Re: A new translation exercise (was: lexicons)

On Wed, 31 Mar 1999, Padraic Brown wrote:

> There's no word for great-great-grandfather, so we use 'ancestor' in
> stead.
In Valdyan the word for "ancestor" *is* "great-great-grandfather":
_tate somoch_, "father times-four". In fact the ancestor in the
story, if he existed at all, was probably more than four generations
removed. Later in the story he's called by name "Athal Riei's son",
but I know who wrote the story (in Valdyan history), and she comes
from a region where both names are very common.

>       ce cestyn mbenne...     This woman...
> where ce cestyn contains four pronouns.
Please take this apart for me! It reminds me of _ayali_ "everything"
which is the pronoun _li_ "it" with two instances of the prefix _a-_
"every". _Ali_ "they (inanimate)" can also mean "everything", but
_ayali_ has only that meaning and is more emphatic, "EVERYthing".

   Irina

            Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastinay.
                     irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself)
     http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/frontpage.html (English)
    http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/backpage.html (Nederlands)