Re: Conlang T Shirt - Quenya

Brook Conner <nellardo@...> wrote:

> I gathered from earlier discussions on conlang, that the intent of the
> original phrase - "Your language goes here" - was not about passive
> voice so much as more of a subjunctive mood of desiring something that
> is not the case.
I understand that. I was trying to convey that _lambelya hiruva_
would probably be understood as 'your language will find', not
'will be found'. I don't know what the unmarked word order for
Quenya is, but interpreting _lambelya hiruva_ as '(someone) will
find your language' would assume OV order (of which we have no
evidence) and also that it's grammatical to delete the subject
(even there being an object, which be ambiguous).

How do you know _nai_ is subjunctive of 'to be'?

>
>  > As for _sinomesse_, couldn't it just _sinome_? Why would you
>  > use the locative case for a locative adverb? Cf. the words of
>  > King Elessar, _Sinome maruvan..._ 'Here I will live...' (TTT,
>  > _The Steward and the King_).
>
> To distinguish it from the possible ablative and allative
> interpretations of the sentence:
>
> May it be that your language is found out of here (ablative)
>
> May it be that your language is found into/upon here (allative)
Those are literal translations! We don't know how Tolkien would've
interpreted those. But I guess no case mark would be enough to exclude
those, since there are specific marks for them. I mean, if it was good
enough Quenya for the King, it should be for us...


> "If you can't make it good, at least make it look good."
> -- Bill Gates on the solid code base of Win9X
Good one. I guess we know which path he chose, don't we? ;)


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