Re: Re : Conlang-to-conlang translation project

On Sat, 8 May 1999, From Http://Members.Aol.Com/Lassailly/Tunuframe.Html wrote:

> Only the second verse and I'm already ghuuuhmmpf. So I don't take up the
> polite foms otherwise I'd have to stay at my desk for hours. I don't have
> figures over 20 in Tunu ("20" is "one person") so I wrote "a couple (wife and
> husband)" for "40" but I really don't know how to manage 50.
Um, the girl isn't forty years old - she's a mere fourteen. She won't
live to reach the full 'one person', I'm afraid!

>
> (Mathias)
> A ! Pata ona menumenu
> EXCL fall rvs.move plum.p
>
I like those reverse constructions a lot!

> Mete ute kana emu natunatu iti pupupu
> age adj.rvs.have me consist summer.p adj.be couple
>
> Keta osi saru isi memete ya etu poti ome rimo ute kana wa kekiri !
> Lack rvs.be man adj.be young who express demand rvs.regard heart adj.rvs.have
> me end_of_clause sadness !
>
I first thought that _kekiri_ meant 'end of clause sadness', as
a sort of sentence-final mood particle, but then I took a better
read. Is kekiri a grammatical particle in itself, or is it
just an interjection?

>
> Mete ute paro iti sesaru omu nemanema iti --- yesi memete ure kana
> age rvs.have brethren adj.be woman rvs.consist year.p who.be --- young
> adj.rvs.compare me.
>
Others have already said a lot about this way of counting - I can
only add my voice to the chorus, not say anything original.

>
> aaargh.
>
It can't have been _that_ difficult! I'm sorely tempted to throw
a bit of Broian stage language at you to let you see how difficult
it _can_ get... Or perhaps some _really_ colloquial Denden,


>
> Thiamas
>

Boudewijn Rempt  | www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt