Re: TRANS: Fw: names of ants

Carlos Thompson <chlewey@...> wrote:
>
> Here it is an interesting translation exercise I'm authorized to cross
> post.
>
> > From: "Natalia Gruscha" <natalia.gruscha@...>
> >
> > <<Nobody remembers the names of ants.>>
> >
> > It's a Mango proverb ...
    In Gladilatian:

Mrsnau fetwefyuxy fetwehfena snranau.

no.sentient.(nominalizer) with-respect-to.(plural).ant
with-respect-to.(plural).name remembering.(nominalizer)

    Somewhat literally, "No one is a remembering one with respect to the
names with respect to ants.", although _fyuxu_ is really Gladilatian
creature similar to an ant.  A Terrestrial ant is a _hnfe_fyuxu_, but the
difference is not relevant to the proverb.
    I had a lot of problem figuring out if the proper form is _mewefyuxy_
(associated-with.(plural).ant) or _fetwefyuxy_.  It hinged on whether a name
was intrinsicly something which only exists in its relationship to its
referent, or if a name is something which exists in and of itself and also
has referents.  _Fet_ is used in _fetwehfena_ because remembrance only
exists in its relation to something remembered.  I decided (after changing
my mind while writing this explanation) that gladifers would consider a name
without a referent to not really be a name, and thus they would use _fet_.
Compare this with _mset_, "language".  A language can be a language without
any speakers (as we all know on this list), so "language of the gladifers"
(i.e. "Gladilatian") is _mehyohot_mset_.
    Note than when I wrote "only exists" I meant "only exists as such".  For
instance, _fonat_, "mother", takes _fet_ (as in _fetMrenep_fonat_, "mother
of Mrenep") because even though a gladifer exists whether or not she's a
mother, she exists as a mother only if she is a mother in relation to
another gladifer.

 ===========================================================================

             Dennis Paul Himes    <>    dennis@himes.connix.com
             homepage: http://www.connix.com/~dennis/dennis.htm
        Gladilatian page: http://www.connix.com/~dennis/glad/lang.htm

Disclaimer: "True, I talk of dreams; which are the children of an idle
brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy; which is as thin of substance as
the air."                      - Romeo & Juliet, Act I Scene iv Verse 96-99