Re: A new translation exercise (was: lexicons)

>Irina Rempt wrote:
>>       When my great-great-grandfather was a young man, he travelled
>>       out into the world. First he went west; there was only sand
>>       there. Then he went north; there was only snow there. Then he
>>       went east; there the mountains were too high and
>>       great-great-grandfather couldn't climb them. At last he decided
>>       to travel south, on foot, on horseback, by cart and by boat. In
>>       the south he saw the largest city in all the world.
>
I was pleasantly surprised to find that with very little circumlocution, I
had enough Tazhi words to translate this.  (Note on pronunciation.  There
are many dialects of Tazhi and pronunciation varies widely, but one common
feature is that all vowels are pronounced seperately and distinctly.
"beano"="bay-AH-noe", and "tave"="TAH-vey", for example.)

Tiwa k'prapadru k'uchalte praguznu beano(bay-AH-noe), tu abra omblu jernano.
While my-pre-father (my-)of-the-past pre-man was, he into world travel-did.

Onaza tu sety gano; tu yemly liku dadeskano.
First he westerly went; he only sand there-discovered.

Veste tu anzy gano; tu yemly izmu davizano.
Afterwards he northerly went; he only snow there-saw.

Veste tu emy gano;
Afterwards he easterly went;

erbi uchitave dabeano,
mountains much-tall in-that-place-did-be,

a prapadru uchalte ti quabo tu anablo nusy.
and pre-father of-the-past them to-climb he was-able not.

Uchaza igry go tu vilano, pedimo, equono, yira bisutu a yira nahu jerno.
Finally south to-go he decided, to-walk, to-horse-ride, in cart and in boat
to-journey.

Yira igru omblu t'argese t'abadu tu anvizo.
In (the)east the-world its-biggest its-city he did-see.

--Gary.