Re: a King's proverb

andrew wrote:

> Am 06/15 07:55  Wade, Guy yscrifef:
>
> > "Before you choose your enemy, speak his language."
> >
> Inawant yno ceos sew inifig, parolath sew llinghedig.
>
> before one choose.pres.sg pron.reflex.poss enemy, speak.pres.2.pl.
> pron.reflex.poss language.
Andrew, I feel like a right ffeil di pudan for saying this but this sentance
really jars my romance ears. Brithenig doesn't have to conform to western
romance norms by any means, but "inawant" by itself should mean "before" in
a strictly spatial sense- when used in a temporal sense I would expect
something like "inawant ke" followed by the subjunctive or "inawant di" with
an infinitive.

I presume that -awant is cognate to the French "avant". If so, the form I
would have expected from VL *abante would be afant, not awant.

BTW, what is the spirant mutation of "k"?

Dan

> Hmm.  Perhaps I could make it more axiomatic for Brithenig speakers:
>
> Inawant ceosar di'n inifig, parolar sew llinghedig.
>
> Before the choosing of an enemy (is) the speaking of his language.
>
> - andrew.
> --
> Andrew Smith, Intheologus                       hobbit@griffler.co.nz
> alias Mungo Foxburr of Loamsdown
> http://hobbit.griffler.co.nz/homepage.html
>
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La plus belle fois qu'on m'a dit
          "je t'aime"
                   c'était un mec
                             qui me l'a dit...
Francis Lalane
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