Re: Pronouns Marked for Tense/Aspect/Mood

Emaelivpeith Roger Mills:
>Seems to me that the Past-I would be most used in narratives or
>reminiscences...
Indeed it would.

>> Optative mood:
>>     Teir pas shav en'i.  "It would be good that I spoke."
>>     Teir pas shav pen'o. "It would be good that past-I spoke."
>>
>I wonder if the last sentence shouldn't better be "it would have been
>good.....".   "It would be good..."seems to me to imply futurity
Again you're right -- this happened because I had originally written the
sentences in the present tense, then changed them to past without updating
the English translations.  My apologies for the confusion.

>....... Instead, Cresaeans believe that a person's fundamental identity
>> changes over time.  After enough time, a person is so different from who
>> they used to be that he can't properly be referred to as the same person
>> anymore -- thus, a new pronoun is required.
>
>In that case, shouldn't there also be a form for "future-I"?
Yes, there is also a future-I, as well as a crazy-I (as in "I wasn't in my
right mind at the time") and possibly others that I don't know about.  For
the curious, future-I is |di'oln| and crazy-I is |yoln|.

>Paul's I Cor.13:11 springs to mind:
Ooo, what a wonderfully relevant translation exercise!  Thanks!  (Note that
I'm not familiar with the Bible so I had to ask a friend to let me borrow
his copy to get some more context for the second verse.  Any strange
changes to the meaning are the result of my faulty understanding of the
passage.)

>"When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child....
>but when I became a man, I put away childish things."
>"For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face;
>now I know in part; but then shall I know....."
Pas jhor'pen o t'chesá.  Shav pen'o, en'llav.
Kret'vek jhor'en i t'carnen kek, fekyelovni ne chesáth nom.
Vik'kénillevnim ne keledh docil kret'vedik ne jhelle.
Vik'llavni eg chi, vedik'vo di'oln eg das.


Interlinear
===========

Pas jhor'pen o t'chesá.  Shav pen'o, en'llav.
pas jhor' pen'o  te  chesá.  shav     pen'o, en'llav.
PST EQUAL past-I and child.  speak[1] past-I understand.
"I was a child.  As that child, I spoke and understood."

Kret'vek jhor'en i t'carnen kek, fekyelovni ne chesáth nom.
kret' vek'  jhor' en'i te  carnen kek,  fekyelovni ne   chesáth  no   -im.
but   WHEN: EQUAL I    and man    /WHEN set_aside  OBJ: childish thing PL
"But when I (am|became) a man, I set aside childish things."

Vik'kénillevnim ne keledh docil kret'vedik ne jhelle.
vik' kénillev -nim ne   keledh docil      kret' vedik' ne   jhelle.
NOW: see       we  OBJ: poor   reflection but   FUT:   OBJ: good
"Now we see a poor reflection, but in the future a good (reflection)."

Vik'llavni eg chi, vedik'vo di'oln eg das.
vik' llav -ni eg    chi,   vedik' vo       di'oln   eg    das.
NOW: know  I  VERB: little FUT:   PRO-VERB future-I VERB: all
"Now I know little, (but) in the future the person I will be knows all."


Ne Bia Nom
==========

|chesá|  /tSE"sA/  n. "child"; from |chisa(r)n| "daughter/son"

|docil|  /"dokIl/  n. "reflection"; from |do| repeated

|en'llav|  /EnlV_X"lAv/  v. "to understand"; from |*env| "make permanent"
and |llav| "to know"

|fekyelov|  /fEkjE"lov/  v. "to set aside, deem unnecessary"

|keledh|  /"kElED/  adj. "poor (in quality)"; from |kre| negative


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AA