Re: Oldvak - something to figure out

Joe Fatula wrote:

>I'm working on a new language for my conworld, and I thought I'd share a
>little about it with the listfolk.  It's using a new structure that I just
>came up with, and I don't know if it's ever been done.  (I'm sure that
>anadewism will strike, though).  Here's a sentence in Oldvak, and a
>translation into English.
I'll have a shot...

>   "Egeltas piabaya, egenelt dvalderas, nur egirelt ati."
>   "When I am at the meadow, I am not in the woods, but I may be on my way
>there."
eg-elt-as piabaya
1SG-be-"when" meadow-*

*I can't tell if |piabaya| is perhaps some kind of locative, or maybe |-elt-
| carries the "at", meaning "be located at" rather than just "be".

eg-en-elt dvalder-as

1SG-NEG-be woods-"in"*

*|dvalder| is the stem, and it appears twice below. I'm guessing the |-as|
is a locative case or a postposition. Is this the same |-as| that makes |?
egelt| "I am (at?)" into |egeltas| "when I am (at?)" ? It would be an "in"
when used on a noun, and a "when" when used on a verb. I think.

nur eg-ir-elt at-i

but 1SG-"may"-be there-"to"*

*"to" could be an illative(?) case or postposition that marks a
destination. With the |elt| being either "be" or "be at", this language
might use something like "I am [to there]" meaning "I am going there." This
is how "go" is done in Omurax, since there are no verbs. But that depends
on the matter of |ir|:
|ir| might be a subjunctive or a potential. Or, |ir| could make the "be
(at?) verb into "go to", and the "may" in the translation is merely implied.

>Here's another example.
>   "Egireltyeu dvalderi.  Dvalder aleltu egi."
>   "I am not stopping my going to the forest.  The forest stopped coming to
>me."
If |egirelt| was "I may be [on my way]", and |egireltyeu| is "I am not
stopping [my going]", I could have been way wrong about |egirelt|.
Hum. -eltyeu could be "stop going", but with what I thought was the
negative |-en-| that should give |?egeneltyeu| rather than |egireltyeu|.
Unless the |-ye-| is another negative, which is seperate from the |-u| also
seen in |alelt-u|. This is a tough one.
I'm guessing the |al-| in |aleltu| is a 3SG prefix:

aleltu
it stopped coming
?egeltu
I stopped coming

the same (possibly) illative -i is found in |dvalder-i| "to the forest" and
|eg-i| "to me", with the latter being the same |eg| 1SG that was prefixed
to the verbs.

>Same verb being used in these two sentences as in the other example.
>Anyone think they know how this works?
From the |elt| stem, you've made:

-elt "be (at?)"
-en-elt "not be (at?)"
-(ir?)elt X-i "(may?) go to X"
-(ir?)elt-ye-u X-i "not stop going to X"
-elt-u X-i "stop coming to X"

I'd have to see more to clear up the |ir| thing, the |ye-u| thing, and
the "be" vs. "be at" thing.

How'd I do?

M

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