Re: Translation

From: "Patrick Dunn"

> I've been playing with a polysynthetic language.  I thought I'd do a
> translation.  I'm feeling patriotic, so here it is:
>
> 'e niva'asavu'afaaduli
> shema'aavakutali
> teapu'abaabaavi ge'upoli
> usamagushi
> Amerika, Amerika
> u'uke'uese'gaa'ineteni kame'
And then, from: "Sylvia Sotomayor"

> You inspire me!
>
> lamáNeren!
> ánén anaccórien anLáon,
> ánén aneláNien annúál,
> ánén analláerien antáxa
> sú jamáésa anjála ól.
> lamérika! lamérika!
> setirre anhéji ankíTje
> mo mannárien rá jahháwien
> ke anérji.
I, too, felt inspired, but I took a different approach. Rather than
translate as literally as Géarthnuns would allow, I went for a version you
could actually sing to the tune, which meant some rather broad liberalties.
One could just coin new words all over the place for easy rhymes, but I
tried to use only already extant Géarthnuns vocabulary and hammer it into
the form. So, no new words here. It's a laborious process (well, okay, it
took about 45 minutes), especially since there are only about 7,000 words to
work with, so I've only done the last part so far. Pick it up from where it
continues:

America, America,
God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good,
With brotherhood,
From sea to shining sea.

(Sung to the tune "America The Beautiful")

Íunaitidstéts, Íunaitidstéts,
Öçek Avíathsen lü,
Chak haransash,
Zhö chak lönsash,
Sa frens pöbrísen nü.

Íunaitidstéts, Íunaitidstéts,
America-nom, America-nom

Öçek Avíathsen lü,
you-nom God-instr transcendent.tense

Chak haransash,
the-pl sea-loc/pl

Zhö chak lönsash,
and the-pl ocean-loc/pl

Sa frens pöbrísen nü.
a country-nom unique/special-nom be-hortative

America, America,
May you be a unique country,
In the seas and in the oceans.

First part'll probably take a *lot* more effort. (Why a Géarthçins would
feel compelled to sing this is another question. Géarthçins émigrés to the
US?)

Kou