Re: "Bird in Tree" translation (was: Re: milimpulaktasin)

Robert Hailman wrote:

> Well, I translated this into Ajuk, for fun. When I get the chance, I'll
> record it and put it up on... uh... something. I don't have a website
> yet, but this is one more excuse to get one.
>
> A: Odap visenapoki ukhoto elpisoto abrano.
> B: Nomap visenapa!
> A: Duz najaj upoti uzot khinvisenot dorot felden!
> B: O! Khinvisenot upoti, nan?
> [snip]
> Phonetically:
> /'erap vis'enapoki 'uxoto el'pisoto ab'rano/
> /'nomap vis'enapa/
> /'duz 'naja 'upoti 'uzot xinvis'enot 'dorot fel'den/
> /'o: xinvis'enot 'upoti 'nan/
Random questions about Ajuk:
(1) How many genders are there?
(2) In addition to case marking, this language seems to have an extravagant
amount of agreement (not a bad thing, just noteworthy).  Given that fact, I
would expect Ajuk to have an extremely free word order.  Does it?  It's
even conceivable that Ajuk would allow discontinuous constituents, as in
many Australian languages.  A sentence such as "Abrano odap ukhoto
visenapoki elpisoto", although perhaps strange, would be perfectly
unambiguous, it seems to me.  Does Ajuk have anything like this kind of
freedom?
(3) Along the same lines:  Seeing as you have full person/number/gender
subject agreement on the verbs, is it possible to leave out the subject
pronouns?  Can you say "Visenapa" for "I see (it)", or do you have to say
"Nomap visenapa"?
(4) I gather the stress rule is:  Stress the last syllable of the root.  Is
that right?
(5) Finally, why is "odap" pronounced /'erap/?  Just a weird idiosyncrasy,
or is there method to the madness?  I ask because the orthography seems
otherwise entirely sensible.

Matt.

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