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Re: A new translation exercise (was: lexicons)

From:Irina Rempt <ira@...>
Date:Thursday, April 1, 1999, 8:30
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)