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Re: Insult (jara: Weekly Vocab 8)

From:Camilla Drefvenborg <elmindreda@...>
Date:Sunday, May 25, 2003, 12:04
Jan van Steenbergen de ortekera:

> --- John Cowan skrzypszy: > >> My favorite insult: "Your parents were brothers!"
let me try that in Nindára. nay ni leyomya de tamanera! ...to which most Darans would answer "sorry, no", except for the few so adopted. in any case, the idea that it was meant as an insult would probably never enter sanna i (his/her) mind. nay ni ley- omy -a de ... 2.SG GEN dual parent N.INDEF NOM ... tam -a -nera brother N.INDEF V.PRES your two parent(s) were brother(s). i and ni are two forms the genitive copula, ni being used after nouns ending with 'i' and pronouns ending with 'y'. perhaps that last word requires some explanation. the verb aner "to be" has a suffix-form. or rather, it has two, one for the nominal and one for the adjectival quality of the stem. did that make any kind of sense to anyone? anyway, it was probably slang once, but is now common usage. the language is otherwise rather strictly SOV. however, I assume that the past tense is meant to imply that it speaks of the listener's actual biological parents, so maybe... nay ni namya de temya so tama anera. nay ni namy -a de ... 2.SG GEN mother N.INDEF NOM ... temy -a so tam -a an -era father N.IND ASSOC brother N.INDEF is V.PAST your mother was (the) brother of (your) father. oh, well. that would most likely make most self-respecting Darans ask you what you are smoking. a teenager might ask if sanna could try some. nalima! two hundred and seventeen more mails to read! té nomane yosiar... --- Camilla senestila me selinda de mambiar mena tekassa de kassiar. bantane vendeniar! :)

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Andreas Johansson <andjo@...>