Re: Amanda's sentences as translation exercise

Den 21. okt. 2006 kl. 14.15 skrev Remi Villatel:
>
> I feel there has been a lack of conlanging on the list lately, so I
> propose
> Amanda's 10 sentences as a translation exercise.
I like these... Human touch.

>  1. This is my child.
Urianian: Gi e ma fird.
Gaajan: Agasekema ju. (child-this-my it-is)
Gaajans seem to be very fond of children, they have many child words:
omo "small child, baby", naena "child, doll, darling" agas "child",
be "child, kid, sonny, girlie", uli "offspring, cub", ara "newborn
child, fetus", ili "girl, daughter", nesa "little girl, girlie", denk
"little girl", syma "boy, son".

>  2. His name is Peter.
U: Sa nammu e Peter.
G: Katuni Peter ju. (name-his Peter it-is)

>  3. I love him.
U: Kasam si. (love{non-physical}-1s.pres 3s.acc)
G: Epe at. (love I-do-to-him)

>  4. The baby cannot speak (yet).
U: Arum da ni me ikte. (baby yet not can(-pres.3s) speak-inf)
G: Ara omoke linia ra. (not baby-erg pot-speaking dur-it-has-it)

>  5. But he can sit without help.
U: Da me sitid sendir. (But can-pres.3s sit-inf by-himself)
G: Ipearak esja lae. (help-without sitting pot-he-has-but)
"Da" is a word in Urianian that has as many uses as "yet" in English,
and more. Its dictionary entry is "yet, now, then, but, although, so,
what, what a, exclamation". "Da!" alone means "Well, I'll be damned!"
- something like that. Or perhaps: "Duh!"

>  6. His eyes are blue.
U: Sa liki sin laji. (3s.gen eye-nom.pl are blue-pl)
G: Welauni osj iunji. (eye-pl-his blue they-are)

>  7. He desires excessively that I should play with him.
U: Es mi maki si lamid. (wish(-pres.3s) 1s.acc rich-inst 3s.acc play-
inf)
G: Iriwegi a hawemi atla. (wish-too.much he-does-to-it play-with I-do-
to-him-subj)

>  8. Holding Baby is so nice!
U: Iran arma e da fet! (hold-act.part baby-acc.sg is so good)
G: Omo iduka waso aku ju! (baby holding so good it-is)

>  9. The baby and I went for a walk down the street today.
U: Arum je me tuni lient raznu lida. (baby and I day-inst.sg walk{v}-
pret.1p street-loc.sg walk{n}-acc.sg)
G: Omoke mitake bidenam iwanea asek an jaig. (baby-erg I-and-erg way-
loc walk{n} today go past-we-do-for-it)

> 10. Although he can take several steps in a row while I hold his
> hands, I
> carried him on our walk.
U: Da me bil vazlet rybi sami ziram sa meret, si firem esan lidu.
(Although can-pres.3s several step-acc.pl row-inst.sg while hold-pres.
1s 3s.gen hand-acc.pl, 3s.acc carry-pret.1s 1p.gen walk-loc.sg)
G: Osag antuwe janten an lanji iduweni iduk itanjit iwaneam anje
jate. (several step-pl sequence-adv walk pot-he-does-to-them hand-pl-
his hold while-I-do-to-them walk-loc carry past-I-do-to-him-but)

I'd like to construct a third conlang too, called Azurian, but it's
spoken by descendants of Viking invaders, so it won't be so far from
my own. Probably it's close to Faroese, but with some more links to
western Norwegian, some more influence from Danish, and with some
interesting substrate effects, particularly in the northern and
western dialects.

LEF

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