Re: a King's proverb

"Wade, Guy" wrote:
> "Before you choose your enemy, speak his language."
This took much thought.  It doesn't sound right in that form in
Uatakassí.  I think a better way of saying it might be simply "Speak
your enemy's language" or "If you choose an enemy, you should speak his
language", which might be closer to the original style.  So:

Suviviklútasma suganúlli, ussagapisnínitassi uasaggásuali.
Su-      vi-viklú -tas       -ma    su-ganúl-*i
AntiPass-if-choose-3rdSingRat-Prosp G3-enemy-inst
Antipassive is necessary to keep the absolutive the same in both
clauses.  In this case, prospective has a sort of "planning to"
connotation.  Instrumental is the case of the demoted absolutive.

us  -sagá -pís        -níni-tas       -ki       ua-saggá   -sua  -li
then-speak-know.how.to-need-3rdSingRat-NonPunct G6-language-G3Gen-Inst
Languages are always placed in instrumental with sagá.

Thus, "If one [plans to] choose an enemy, then one should know how to
speak his/her language".  Colloquial Uatakassí would probably say:
Vintil suviklunítassi tiganúlli, ussil sagapisníntassi uasaggápali.
Colloquial Uatakassí tends to avoid the if/then inflections, preferring
the particles vintil and ussil, also Colloquial Uatakassí generally
doesn't use gender 3 (sentient epicene), prefering gender 1 (sentient
female) as a generic, and tends to use nonpunctual more offten.  The
first word in the colloquial also uses the auxiliary ní "want to", ní in
the nonpunctual tends to replace the prospective aspect in Colloquial
Uatakassí.

--
Cenedl heb iaith, cenedl heb galon
A nation without a language is a nation without a heart - Welsh proverb
ICQ: 18656696
AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42