Re: A random bit of Telona

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Jonathan Knibb <j_knibb@H...> wrote:

 > I can't believe it's
 > five years old this month ... and I still can't get the phonology just
 > right. :)

The phonology looks interesting at any rate, with those
approximants...  got a webpage about it?



 > [De Pu:b@ lu:Pala De t_ji:hinla Pe:res l_wo:DaFP@]

Pretty original...  I'd like to hear that spoken.  I'm
not sure I can do [P] in a fluent context myself.

BTW, if you want to streamline your phonetic notation,
you can use [c] for the palatal stop and [5] for the
velarized L.  These are integral parts of the X-SAMPA
notation.  Unless, of course, you distinguish [t_j]
from a purely palatal stop somehow...



 > Nice example of a modal in the second clause - 'veres' means 'someone
 > who is doing the right thing in that situation, who knows what's good
 > for them and is doing it'.  So, 'de cihi véres' means 'all those who
 > seek while doing things right', or just 'one must seek'.

Cool!  =)



 > 'Lodanvè' shows how, in matters of perception and suchlike, Telona
 > prefers to identify the perceiver with the organ of perception.  The
 > idea of 'I', 'you' and so forth is quite elastic in Telona.  One can
 > refer to a group of people as 'I', if one identifies oneself with them.
 > Similarly, if I see something, the eye seeing it is just as much 'I'
 > as I am, as far as Telona is concerned.
 >
 > The enclitic '-nve' means 'acting as'.  Without it, 'cihi loda' would
 > mean 'seeking while being a heart'; but with it, 'cihi lodanvè' means
 > 'seeking while acting as a heart' - or bearing in mind the flexibility
 > of personal reference, 'seeking with one's heart'.

Quite original too.



 > 'The eyes are blind. One must look with the heart.'

Wheee!  A translation exercise!  =)


Jovian:

Ougli son caegi.  Man deive pfictare cordi.
['owgli sAN 'kajgi  man dejv pfiC'ta:r 'kArdi]
eye:NOMp  be:3p  blind:m:NOMp  MAN  oughta:3s  look:INF
     heart:OBLs


Obrenje:

Takel bwele.  Cinee kellae tocce.
[ta'kEl bwe:l  si'ne: k@l'la: tOss#]
NEG:look:3e  eye:d  "heart":d  look:GND  must:0

Note:  |Cine| refers to the emotional part of the mind,
        not to the hollow muscle that drives vascular
        circulation.  Being accomplished in medicine,
        the muscle (|sampe|) carries no other figurative
        connotations than vital importance (|sampe| can
        be used in the sense of "salient point").


Oro Mpaa:

Puel ttacel; neu leh saupen cala celle.
[pwil tagil  nyliC sQbiNgala killi]
eye  NEG:see  CAT  use  heart  serve  seeing
"The eye doesn't see;  one uses the heart for seeing."

...or maybe rather ...

Puel ttacel; elco le leh saupen cala celle.
[pwil tagil  ilgu liliC sQbiNgala killi]
eye  NEG:see  expect  you  use  heart  serve  seeing
"The eye doesn't see;  you should use the heart for
     seeing."

Note:  This was much harder to translate than it might
        appear.  I'm still not very proficient with the
        analytic syntax of Oro Mpaa.

        CAT is the categorical pronoun, it can be
        translated as "one" or German "man" if no other
        nouns follow.

        |Cala| "serve" is used idiomatically for "in
        order to, for, for the purpose of".  |Elco| is a
        verb meaning "expect ... to ..., oblige" when
        used transitively, but more commonly being used
        impersonally in the construction {elco A verb B},
        literally "(something) obliges A verbs B",
        meaning "A ought to verb B".  Oro Mpaa has lots
        of those idiomatic serial verb constructions.



-- Christian Thalmann

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