Category: Conlanging

Continuing with Gary’s list:

49. A little girl with a kitten sat near me.

This is also fairly simple:

49. laki ɨsa iddɨsenɛn notɛttɛ leneya.

Next up, a recap in a few days.

In Kēlen:

49. ñi malāca mīña nīkan jatūmse mañōcce rā liēn nō;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

48. The campers sat around the fire.

I am going to praphrase this to “They sat around the campfire.” That way I don’t have to make up a word for “campers”.

48. mavna notɛttɛ nolako dugaŋya.

tɛndɛ is the stance verb for compact objects and sitting humans.

In Kēlen:

48. ñi sāeþ rū janāola āñ;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

46. We arrived at the river.

Well, this is really simple.

46. tanava lɛnna tono.

Let’s try the next one, too.

47. I have been waiting for you.

Also fairly simple.

47. ŋideya lene sɛdɛ susi goɬi.

“I’ve been standing here for some time for you.”

In Kēlen:

46. ñi liēþ rā jatāna;

47. ñi liēn mēspe tō riēn;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

45. We went to the village for a visit.

Sodna-lɛni tends to put a purpose (for a visit) into a sentence as a sessile source. Doing that, we get

45. madat lɛnna otni dɛspɛ.

dɛspɛ, a class III noun meaning “village”, is a different word from dɛspɛdan, a class IV noun meaning “settlement”.

In Kēlen:

45. ñi liēþ rā jakēste tō ñi jataxōsa;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

44. I can play after school.

“I can play after school” = “I am able to play when school is finished”. Since I don’t have a word for “school”, I will substitute “work”.

44. lene sɛdɛ gyɛdɛ giya ɨdeba sɛttɛ kɛbɛdan.

I am not sure that is the right place for ɨdeba, but I’ll leave it for now.

In Kēlen:

44. ñalla jajēra cēja il antielen ñalla jakēwīke;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

43. The children ran after Jack.

“run after” means chase, or go behind. I visualize it like so: children —> Jack —>. So Jack is simultaneously the destination of the first arrow, and the thing moving for the second arrow.

This is essentially two sentences, one for each arrow. This requires turning the second into a relative clause: The children go towards Jack who goes.

43. hɨsna noyotni Jack ma otni.

notɨŋi says that the children go towards Jack rather than to Jack. But I hate that sentence. Let’s try again. We could use a clausal conjunction between the two: Jack goes, so the children go towards Jack.

43. Jack otni nɛnsi hɨsna noyotni maveya.

Hmm. Not as awful as the first. Another idea: we could say that the children go along Jack’s path towards Jack.

43. hɨsna danotni tona da Jack noyotni maveya.

I like this better. Stringing together verbs like this requires that the subject be the same for each verb. Here the subject for both verbs is hɨsna “the children”. dantɨŋi means to go along a path.

And we can simplify that a little by using the non-specific daka instead of the class 4 noun tona:

43. hɨsna danotni daka noyotni Jack.

In Kēlen:

43. ñi mīsi rā Jack mīrien;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

42. I usually sleep soundly.

OK. Talking about sleep. What is sleep? I think it can be a location or destination, someplace that one is travelling inside of while asleep. And since it is not a point destination, I think aŋi is the verb to use. So, aŋi syɛɬɛ would be “to go to sleep”. But in “sleeping soundly”, we’re talking about being in “sleep” for a time, so adding eya to aŋi turns the destination into a location.

For “soundly” I am going to use tadya “downwards” (or “deeply”). (And what else is done “soundly” anyways?) And for “usually”, I will use ɨnavi “often”.

42. lene eyaŋi syɛɬɛ tadya ɨnavi.

In Kēlen:

42. ñalla anxēie anhē ānen anxūna;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

39. Henry’s dog is lost.
40. My cat is black.
41. The little girl’s doll is broken.

No dogs. Just cats. Bah. And Mada (a nice generic name) will be the “owner” of said cat, which is lost. And “lost” is an adjective, just like “black” or “broken”. The difference here is that “lost” and broken” are presumably temporary states, so the verb tɨŋi is used, while “black” I will assume is a permanent state (i.e. the cat really is black and didn’t just roll around in some soot), so the verb tɛndɛ, one of the “to be” verbs, is used.

Possessive, alienable possessives at least, are formed using a pronoun that agrees in class and motility with the possessed noun, like so: POSSESSED PRONOUN POSSESSOR. If the possessor is also a pronoun, the first pronoun often disappears.

39. idɛl ha Mada tɨŋi do dɛstɛ.

40. idɛl le tɛndɛ siye.

41. gyɛdɨdɛn dɨdɛn laki ɨsa tɨŋi gubɨdɛn.

In Kēlen:

39. ñi Māra matūmsēma marō;

40. la matūmsēle maxē;

41. ñi malāca mīña jacīpēmma jahūwa;

Questions?

Oh, and since this is three sentences, there will be no post tomorrow.

Continuing with Gary’s list:

38. Directly opposite stands a wonderful palace.

Directly opposite. Right. So we have a location, then something dividing that location from another location, and the second location is across from the first location. So, from here (where I am standing, or where I am saying you will be standing if you follow directions properly), facing perpendicularly across the street, stands a wonderful palace. Or, from here, facing perpendicularly across the river, stands a giant tree.

So, we have a giant tree (no palaces!): mɛdɛ nonno in sessile singular (for a class III noun). And it stands across something: mɛdɛ nonno sɛdɛ susi alamya or mɛdɛ nonno alansɛdɛ susi. Yes, susi can mean “here” and “somewhere” and therefore any unspecified location.

But this does not yet convey “directly opposite”, so we will add an adverb kadeya, related to the word for “mirror” to convey this idea.

38. mɛdɛ nonno alansɛdɛ susi kadeya dɛstɛ.

In Kēlen:

38. la jamēþa jōnōna rūjālme ānen anñūna;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

37. You must write more neatly.

Oh my. Writing. I am not sure if the people who speak sodna-lɛni even have writing. If they do, it is a specialist skill. And since this sentence is especially about the physical skill of forming letters, I think I will use mɛh-aŋi as the verb for turning ink into letters, or writing.

So, ink. That’d be a class III, motile plural (’cause it is a liquid), so syetɨdi would be the proper form. Letters would also be class III, and in the sessile plural (multiple letters), so ɨlkɨni. This gives us syetɨdi mɛhaŋi ɨlkɨni so far.

“You” would be the source in this case, and in the motile singular ŋidi.

“More neatly” is the adverb mɨdeya modified by no “more”.

And “must”…. “Must” will work like “should”, except with ka.

37. ŋidi syetɨdi mɛhaŋi ɨlkɨni mɨdeya no dɛstɛ ka.

You must make ink into letters more carefully.

In Kēlen:

37. ñarra jīlki ānen ankēλa nā cī;

Questions?