THEORY: Micro-Translation Excercise (was Re: THEORY: Natural languagechange (was Re: Charlie andI))

Steg Belsky wrote:
> > It means "If you can understand this, you know too much" :)
>=20
> Now *that* sounds like a perfect translation excersize! :)
Let me see. In Drasel=E9q:

        Be i fa   madnavir             per  hot  qrever  ta.
        if * this ABL.understand.2sACT then wide know.2s yes

* means the ubiquitous particle _i_, which in this case is used
to mark the direct object of a perception verb. The object is
usually after the verb and accusative, and in this case the=20
two possibilities are grammatical:

        Be madnavir f=E4n...
                    this.ACC

The ACC ending <-n> is underlyingly <-en>, hence the umlaut. And
in case you noticed (!?), I changed some demonstratives, which were
probably the worst designed part of Drasel=E9q. 'This' was _anth_,
now it's _fa_; accusative is _f=E4n_, genitive is _fes_.

Note the ACT (actual present tense, as opposed to the habitual tense,
unmarked in the second verb). It just seemed more appropriate, since
this understanding has to occur at the very moment the reader is
reading the sentence. 'To understand' can be a single action, but
'to know' is less likely to be so.

_Per_ 'well then, so, since' can be left out and replaced by a pause.
_Hot_ is the root for 'wide, large' with a negative connotation.
It's also used as an adverb, 'too much'.
_Ta_ 'yes' is here a discourse marker, which Drasel=E9q speakers
seem to love... There's an instinctive need to have a monosyllable
at the end of each clause. This may be a rhythmic issue or something
deeper. I have to do some research on that.


--Pablo Flores
  http://draseleq.conlang.org/pablo-david/