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Translation exercise done in Korahamla

From:Amanda Babcock <langs@...>
Date:Thursday, November 21, 2002, 6:32
A documentary on the Ottoman sultan Suleiman briefly mentioned a poem
he wrote in which he speaks of ruling for a long time until a hostile
wind should come.  Inspired by "hostile wind", I wondered how I could
render in Korahamla "The wind now blowing hates you who have ruled
for so long".

The result translates to something like "The now-being-moved wind is
a hater-of-you who have so long been the exerciser (doer) of kingship".

ihakmakláwaltar jokójpowxpo sumaslontormrój

  ihakmakláwaltar: wind.move.now.patient of.new topic
  jokójpowxpo: self.your.hate.agent of.comment-first-ref
  sumaslontormrój: kingship.do.long have.much.agent of.comment-new-ref

("x" is the voiceless velar fricative, "j" the glide /j/.)

Detailed derivation of each of the word-phrases:

  wind: áltar
    move the wind: akmáltar (insert -km- into cluster before stressed vowel)
    now moves the wind: akmakláltar (insert -kl- into stressed vowel)
    the now-moved wind: akmakláwaltar (insert -w- after stressed vowel)
    the now-moved wind (topic): ihakmakláwaltar (prefix i-)

  self: ków
    your self, you: kópow (insert -po- before final cons cluster)
    hate you: kópowxpo (insert* -xp- into cons cluster after final vowel)
    hater of you: kójpowxpo (insert -j- after stressed vowel)
    hater of you (comment): jokójpowxpo (prefix jo-)

  kingship: malór
    exercise kingship, rule: maslór (insert -s- before clust before final vow)
    long have ruled: maslontór (insert -nt- in stressed vowel)
    so (much) long have ruled: maslontormró (insert -m- in clust after str vow)
    one who so long has ruled: maslontormrój (insert -j- after stressed vowel)
    one who so long has ruled, comment on embedded noun in last comment:
      sumaslontormrój (prefix su-)

*Indicates insertion that is performed after initial glide/liquid, if any,
and before other consonants

I have decided Korahamla as it currently exists is a ceremonial
language of the priesthood, with a related everyday language.  The
everyday language will have similar or identical roots and infixes,
except that the place of insertion for infixes will be strictly specified
gramatically rather than lexically.  Hopefully this will lead to a more
predictable and decipherable, and less ambiguous, language for ordinary
use.

In the common language, noun roots will all be stressed on the first
syllable.  Any infix that moves a word from noun-stage to verb-stage will
go after the stressed vowel, but the stress will then move to the next
vowel in the word as it was before that particular infix was applied.
If on the last vowel in the word, stress will proceed to the first vowel.

All other infixes will go after or within the stressed vowel but will
not move the stress.  This should prevent the widespread problem of
ambiguity as to the order in which verb infixes were applied, while
distributing them aesthetically along the word.  (None of the words in
the above example had multiple verb infixes applied, I think.  An
example which does would be "king-hater":

  kingship: malór
    exercise kingship, rule: maslór
    ruler, king: maslojór
    hate the king: maslojorxpó
    king-hater: maslojorxpój

which accidentally follows the rules of Common Speech, more or less, due
to the extra syllable introduced by the suffixation of -xp-, and is not
ambiguous as far as I know.)

Amanda