Re: Vocab #4

On Friday 19 April 2002 09:30, Aidan Grey wrote:
>    1. bunny / rabbit
jacúrre, not really a rabbit, but a small, pesty, and numerous
creature of some sort. (Some day I'm going to figure out the local
Kélen ecology.)

>    2. ferret
jatúmse, some sort of small predator.

>    3. knife
jéste, or maybe japérnó "blade"

>    4. alien / foreigner
mapéxte, foreigner, someone from afar.

>    5. ouch! / ow!
í, íí, ííjí
>    6. help!
(se) (an)lúha ká!
>    7. aaaa! (a scream of terror)
áá
>    8. aaaargh! (a scream of pain / failure / death)
ííjí, ííííjjíí
>    9. grrrr! (an intimidating growl)
rrrr

>    10. blood
ansúri is used for blood and other bodily fluids.
anmáni is used specifically for blood and bleeding.
>
>    Context:
>
>    1. That bunny has a knife!
ñi jacúrre xó ánen jéste lá;
[emphatic] be.perfect that bunny with a knife.

>    2.  This is my ferret. She likes to dance!
la Tó matúmse'nle; sema jatañén to anjára lá;
be.habitual here ferret* assoc-with me. [Emphatic] She gets pleasure
from dance!
*ferret here has been promoted to an animate noun by a loving owner.

>    3.  The bunny with the knife is coming for me!
an jacúrr' ánen jéste rá le tó antúren lá;
[emph] be.progressive the bunny with the knife towards me for
harm.

>    4.  Does that alien eat people or not?
hij japéxte xó rú anlúáni mo mélien jajjílnien kéñ;
be.irrealis that stranger* from the stars (eats people) [question].
*stranger is here demoted to inanimate, since the sentence implies
it's not a person. the case marker mo marks a beneficiary, which is
people - eaten things, both forms in the distributive to mark a
repeating occurance. People is also marked animate, though 'eaten
things' is not.

>    5.  Ouch! The rabbit with the knife cut off my arm!
íí, ñi jacúrr' ánen jéste mo jaták'lae ho 'nkeTáwa lá;
[emph] ouch, be.perfect the rabbit with the knife, my arm, with
separation!
ho is an instrumentative marker.

>    6.  Help! I'm bleeding to death!
s'anlúha ká; an ansúrilae nara rú;
Help! be.progressive my-blood/bodily-fluids all translocative.

>    7.  Aaaaa! The rabbit is coming back!
áá an jacúrre jiTálón lá;
Aaaa, be.progressive rabbit coming.back.thing.agent [emph].

>    8.  Aaaargh! It cut off my other arm!
íí, ñi mo jaták'lae jíTa ho 'nkeTáwa lá;

>    9.  Grrrr! I will step on (crush / squish by foot) that rabbit!
rrrr, héja ñalla jacúrre jakeháññe cí;
intention-marker I-act rabbit destroyed-thing commissive/emphatic.
I will destroy that rabbit, I will!

>    10. The rabbit cut off my legs. Look at the pretty pools of
> blood.
ñi jacúrre mo anórwilae ho ankeTáwa; la anmáni nara tó anwála cí;
.... my legs ....; there is all the blood for sensing, let's.

lá, cí, ká, and kéñ are mood markers. They occur at the end of the
sentence and mark emphatic, commissive, imperative, and interrogative
respectively. The cí in sentence 9 is considered to be emphatic as
well as commissive due to the presence of the clausal modifier héja,
which marks future intention. Sentence 6 could also end with lá, but
doesn't because of rú and the ká in the previous sentence. When I
figure out how to explain that, I'll let you know.

--
Sylvia Sotomayor
sylvia1@ix.netcom.com

The Kélen language can be found at:
http://home.netcom.com/~sylvia1/Kelen/kelen.html

This post may contain the following characters:
á (a-acute); é (e-acute); í (i-acute); ó (o-acute); ú (u-acute);
ñ (n-tilde);