Goodnight Moon in Iltârer

Very pretty. ;-)
BTW, I get to translate from Iltarer.  I like this.
-M

Tom Tadfor Little wrote:
>
> Thi metisamer echesilithin ilîsilithin
> Silâ âc theritsamasther
> Pe tantemaili necanihtisilithin
> Pe amime erâl -
> Pircaphalith nîccacasa pem pammâlith
> Pe silâ âc âmâpircali me ninisilithin nenilersas ati âpâmapherir
> Pe mimicartili paphe ninisilithin
> Pe paphâsen nañeteterir
> Pe pîtas mimisentanenler ninisilithin
> Pe mimitîtterel
> Pe ñâcimasther pe phañâcir pe ippan metit nânsineter
> Pe taphesar ârtisilithin pâmanenler nan ehte ña timâchasa "châch".
> Pêsamtil metisamer â
> Pêsamtil pammâl â
> Pêsamtil pircaphal â nîccacasa pem pammâlith
> Pêsamtil tilimasther â
> Pe tantemaili â necanihtisilithin
> Pêsamtil âmâpircali â
> Pêsamtil mimicartili â
> Pêsamtil nañeteteri â
> Pêsamtil htansimastheri â
> Pêsamtil iññephenes â
> Pêsamtil pîtas â ninisilithin
> Pêsamtil tîtterel â
> Pêsamtil ñâcimasther â
> Pe pêsamtil phañâcir â
> Pêsamtil ârsentan
> Pêsamtil nânsinet â
> Pe pêsamtil pi taphesarath pâmanenler timâchasa "châch".
> Pêsamtil ceses â
> Pêsamtil echessal â
> Pêsamtil ârechesali â phaphasam.
>
> Here's a back-translation into English that attempts to give some of the
> flavor of the Iltârer version:
>
> In the sky-big leaf-green chamber
> There is a speaking-machine
> And a berry-red flyingball
> And a drawing of -
> A cow leaping over the moon
> And there are three seed-little bears sitting on chairs
> And two seed-little baby-cats
> And a pair of gloves
> And a child-toy little house
> And a baby-mouse
> And a comb and a brush and a bowl full of porridge
> And a night-quiet rock-old respected-one who is whisphering "shush".
> 'Til-day, thou chamber
> 'Til-day, thou moon
> 'Til-day, thou cow leaping over the moon
> 'Til-day, thou light-machine
> And thou berry-red flyingball
> 'Til-day, ye bears
> 'Til-day, ye chairs
> 'Til-day, ye baby-cats
> 'Til-day, ye gloves
> 'Til-day, thou time-machine
> 'Til-day, ye socks
> 'Til-day, thou seed-little house
> 'Til-day, thou mouse
> 'Til-day, thou comb
> And 'til-day, thou brush
> 'Til-day, no-person
> 'Til-day, thou porridge
> And 'til-day to the rock-old respected-one whispering "shush".
> 'Til-day, ye stars
> 'Til-day, thou air
> 'Til-day, ye noises everywhere.
>
> I find it a useful exercise to translate kids' books at the early stages of
> making a language; it flushes out embarrasing gaps in the lexicon (I can't
> believe I didn't have a word for "and" yet!) and gets one comfortable with
> basic sentence patterns and vocabulary.
>
> This one came out a bit amusing; I'd designed Iltârer as a literary
> language, thinking of philosophical and poetic eloquence. It seems almost
> comically overstyled and long-winded for the simple sentences of a
> children's book. I don't dare to count how many syllables the Iltârer
> version has compared with the English! That's partly a consequence of the
> limited phonemic system, which makes for more polysyllabic root words, but
> more a result of the lengthy inflectional ending ("-silithin") for the
> collective referential of -l class nouns, and some other lengthy inflections.
>
> My first reaction was a bit of alarm; no sane people would tolerate so much
> jaw-exercise to make such simple utterances. But on reflection, I think it
> suits the Iltâr, who are a patient, soft-spoken people. It's like music
> with a bunch of short notes in each measure, harder to play straight off
> the page, but nice sounding once it's learned. Maybe vaguely Entish,
> although that was the farthest thing from my mind in drafting the language
> sketch.
>
> A few of the coinages for this translation really delight me:
> "mimitîtterel" for a baby mouse, "theritsamasther" for telephone (I may
> have to start using that one at the office!) and "timâchasa" for whispering.
>
> Still wondering, though, what a two-year-old would do with a language in
> which "red" is "necanihtisilithin".
>
> ;>
>
> Cheers, Tom
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Tom Tadfor Little               tom@telp.com
> Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
> Telperion Productions           www.telp.com
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~