Re: Elet Anta course + translation

On Sun, 25 Jul 1999, John Fisher wrote:

> Here's another translation exercise from the course, if anyone wants a
> go (sorry that it's rather culture-specific...)
Not all that culture-specific; the only thing that would be strange
in Valdyas is to go to a shop to buy a cat instead of asking your
neighbour for a kitten.

This one was very easy! New words: kitchen (and the root "cook"),
table, problem (from an existing root "easy"), to buy, to sell (and
"salesperson"), to sit (and "seat, chair"), near, peace.

>   There are many mice in my house.  I don't like them, they are dirty.
>   Yesterday I saw three mice on the kitchen table, eating the bread.  My
>   mother said, "Buy a cat.  Cats happily eat mice, and there will be no
>   problem in your home."  In the shop I looked at two cats.  The second
>   one was very big and bad tempered, and it only had one eye.  The
>   attendant said, "It eats many mice."  I bought it enthusiastically.
>   The cat sat in my kitchen, and its one eye looked at me angrily.  I
>   was frightened of it, and I felt sorry for the mice.  But in the
>   evening, I saw the cat lying on a chair.  Very near it were three
>   mice.  All four animals were sleeping calmly.

Astien ien mychi loch. Alea napylan, alean nacyli. Hanrie echain
mychena besh horsien bylyes lea rusta cronayt. Nane laynynat: "Muza
garay. Muzi mychena cronayt parien, nanerisin so nahyn astien tien".
Trynyes muzena ilea chalynan. Zalea domoy so dogaz, nestyn chan
chanie so lean. Dinan "mychena loch cronat" laynynat. Lea garan
doparien. Muz bylyes nedat, nestyn chan lean so i chalynat gazie. Lea
serynan mychena so lidan. Telhien do muza chalan lea nesien murat.
Lea dogyin mychi besh. Rychin amoch suri banie.

------------------------------------------------------------

astien      ien         mychi       loch
house-loc-s Poss1-loc-s mouse-nom-p many


alea   na.pylan       alean  na.cyli
3pA-O NEG-like-1s-PRS 3pA-S NEG-clean-nom-p

The common gender, because mice are animate but their gender is not
important (except to each other when they want to make little mice).


hanrie    echain mychena     besh  horsien     bylyes
day-loc-s PST    mouse-acc-p three table-loc-s kitchen-loc-s
   "yesterday"

Now the story is put in its time it can continue in the present
tense.


lea rusta       cronayt
REL bread-acc-s eat-3p-PRS

No participles; they do it with relative clauses.


nane         laynynat   muza      garay
mother-nom-s say-3s-PRS cat-acc-s buy-2s-PRS

"Mother" with no further determiner is taken to mean "my mother" in
this context.


muzi      mychena     cronayt    parien
cat-nom-p mouse-acc-p eat-3s-PRS pleasure-ins-s


 na.nerisin           so   na.hyn astien      tien
NEG-easy.thing-nom-cp and NEG-FUT house-loc-s Poss2-loc-s
"trouble"

The future marker for sentences without a finite verb, that appears
here because Valdyan has no copula to hang the tense on, gets the
(verbal) negation: "there will be no trouble in your house".


trynyes      muzena    ilea  chalynan
market-loc-s cat-acc-p two-A look-1s-PRS

Shops don't sell cats; if you insist on buying a cat instead of
getting one for free your best bet is the market.


zalea   do.moy so   do.gaz
second AUG-big and AUG-angry

It's a bit strange to say _zalea_ before you've had _zachan_ "first",
but never mind.


nestyn    chan chanie so  lean
eye-nom-s one  only   and Poss3A-nom-s

"only one eye [is] his". The cat is also common gender (though I
suspect it's a tom) because that hasn't been explicitly stated.


dinan             mychena     loch cronat     laynynat
salesperson-nom-s mouse-acc-p many eat-3s-PRS say-3s-PRS

Without the punctuation, which exists in the Valdyan script but is
usually not written, this can also mean "he/she/it (probably the cat)
says that the salesperson eats many mice" but attractive as it may
seem this is clearly nonsense.


lea   garan       do.parien
3sA-O buy-1s-PRS AUG-pleasure-ins-s

muz       bylyes        nedat
cat-nom-s kitchen-loc-s sit-3s-PRS

nestyn    chan lean         so  i    chalynat    gazie
eye-nom-s one  Poss3A-nom-s and 1s-O look-3s-PRS anger-ins-s

lea   serynan     mychena     so  lidan
3sA-O fear-1s-PRS mouse-acc-p and pity-1s-PRS

telhien       do  muza      chalan     lea nesien     murat
evening-loc-s but cat-acc-s see-1s-PRS REL seat-loc-s lie-3s-PRS

lea    do.gyin mychi       besh
3sA-O AUG-near mouse-nom-p three

rychin        a.moch suri         banie
animal-nom-p dp-four asleep-nom-p peace-loc-s

_rychin_ "breathers", meaning the whole animal kingdom including
people; people alone are _rastin_ "reasoners".

------------------------------------------------------------

nom - nominative
acc - accusative
loc - locative
ins - instrumental (same form as locative)

S - subject case (pronouns)
O - object case (pronouns)

s - singular
p - plural
cp - collective plural
dp - distributive plural, "all of...", "every"

Poss - possessive pronoun
REL - relative pronoun

1, 2, 3 - first, second, third person

A - common gender

NEG - negative prefix
AUG - augmentative prefix

PRS - present tense

PST - past marker
FUT - future marker


            Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay.
                     irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself)
       http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/index.html (English)
    http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/backpage.html (Nederlands)