Re: Idiom Du Jour

This challenge led me to put down an idiom that has rolled around my head
for months. It begins with a Regimonti proverb:

Si les buves se en rapoti es lu horrje ergo eu e mais tardem de am muljeor.
(If the cows have hurried out of the barn, it is too late to milk them.)

From that comes, "Les buves se en rapoti." The cows have hurried. Which
correponds to "it's too late," or as my father used to says, "a day late and
a dollar short."

If it is used in the present tense, "Les buves se rapen!" It means "You're
going to be late!" (Think of a mother hurrying her child to school).

It could possibly even extend to "Les buves!" meaning "move it!"

This was fun!
S

-----Original Message-----
From: Constructed Languages List [mailto:CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu] On
Behalf Of Mia Soderquist
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 8:48 PM
To: CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu
Subject: Idiom Du Jour

I like making up interesting idioms for my conlangs. I thought I would share
one that has emerged in Teliya Nevashi. I hope that other people will come
along and post an interesting "idiom du jour" from their own languages, too.

So, here it is, in TN as-it-is:
Quit bothering me! ("Get out of my eyes!", or very literally, "Put you away
from my eyes!") Rogomishi det sulelat laz!
Put-away+IMP you+acc. eyes-dat. my
broken down into morphemes: Ro+gom+ishi de+t sul+el+at la+z
ro- = away (from)
gom = put
-ishi = imperative
de = you (2nd person singular)
-t = acc on pronoun
sul = eye
-el = dual
-at = that case that is going by "dative" in the current TN documentation
even though it has and continues to gain many mixed uses... Yeah, I'll think
about that and update the docs. Eventually. (-t is accusative on pronouns
and dative on nouns... I like that little wrinkle) la= I (1st person
singular) -z= possessive (genitive for pronouns)


The general thought behind this is that someone is annoying you like
something in your eye would annoy you, and you'd like them to just stop.

Hmmmm....I suppose it could also be "Orogomishi sulelat laz!" (reflexive
imperative), but I'd have to make a new rule for that... I'll sleep on it
and probably write the rule in the morning.

Mia.