Re: French village
| From: | Pablo David Flores <pablo-flores@...> |
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| Date: | Wednesday, May 7, 2003, 1:06 |
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Joe Fatula <fatula3@...> writes:
> > Dear List-Members,
> > You're in for something off-topic now. I've decided to put our little
> > French-village story into Cornish.
>
> Our little French-village story? I guess that means I've made something
> that the list picked up.
Me too, me too! I will spare you the whole interlinear because
it's long and I have to check a few things. I was experimenting
with an applicative voice in Terbian (split-S, if you recall)
and got this:
1. Long ago, in a quiet village in France, there lived a miller.
1. Hólnë tagw Hransó aro líssimo danó ar kos ösyóttelon laddâdo.
hól-në tagw Hrans -ó ar-o líssim-o dan -ó ar kos
ago-ADV AUG France-SO in-SO quiet -SO village-SO in PAT
ös- yót -:el -o -n laddâd-o
APP:ESS-live-APPLV-SN-NAR miller-SO
The PATient of the sentence is the location. This closely
resembles the structure of English: "there lived a miller".
Note that |laddâdo| "miller" is in the oblique case.
Then there's coordination. I don't know whether this is
"correct" or not:
4. but his father had no money to buy a horse.
4. köw ti damr kos hyërron pídató uddurattelán kja wáno.
köw ti dam -r kos hyë -rr -o -n pídat-ó
but 3sPSS father-SC PAT have-NEG-SN-NAR money-SO
u- ddurat-:el -án kja wán -o
APP:OBJ-buy -APPLV-CMB to horse-SO
|uddurattelán| is applicative voice with an Patient applicative,
since that's the only way it can coordinate with |hyërron| --
|hyë| 'have' has a Patient subject while |ddurat| 'buy' should
have an Agent subject; therefore |ddurat| has to demote its
Agent to Patient and its Patient to an oblique complement.
I realise maybe this coordination is unnecesary since |ddurat|
is not in a finite form.
6. but the nearest monastery had no room for him.
6. köw nigásar agymúr kos östirrelirron é ttó zbalo ma.
köw nig -ás -ar agymúr -0 kos
but near-SUP-SC monastery-SC PAT
ös- tir-:el -irr-o -n é ttó zbal -o ma
APP:ESS-fit-APPLV-NEG-SN-NAR 3sO for+SO space-SO PAR
This uses the applicative again: "the nearest monastery
didn't *in-it-fit [=have room] any space for him".
--Pablo Flores
http://www.angelfire.com/scifi2/nyh/index.html
"The future is all around us, waiting, in moments
of transition, to be born in moments of revelation.
No one knows the shape of that future or where it
will take us. We know only that it is always born
in pain." -- G'Kar quoting G'Quon, in "Babylon 5"
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