The beginning of terrors

<vaguerant>
Well, I am going to be graduating from college (with a degree in Animation...)in
a week.  Since my main Internet access is via the school, and since the school's
Internet service has begun to bare fangs at ex-students:  just last week,
apparently all non-student/faculty accounts were removed without notice, and
current seniors have received notice that our websites and email accounts will
be removed 'shortly after graduation', leaving us with a webmail-only 'alumni'
account [which I *still* haven't heard back from about setup yet...]

Er, the vague point being that because of all that I and my website may
disappear sometime soon, should anyone be inclined to miss me.  [I should still
be reachable through alternate addresses such as <muketever@...>.]

<actual content>
I've been working on translating Genesis from LXX Greek into Hadwan, with the
help of the Perseus tools[1].  And, instead of working on my Biblical Literature
exam like I should be, I'm posting about it here.  There are a few points of
Hadwan grammar I'm still not certain about, but otherwise it's probably pretty
representative.

Note: The romanization I use in this email is not the one I normally use, and
will try to better represent the pronunciation without the diacritics that I
can't put here.  The diaeresis indicates a 'long' vowel[3], the acute a stressed
one, and a circumflex one both stressed and long. kh = /x/, j = /Z/, sh = /S/,
ng = /N/, short u = /U/, long u = /u:/, short a = /A/, long a = /Q:/, e = /E/,
short i = /I/, long i = /i:/, x = /ks/ or /xs/, y = /Y/, and <b> is probably
/B/.  Final voiceless stops/affricates are strongly released, so <rümálun k> can
sound like [ru:'mAlUnk_h] or even [ru:'mAlUnk@] in fast speech.

1. Häw arkhän in hä dzaíwus jushúrits rümálun k jímun k.
2. Jímus tsi ists ungwaístsus k ungmáshtsus k--
   ki hirrûs abýssï khru--
   ki häw ymâ dzaiwúsu birrítsur häw afâ khru.
3. Ki bärítsur hä dzaiwaí--
     Shinístsur lux.
   Ki shiníritsur lúhai.
4. Ki hä dzaíwus waidzúrits lúhen tsun--
   shikh halûs--
   ki hä dzaíwus ruríts lúhai tsub k hirrírai tsub k híntsir.
5. Ki hä dzaíwus lúhen tsun nüríts häw ämírän--
   ki hirríren tsudz nüríts hä núkutsen.
   Ki shiníritsur wisfírai--
   ki shiníritsur yiä--
   ämírä himâ.

6. Ki bärítsur hä dzaiwaí--
     Jirmístrun shinistsúr mïjaí häw afâs in--
     ki rütsítsun stsi afâ k afâ k híntsir.
   Ki shiníritsur khwai.
7. Ki hä dzaíwus jushúrits jirmístrun tsudz--
   ki hä dzaíwus rüríts afâ jirmístruwngshbïustsä híntsir k afâ
jirmístrukhruwstsä híntsir k.
8. Ki hä dzaíwus jirmístrun tsudz nüríts hä rümálun--
   ki waidzúritsur hä dzaiwaí--
   shusk halûn.
   Ki shiníritsur wisfírai--
   ki shiníritsur yiâ--
   ämírä ****[2]

Now, it's late, and I probably should at least look at my homework.
Translations of this [Gen. 1:1-8] are pretty much ubiquitous so I won't post one
here[4]... and the interlinear for this will be way too much to deal with for
now.  I may post it later. [I wonder if anyone cares to take a stab at
deciphering or explaining it?  It should be pretty straightforward anyway.  At
least, except perhaps big words like "jirmistruwngshbiustsa" and
"jirmistrukhruwstsa".]

Any.. suggestions?  I know one thing already: the two punctuation marks '--'
(roughly, 'phrase delimiter') and '.' (roughly, 'sentence delimiter') seem an
impoverishment...  And another: I may be slightly confused yet in 'native use'
of the demonstratives and articles.


     *Muke!
[1] http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ - if you don't know about them, their
'Classics' section has Greek and Roman materials, texts, dictionaries,
morphological analyses, etc.
[2] Behold where I left off.  The word that's missing means 'second'.
[3] The 'long' vowels have different qualities than the 'short' ones mainly
because they tend to get shortened when unstressed, but still need to remain
distinct.
[4] But if you really can't find one, go to http://www.unboundbible.org/
--
The beginning of wisdom is
to call things by their right names.