Re: North Wind and South Wind

On Monday 15 July 2002 14:00, Dirk Elzinga wrote:
> Once the North Wind and the South Wind had an argument as to which
> was the stronger. They put a wildcat in a tree, and had a contest
> to see which could get it out. The South Wind blew and blew, but
> the cat stayed in the tree. Then the North Wind blew slow and cold;
> it froze the cat, causing it to drop out of the tree.
Inspired by this and Hanuman Zhang's version, I thought for a while
how a Kéleñi would deal with this story, and this is what I came up
with:

la anúráni ñe anmóíñi kexien é ñe anmóíñi ñatta ancéhi ilnarien to la
makéñ makíTje ná ñe makéñ; ilniTa pa anúráni é múr'élkie é múr'sírie
il la jírela rá janíri ól ilaT ñamma rú xó tá á makéñ; é ñamma júri
ná á múr'sírie ewaT ñi jírela jéspe sú janíri ól; aT ñamma júri ná á
múr'élkie aT ñi jírela jakecílre tó túaT é ñi jatára rú janíri tá í
ñi múr'élkie maTálón;

OK, now for a loose-ish translation:

The winds are like boys, you know, and like boys they make contests
at times from who is stronger than whom. One time, of the winds,
North-wind and South-wind (only) and (during this) a wildcat up in
the branches and then who make (it) down from there. And South-wind
make much wind but the cat remaining up in the branches. And
North-wind make much wind and the cat became frozen therefore
becoming fallen down from the branches and North-wind becoming the
winner.

Note: North-wind = múr'élkie < múra rúélkie "wind from the north" &
rúélkie < -élk- cold,ice

Interlinear by clause...

la anúráni ñe anmóíñi kexien
rel n-collective comparison n-collective clausal-modifier
be winds same boys known-&-expected

é ñe anmóíñi ñatta ancéhi ilnarien to
conj comparison n-coll rel+3p-paucal-agent n-coll indef-pn source
and same boys they-make trials/contest many-times from

la makéñ makíTje ná ñe makéñ;
rel interrog-pn n-anim-sg modifier comparison interrog-pn
be who strong-person more same who

ilniTa pa anúráni é múr'élkie é múr'sírie
temporal rel n-coll(whole) conj n-anim-sg(part) conj n-anim-sg(part)
one-time/once-only be-of winds and north-wind and south-wind

il la jírela rá janíri ól
temporal-conj rel n-sg locative n-pl modifier
then be cat to branches up

ilaT ñamma rú xó tá á makéñ;
temporal-conj rel+3p-sg-agent loc determiner mod agent interrog-pn
and-then s/he-make from there down who?

é ñamma júri ná á múr'sírie
conj rel+3p-sg-agent n-pl mod agent n-anim-sg
and he-make blowings much the-south-wind

ewaT ñi jírela jéspe sú janíri ól;
conj rel+perfect n-sg n-sg loc n-pl mod
but become cat staying-thing at branches up

aT ñamma júri ná á múr'élkie
conj rel+3p-sg-agent n-sg mod agent n-anim-sg
and-then he-make blowings much the-north-wind

aT ñi jírela jakecílre
conj la+perfect n-sg n-sg
and-then become cat frozen-thing

tó-túaT é ñi jatára rú janíri tá
conj conj la+perfect n-sg loc n-pl mod
hence/therefore and become fallen-thing from branches down

í ñi múr'élkie maTálón;
conj la+perfect n-anim-sg n-anim-sg
and-also become north-wind winner

There are three (out of four) relationals used here:
la, which denotes the existence of something. la noun noun means that
the second noun is the equivalent of the first noun

pa, the whole-part relational. pa noun noun means that the second
noun is a part of the first noun

ñi, the action relational. ñi+pn noun á anim-noun, where the pn
agrees in number with the anim-noun, means that the anim-noun is the
cause of the first noun.

The first noun after any relational is the topic noun, and this can
be dropped in subclauses, or referred to again as the topic of the
sub-relational. For example, ñi jírela jakecílre tó-túaT ñi jatára rú
janíri tá, the noun jatára refers back to the topic noun jírela.

-Sylvia

--
Sylvia Sotomayor
sylvia1@ix.netcom.com

The Kélen language can be found at:
http://home.netcom.com/~sylvia1/Kelen/kelen.html

This post may contain the following characters:
á (a-acute); é (e-acute); í (i-acute); ó (o-acute); ú (u-acute);
ñ (n-tilde);