Re: OT: NATLANG: Romanian orthography question

Quoting JS Bangs <jaspax@...>:

> Quoting Isaac Penzev <isaacp@...>:
>
> > Here it is (UTF-8):
>
> Beautiful, Yitzik! I can see the Cyrillic, but not at the same time as the
> Latin-1, for some reason.
I showed this to my Romanian professor, and he pointed out that the final yers
were missing. Putting them back in makes the text make much more sense, so I've
remade my transliteration and translation to reflect the corrections:

I pac dau s,tire domnietale za lukrul turcilor, cum am auzit eu c-împãratul au
es,it den Sofia s,i aimintrea nu e s,i s-ãu dus însus pre Dunãre. I pac sã s,tii
domniata c-au venit un om de la Nikoloie de mie mi-au spus cã au vãzut cu ochii
loi c-au trecut ceale corabii ce s,tii s,i domniata pre Dunãre însus. I pac sã
s,tii cã bag den tote oras,ele cãte 50 de omin sã fie în ajutor în corabii.

I also give notice to you concerning the work of the Turks, how I have heard
myself that the general has left Sofia and (?aimintra) is not and he has gone up
to the Danube. Also, you should know that a man from Nicolae has come to me and
said he has seen with his own eyes that those ships that you know have gone up
the Danube. Also, you should know that I put 50 men in each of the cities to be
an aid in the ships.

Reflections on my earlier problems.

> I pac: probably an idiom along the lines of "I regret to say".
Nope. A borrowing of the Bulgarian phrase /i pak/, which means "and
furthermore".

> za: I have no idea.
Another borrowing from Bulgarian, meaning "of" or "about".

> aimintrea: Again, no idea.
No one could figure this out, not even my progessor.

> I suspect that the name of the city Dun is actually _Dun-pe-însus_,
This is completely wrong--the name is "Dunãre", which is the Romanian name for
the Danube. I completely missed this because of the missing yer in the middle,
thinking this were two words, and my brain refusing to recognize |pe|, a
perfectly good Romanian word, as Cyrillic /re/ :).


--
JS Bangs
jaspax@glossopoesis.org

"We're counting on our virtues
   Because it's too hard to count the dead."
     -Jason Webley

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