Re: conlangers of the world, create!

On Tue, May 01, 2001 at 12:52:29PM +0200, daniel andreasson wrote:

> Anyway. This means "Conlangers of the world, create!" which
> I thought was a suitable phrase to translate today, May 1st.
> [ Or should that be "of all countries"? ]
Oh, this is wonderful!  For once in my life I have a language in which
I had the foresight to include words suitable for discussing conlanging :)

"To people of all nations, to every language creator, it is said that you
should create!"

        estoNgolyeldaSkeGes,                      tekembaDalyelges,
        person.group.every.member.in-general.PAT, language.AGT.rel.every.PAT,
        every-nation.members.PAT,                 language.creator.every.PAT,

        pelomkolyeNgo -       polaBempololbaGoBondal!
        tongue.FOC.cop -      2ndp.new-shoot.AGT.cop.should.rel!
        that-which-is-said.is you.create.being.should.that!

Piece-by-piece:

"Conlangers of all nations" became "people of all nations who create
language".  I have a form for "that which/he who creates language", but
not for just "who create(s) language".  Decided that this situation would
be handled through apposition: "People of all nations, conlangers..."

Nation: estoNgol, group of people.  Every nation: estoNgolyel.  Member
of every nation: estoNgolyeldas.  Members in general of every nation:
estoNgolyeldaSke.

Conlanger, as before, tekembaDal, "that which creates (or causes) language".
Every conlanger: tekembaDalyel.  Both "estoNgolyeldaSke" and "tekembaDalyel"
take the patient marker -kes, since they are both the experiencers of the
message.  (Lacking a vocative, I went with making them patients of "to say".)

In order to avoid using "tekem" again, I decided that the meaning "to say"
would come from the word "tongue", pelomkol.  It takes the focus marker and
the copula, becoming pelomkolyeNgo, meaning "that which is said is...".

Then I needed a word for "create".  I didn't want to use "to cause language"
as in tekembaDal, because it would sound too tautological: "Conlangers, be
conlangers!"  Decided that a metaphor was in order, "to spring forth", and
that that meaning would be served by a word for "the first green shoots of
a plant"; with the agentive affix, it becomes "to bring forth", or to
create.  Chose "pempolol" for the new word.

Then I needed to make it an imperative.  This required a modal and a 2nd
person pronoun.  (I had already decided that modals rather than Japanese-
style "hou ga ii desu" phrases were the way to go, even though tekem doesn't
have true verbs.)

The 2nd person pronoun is "pola", you.  The modal is "-pom", roughly
equivalent to "should".  The sentence "You should create", or "Create!",
would then be "you should be the agent of springing forth", or more
literally, "should be the agent of springing forth - you!":

        pempololbaGoBom -             pola!
        spring-forth.AGT.cop.should - 2ndp!

Still considering having the modal replace the copula instead of coming
after it, but for now it comes after the copula.

Finally, "that you should create" is achieved via the noun-incorporation
move mentioned previously:

        polaBempololbaGoBondal
        2ndp.spring-forth.AGT.cop.should.rel

Now I'll need to finish the modal and pronoun systems, since I've gone
and started them.

Amanda