Re: EXERCISE: Small grammar exercise

--- In conlang@y..., Philip Newton <Philip.Newton@G...> wrote:


> a) [Tom] goes by Underground.
Q: Jor vaj u Dummawra.
A: Jor Tom u Dummawra.

The word |dummawra| /dMm"mawra/ is a contraction of |dwon| "underneath"
and |mawra| "ground".



> b) I show [Milly] [my new car].
Q: Ve kelseze i vaj.
A: Xim epoj ryme kelseze i Milli.



> c) She felt [very unhappy].
Q: Ve ne kriuq.
A: Pue tagalin ne kriuq.

Unlike English, Obrenje doesn't allow the verb "feel" to be used
intransitively.  Instead, one uses the reflexive construction
"I feel myself well", as in German.



> d) Miriam likes [strawberry] icecream.
Q: Naq Miriam i venje lazyt.
A: Naq Miriam i lazyt malmitsi.

|Venje| is simply what you get when you adjectivize the general
interrogative pronoun |ve| "what? who?".  Thus, it means "whatty?",
or clearer: "what kind of, what sort of...?".

The Obrenje word for strawberry is |malmitsi|, literally "tongueberry",
named for its visual similarity with a red tongue.  The word |mitsi|
"berry" is itself a diminutive form of |mej| "fruit".



> e) [My] brother is [twenty years] old.
Q: Venje gilla kot vem culdin.
A: Dozhde a jav dembi kot xim culdin.

Twenty is 16 + 4 (dozhde a jav) in the octal counting system.

Obrenje asks "which age has ... ?" rather than "How old is ... ?".



> f) [The children] take the bus to Oxford Circus.
Q: Kjes vaj u tumpoje ki Okceforde cerkus.
A: Kjes sej zun u tumpoje ki Okceforde cerkus.

|Tumpoj| "bus" is a contraction of |tunke| "long" and |epoj| "car".



> g) [Last year] they spent their holidays [in Italy].
Q: Vize a vys mizaw i em dizhora.
A: Dzhanej dembi, mizaw i em dizhora ro Italja.



> h) He works very hard [because he wants to earn a lot of money].
Q: Vetre gwarda pue gonju.
A: Gwarda pue gonju tetre tse lormae kwoe i punce puqe.

That was a difficult one to translate.  An Obrenaj would probably
simplify it to |Gwarda pue gonju bla lormae i punce puqe|, meaning
"He works very hard for the sake of earning a lot of money".



> i) She wanted to buy [a book].
Q: I ve rela kwow.
A: I nossa rela kwow.



-- Christian Thalmann