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Valentine's Day Translations

From:Nik Taylor <fortytwo@...>
Date:Thursday, February 11, 1999, 2:02
In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I'd ask for a translation of "I
love you".  Natlangs I know of (I received most of these in an e-mail,
so if they're wrong, please inform me):

Spanish: Te Amo
Latin: Te amo
French: Je T'aime
German: Ich Liebe Dich
Japanese: Ai Shite Imasu
Italian: Ti Amo
Chinese: Wo Ai Ni
Swedish: Jag Alskar Dig
Inukitut: Nagligivaget
Greek: S'Agapo
Hawaiian: Aloha Wau la Oe
Irish: Thaim In Grabh Leat
Hebrew: Ani Ohev Otakh
Russian: Ya Lyublyu Tyebya
Albanian: Une Te Dua
Finnish: Mina Rakkastan Sinua
Turkish: Seni Seviyorum
Hungarian: Se Ret Lay
Persian: Du Stet Daram
Maltese: Jien Inhobbok
Catalan: Testimo Molt (Should this be T'estimo molt?)

Now for conlangs:
Watya'i'sa: Upa'u'dh ta'laiwaun (apostrophes indicate acute marks)
Note: This is used for mutual love.  It may also be Kaupa'qi'ndha'
ta'lkwaz; this may be more appropriate for romantic love, as it implies
little or no control by the feeler.

Gramatical breakdowns:
upa'u'dh ta'laiwaun
upa'-u-    dh  ta'laiwa-un
love-I.abs-hab you-     commitative
Commitative is used to indicate a "state", and would probably be
appropriate for familial love

kaupa'qi'ndha' ta'lkwaz
ka-     upa'-qin-         dha ta'lkwa-z
Exp.Obj-love-you(sing)abs-hab I-      dative
Experiencer-object construction is used to indicate that the experiencer
has little or no control.  I'm not sure if the ka- prefix is used here.
It would probably be seen as appropriate for romantic love, I'm not
sure.  Actually, perhaps another way to indicate romantic love (or at
least eros) might be:
nli'qinki-ku gudi'a'qi'n, literally "I want to mate with you"

And finally, another construction:
laupa'qi'ndha'-ku
la-       upa'-qin-         dha=ku
Exp.subj.-love-you(sing)abs-hab=I.erg
This wouldn't be used by a person.  It indicates complete control by the
experiencer and is used in religious contexts for a divinity's love for
mortals, for example.

--
Saga'yu' kla lusaqa'i'yu'
To speak is to create
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