gii'j3li ghi' ?!
From: | H. S. Teoh <hsteoh@...> |
Date: | Thursday, May 31, 2001, 17:37 |
Sorry, I couldn't resist the catchy subject line :-) Here is the Word of
the Day from my conlang:
gii'j3li [gi:j@li] (Kirsch)
Regular neuter noun; "All that mess", "all the happenings", "all that
tomfoolery".
1) gii'j3li ghi'
all-that-mess what (interrogative)
locative locative
Translation: "What is all this mess?!"
2) 3mir33'n3 juli'r, 3jum33' ki'gi gii'j3li.
children house they fun rowdy noise
cvy,plur loc cvy,plur loc loc
"Many children [are] in the house; they [are having] noisy fun."
Literally, "Many children are in the house; they are in excitement
(ki'gi) and noisy fun (gii'j3li)."
3) 3giij33'l3 biz3tau', f3K3' jhitu'.
chaotic-happenings woman grief her
cvy,plur rcp cvy rcp
"A lot of [bad] things [have been happening to] the woman; she is
in grief (literally, there is grief to her)".
Notice here that _gii'j3li_ is in the conveyant case, and the
woman in the receptive case: implying that the happenings are
being inflicted upon her; whereas in example (2), the children
were *in* the noisy fun (locative case).
4) g33'j3la lyy's eb3' loo'ru.
all-that-stuff go I countryside
(instr) (v) (masc) (rcp)
"I did all that stuff and reached the countryside", or
"By doing the whole shbang I reached the countryside", or
"Through all those (harebrained) adventures, I [finally] reached
the countryside."
Literally, "By all that stuff, I went into the countryside."
Question: how would you translate such a word into English? As you can
see, it has shades of meaning that cover just about everything :-)
(I am very tempted, should I be able to complete a suitable text for the
relay, to throw in a couple of _3giij33'li_ just to make the passage very
obscure :-P)
T
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