Commentary: From Tokana to Denden

Boudewijn Rempt wrote:


>What Matt gave me was this (with my own interlinear translation):
>
>Itan        mah.a     ol.at        suhoi    uthm.a   tsampatin
>3sINAN/INST what.INST hear.PRS/DEF wind.DAT give.PRS wellness/health
>That which it hears is the wind that gives health
>
>Itan        maha      olat         sih.e      uthm.a   pamihati
>3sINAN/INST what.INST hear.PRS/DEF stream.DAT give.PRS nourishment/sustenance
>That which it hears is the stream that gives nourishment
Et cetera.

I must not have provided nearly enough info, because you seem to have
parsed these sentences incorrectly.  The correct structure is:

        [ itan maha olat suhoi ]  uthma tsampatin
        [ that which (one) hears in-the-wind ]  gives health

        [ itan maha olat sihe ]  uthma pamihati
        [ that which (one) hears in-the-stream ]  gives nourishment

So SUHOI and SIHE are part of the relative clause.

The ending -AT on OLAT indicates that this verb is part of an embedded
clause (here, a relative clause headed by MAHA "what").  The ending -A on
UTHMA, by contrast, indicates that this verb is in the main clause.

I guess Tokana is harder than I thought!  :-)

Matt.