translation exercise

Wow.  This was a headache.

Shemdaoli is an isolating syllabic language.

The syllabic pattern is as follows (t, d, p, b, k, g, kh, gh, h, s, z, f,
v, sh, zh, ') +(a, e, i, o, u, au, ei, ai, ui) + (n, m, nn, 0)

Where dentals are unaspirated, kh and gh are aspirated, and ' represents
a glottal stop, like a cockney saying "bottle."  vowels have their
continental value except for e which is short.  Nn indicates a nasel like
the ng in the English -ing.

Shemdaoli is broken into clusters (words), the final syllable of which
are spoken in a high tone.  Single syllables not in clusters are spoken
with a low tone.

I've accompanied the translation with a literal parallel translation.  My
comments follow.

"(We demand) a great freedom for all the children.  And (we demand) that they
won't tell us what to eat and what to think.  (We demand) that they won't ask
us
to do what we don't want to, and (we demand) that they won't say things
that we
don't understand.  (We demand) that all the children will go up into the
trees
and (we demand) that all the adults will become small!"

puzoshi tidusi dinntaze vei'an haun hudosho.

language-use-command I-you-and chain-artifact-abstraction big-emphatic
all little-person-for

puzoshi tidusi temtemsi tunnpuzoshi temtemsi tidusi heifuzo tidusi sheita
zum tidusi deifuzo tidusi shonnta.

language-use-command I-you-and he-he-and not-language-use-command
he-he-and I-you-and mouth-bodypart-use I-you-and this-artifact and
I-you-and mind-bodypart-use I-you-and that-artifact.

puzoshi tidusi temtemsi tunnpuzoshi temtemsi tidusi sheizeha tidusi
tunnsheizehakunnda.

language-use-command I-you-and he-he-and not-language-use-command
he-he-and I-you-and this-abstraction-do I-you-and
not-this-abstraction-do-feel-act.

zum puzoshi tidusi temtemsi tunnpuzo tunndeifuzohannli tidusihi.

and language-use-command I-you-and he-he-and not-language-use
not-mind-bodypart-use-able-language I-you-and-to.

puzoshi tidusi hudo haun tamfuivohan hudo zum puzoshi tidusi veido haun
huping veido.

language-use-command i-you-and little-person all foot-plant-up-go
little-person and language-use-command I-you-and great-person all
little-be great-person.


-----

Comments:  All right, this was damned hard.  Shemdaoli doesn't do
subordination very well.  It has a convention for subjunctive phrases,
though, which includes repeating the "hand cluster" (sauli) before and
after the "head cluster" (khaili).  I've used this to approximate
subordination.  Hence, for instance, the phrase "And (we demand) that they
won't tell us what to eat and what to think" comes out more or less "And
we command them not to command us to eat this or think that."

You'll notice that the word for tree translates literally as
"foot-plant."  Shemdaoli, being a syllabic language, acquires the
required linguistic diversity by following most clusters with a
determinate.  There are a standard set of hand and foot determinates
(used for what would be considered nouns) and a set of head determinates
(verbal, in other words).

The word I used for "adult" (great-person) is iffy.  I'd probably, in any
other circumstance, use "old-person".  But I figure context makes it
sufficiently clear and I like the parallelism.

kom heilifenn dudusi?

(any questions?)

--Patrick