Re: TRANS: Simple translation exercise!

Jan van Steenbergen wrote:
> 2)  What are you doing?  I told you to leave them where they were!
Zlutalki-il pibaa?  Pafsigafin-ku pli luauni-pin biilva launinki!
[zr\u'talCe:l pi'bA: pAfSi'gAfeNku pl_0i 'lwAwnipen 'be:lvA law'neJCi]
zluta-la-ki      =il      pibaa
Do   -it-NonPunct=you.nom what
Pa-    fa-  siga-fin     =ku    pli             luauni=pin
DatObj-Past-tell-you.sing=I.nom Reported.Speech leave =G7.pl.abs
biil -va  launi -na      -ki
where-loc be.loc-3rdPlIrr-NonPunct

> 4)  The cat ate the mouse I gave her like a tiger [would].
Except for "mouse" (technically, "mouse-like animal"), I don't have any
appropriate animal terms, so I'll just borrow the words "cat" and
"tiger"
Faapatil pin lataiga kikatul lafitaa flabil-ku
[fA:'pAtSel pen la'tajgA C='kAtol lafi'ta: 'fl_0abelku]
Fa-  kafti-la pin  la-taiga ki-katu-l   la-fitaa fa-  labi-la=ku
Past-eat  -it like G5-tiger G4-cat -erg G5-mouse Past-give-it=I.nom

This is actually ambiguous.  It could also be translated as "It ate the
mouse that I gave it like a cat would [eat] a tiger".  But, that would
obviously make no sense.  :-)  One way of clarifying it would be to
rearrange the sentence slightly to:
Faapatil pin lataiga lafitaa flabil-ku kikatul
But that's not a normal order for two reasons: A) heavy phrases (such as
_lafitaa flabil-ku_) have a tendency to be placed at the end of a
sentence, and B) all else being equal, agents have a weak tendency to be
placed before patients (which is another reason why the alternate
translation would tend to be discredited).

> 5)  Yes, I've heard you, and no, I don't want to buy it.
Sau, fatimasfin nliiz, ku, fai, nimavinilki-ku fil.
['sA:w fAtSi'mAsfen 'nr\e:Z ku 'fa:j nimAvi'nelCikufel]
Sau fa-  timas-fin nli   -az  ku  fai nimavi-ni  -la-ki      =ku    fil
Yes past-hear -you I.masc-dat and no  buy   -want-it-NonPunct=I.nom not

Monosyllables have obligatory vowel-lengthening, hence nliiz instead of
*nliz, as well as the long diphthongs in sau and fai.  Long diphthongs
*only* occur in monosyllabic words.  Another example is _tiai_
([tSa:j]), "to have faith".  The lengthening only occurs when the verb
is used in the imperative, since other inflections add syllables making
the word no longer monosyllabic.

> 8)  Your mother was a prostitute.  (Or equally insulting idiom.)
Tinaniiua gugaditazva!
[tSina'ni:wA gugAdZi'tazvA]
Ti-nani  -iua  gugadi            -tas       -va
G1-mother-your mate.out.of.season-3rdSingRat-Hab
"Your mother mates out of season!"

--
"There's no such thing as 'cool'.  Everyone's just a big dork or nerd,
you just have to find people who are dorky the same way you are." -
overheard
ICQ: 18656696
AIM Screen-Name: NikTaylor42