Listen To Me Sing In Rokbeigalmki! (I Promise Your Ears Won't Bleed)

Not that long ago people were talking about sound files of their
conlangs.  For some inexplicable reason, my computer's microphone decided
to be nice and work properly, so i have just recorded two and a half
Rokbeigalmki songs for you to listen to and comment on.  One thing i'd
like to know is if my IPA transcriptions of Rokbeigalmki have been
accurate, so i'm doing all of them here in standard X-SAMPA with the
customary Conlang-L use of /&/ for |aesh|.


The first thing i recorded was |Tii Raflep|, the Rokbeigalmki translation
of the "Song of the BaMbuti in Troubled Times" that i like using as a
sig.

http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~bh11744/stuff/raflep.mp3

|tii raflep suddadaasht nga'amsh;
akh ihkh raflep uzoi-tzat, i raflep-a tza'aurdzaasht-a uz,
raflep-a ngausgaur sudtub.|

/taj 4ap\lEp suddad&St N\a?amS
ax 1x 4ap\lEp uzOj ts)at i 4ap\lEp?a ts)a?O4dz&St?a uz
4ap\lEp?a N\OsgO4 sudtub/

"there is darkness all around us;
but if darkness *is*, and the darkness is of the forest,
then the darkness must be good."

TII      RAFLEP   SUD|DA|DAASHT    NGA'AMSH
there.is darkness ADJ|CP|surround from'us
TII is the 'existence marker', like Hebrew |yeish| or Spanish |hay|.
CP = causative prefix.  without it, DAASHT's simple/reflexive meaning
would just be 'baulk'.

AKH IHKH RAFLEP   UZ|OI-TZAT
but  if  darkness it|PR-exist
PR = present-routine tense
Here i translated the intensive English "*is*" with 'exist', which seems
to fit the meaning better.

I     RAFLEP-A   TZA'AURDZAASHT-A UZ
and darkness-the   of'forest-the  it
One of the harder things i've had to do in learning to pronounce
Rokbeigalmki correctly is to properly distinguish between /i/ "and" and
/?i/ 'female prefix'.
AURDZAASHT (from AUREZ 'wood' and the word DAASHT above) is specifically
a forest where the trees are close together, or there are a lot of
brambles and bushes, so that it's hard to move around.
UZ "it" here at the end of the clause has an understood copula, 'it is'.
Actually, it might be slightly better to have ZA'RAFLEP-A, with the
optional subject case-marker, to show that it means 'and the darkness is
of the forest' and not 'and it is the forest's darkness', although both
mean more or less the same thing.

  RAFLEP-A   NGAUSGAUR SUD|TUB
darkness-the of.course ADJ|good
There probably should be another UZ at the end here, but for poetic
purposes leaving it out is fine, just like in colloquial speech.
NGAUSGAUR is an exclamation coming from some combination of NGA' "from",
SA' "with" or SUD| 'adjective prefix', and GA' 'that/which'.


For comparison, i also recorded the 'original' English translation of the
song, which i found in my Musics of the World textbook this past summer.

http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~bh11744/stuff/bambuti.mp3


The last thing i recorded was the original Rokbeigalmki poem/song
|Numyenaurkim Uhmzu-Elyeb|, "Numenoreans Came".

http://bingweb.binghamton.edu/~bh11744/stuff/numenor.mp3

|numyenaurkim uhmzu-elyeb,
numyenaurkim oolu-sfãs;
i uhmzu-peiwang ga'eilosm uhmzú.
akh báhhihr uzu-ghalub wa'laur uhmsh,
i uzu-brodak uhmsh wa'sháíl
fa'zanlm i fa'pyetikm, i fa'^ganmei^charzad.|

/numjEnO4kim Vmzu?EljEb
numjEnO4kim }lusp\a::s
i VmzupejwaN\ ga?ejlosm= Vmzu:
ax ba:X\14 uzuGalub walO4 VmS
i uzub4odak VmS waSe:@l
fazanl=m= i fapjEtikm= i faganme:jtSa4za:d/

"Numenoreans came,
Numenoreans who became selfish;
and thought that they were gods.
but Ocean rose up over them,
and traded them to Underworld
for murex-shells and pebbles, and for glitterings of light."


NUMYENAUR|KI|M    UHMZ|U-ELYEB
numenor|[I.ADJ]|Pl 3pPE|P-come
The 'intrinsic adjective' suffix KI is used for descriptions that are
considered an intrinsic part of the described: nationalities, materials,
etc.
UHMZ is the 3rd person plural epicene pronoun, used for groups of
animates of unknown, immaterial, or mixed gender.
P = past tense

NUMYENAUR|KI|M    OOL|U-SFÃS
numenor|[I.ADJ]|Pl AJV|P-selfishness
Roots of primarily adjectival meaning, like SFÃS "selfishness", when used
as a verb mean 'to become...', and not 'to be...' like some other
languages do.
AJV = 'adjective-verb', which describes a noun by a time-dependent
action; in this case, the Numenoreans are described as 'having become
selfish'.  Using a simple adjectival prefix would imply that they are
always selfish, which would be incorrect.

I  UHMZ|U-PEIWANG  GA'EILOS|M UHMZ|Ú
and 3pPE|P-think   that'god|Pl 3pPE|P
Here, UHMZÚ 'they (epicene) in the past' means 'they were'.

AKH BÁHHIHR UZ|U-GHALUB WA'LAUR UHMSH
but Ocean   it|P-rise   to'on   3pPEN
For concultural reasons, Rokbeigalmki can 'personalize' or
anthropomorphize inanimate objects and natural forces, treating them
grammatically as if they were names: BÁHHIHR 'Ocean' instead of BAHHIHR-A
'the ocean'.  However, also for concultural reasons, the personalized
words are still treated as inanimate, and refered to using the pronoun UZ
'it'. WA'LAUR is a compound preposition, 'to on'.  Rokbeigalmki
prepositions are actually case prefixes, but when they are doubled-up
like this, they detach and the second prefix assumes its long noun form.
3pPEN = third person plural epicene non-subject case; 'them'

I  UZ|U-BRODAK UHMSH WA'SHÁÍL
and it|P-trade  3pPEN to'Underworld
The same personalizing is used here with SHÁÍL 'Underworld'.

FA'ZAN|L|M    I   FA'PYET|IK|M
for'murex|L|Pl and for'rock|DM|Pl
Many names of animals in Rokbeigalmki end with the semi-productive suffix
L found in ZANLM.
DM = diminutive

I    FA'^GAN|M|EI|^CHARZAD
and for'^glitter|Pl|PlC|^light.
Here we find a construct-compound, combining the words "glitterings" and
"light" to form a one-word phrase "glitterings of light" instead of
having to use separate words and the case prefix TZA' 'of'.  The final
vowel of each word in the compound is lengthened.
PlC = plural construct marker


-Stephen (Steg)
"elf booty got soul!  elf girls like to rock'n'roll!"
     ~ 'lords of the rhymes'

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