CONLANG Translation Relay 25

Original Dec04 Text (Both Rings)

Ring A first: Maurang
Ring A last: Dec04 A Final
Ring B first: Lusitanian
Ring B last: Dec04 B Final

English Translation

There was a frightened woman.
"There's a jaguar in my house," the woman told me.
"I wonder what the jaguar is doing there," I told her.
"She must be hungry—she's opened the refrigerator; I hope she doesn't eat Tomás."
"Tomás is in the refrigerator?"
"No, he's in a large tank."
Tomás turned out to be a large fish.
"You know that cats want to eat fish," the woman said.

Dec04 Text

yu dašu glabotek.
nišertu yu caxreš dalosko kwa pi dašu nipurtek.
caxreš tuskerok pi hwežos kwa pi kpurtes.
nyaxonko — barži gozeltek; tmas wapnučok pi menos kwa.
tmasu barži dalok čanno kwa.
wa, yu drif raygin dalok kwa.
tmasu yu draf war hak pi sitek.
wari pnuč pi tibiku bulok pi šemon kwa pi dašu purtek.

Grammar

Dec04 has an interesting grammar, but most of those features don't appear in this text. Verbs are mostly triconsonantal, requiring vowel insertions. Where necessary to break up clusters, <o> is inserted. Word classes appearing are verbs, nouns, and particles.

Noun Prefixes

ni- 1st person singular possessor

Noun Suffixes

-0 singular accusative
-i non-referential accusative (consonant stems)
-ku non-referential nominative (vowel stem)
singular nominative (vowel stems)
-u singular nominative (consonant stems)

Verb Prefixes

k- 3rd person object
ni- 1st person singular object
tu- medial demonstrative "there"
wa- negative polarity

Verb Infixes

These are inserted before the last consonant of the root or stem, but follow the single consonant of the copula.

<a> passive, animate subject
<e> active, inanimate object
<i> passive, inanimate subject
<u> active, animate object

Verb Suffixes

-0 non-finite, present tense
-k finite, 3rd person subject
-ma future tense
-n finite, 2nd person singular subject
-nko finite, deduced, 3rd person subject
-o finite, present tense
-s finite, 1st person singular subject
-sko finite, witnessed, 3rd person subject
-te past tense

Tense precedes the subject person, which may include evidentials (witnessed and deduced).

Syntax

Argument phrases precede the verb and conjunctions follow. The most topical argument appears first; the last argument may be the focus. An accusative phrase with a passive verb specifies a location. Nouns follow their modifiers; if no determiner appears, the phrase is definite. Animacy agreement is significant. Direct quotations have a terminating particle but not a beginning particle.

Abbreviations

NA noun, animate
NAP noun, animate, proper
NI noun, inanimate
VA verb, actional
VD verb, ditransitive
VE verb, experiential scalar (Patient = Experiencer, Agent or Instrument = Stimulus)
VR verb, relational
VS verb, descriptive scalar
VT verb, transitive
VX verb, other
conj conjunction
det determiner
part other particle

Vocabulary

barži NI refrigerator
bl VT want
caxre NA jaguar
čanno part (polar question + astonishment)
daš NA woman
dl VR in
drf VS large in volume
glb VE afraid, frightened
gzl VS open
h VX (copula)
hwž VA wonder
kwa part (terminates quote)
mn VA hope
nyx VE hungry
pi conj (terminates clause used instead of phrase)
pnč VT eat
pr VD tell, say
raygin NI non-motile water-container
skr VA do
sy VX become known, turn out
šertu NI house, home
šm VA know fact
tibi NA cat
tmas NAP Tomas (man's name)
wa part no
war NA fish
yu det (indefinite)

page started: 2018.Jan.07 Sun
current date: 2018.Feb.02 Fri
content and form originated by qiihoskeh

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