dual has an
extended function covering the collective. As such, it
takes the dual verb because the assumption is that all
participants in the verb (drink) are doing the same
thing as a group. If they were were all doing
something separately, we'd use the plural verb (and of
course, they'd no longer be a collective.)]

> I would like French fries with my painful death.
xartaa-he has papar-ca memartaa-hamffi
hamhatanar-ta-he.
wanting I tatties-the dying-alongside hurting.

xartaa is 1s indic. stative (nonresultive) of "want";
has is the 1s personal pronoun used with stative
verbs.
papar is meat paste stuffed tatties, all deep fried.
Mm. Deep fried...
memartaa is 1s indic. stative (resultive) of "die";
-hamffi is a postposition "along with", etc.
hamhatanar is a verbal noun form of "hurt"; the form
in -tan- yielding abstract nouns.

Stative verbs are of two sorts, resultive and
nonresultive depending on whether the described state
is due to some external influence or not. Thus,
"martaa" = "I am dead"; but "memartaa" = "I am
murdered" or "I am slain". Talarian stative verbs take
a peculiar set of pronouns unrelated to those used
with the Active verbs, and are due to areal influence.

The whole thing is hard to translate well, but might
be something like: "I stand in want of fried tatties,
while I it beslays me, indeed biding me in pain."

> Am I truly like such a fellow?
somtel: stahaa-mat has hawiray-sho-he?
Truly, bestand-? I man-such-and?

somtel is the locative of "truth".
stahaa is 1s nonresultive stative (technically
subjunctive, but there is no distinction in the
statives); -mat is the interrogative particle.
has = "I".
hawiray is the dat. singular of "man"; sho is a
pronoun root meaning something like "this kind",
"such", etc.; -he is a discourse particle.

So, "Truly, I bestand me like to this manner man?"

> Well, at least that was somewhat on-topic. How did
> all of you handle your
> salutatory expressions?
"Ahiee!" is what you say when approaching a house or
group from afar. "Harapalete" is the usual response,
and means 'door open'. "Itao" is what I'd say to thee
for 'goodbye'; and "Ito maasoo" is the usual response
and means 'fare well'.

The -ao of "itao" (I am going) is an old ending,
having assimilated to -aa. I guess that makes itao an
archaism.

> Wright.
Padraic.
--
cos-he haastan-sa-han yesam punerrohati-na-he; cosh-pe
haastan-sa-utte yesam punerrohti-he.
     --Tacaniyyar vi.

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