LCC2 Relay Text – Langs and Conlangs

January 25, 2011January 10, 2011

jÄ“ nÄ

Final post on sentence 7 and on the LCC2 Relay Text, concerning the talking rock.

ilwae sele jarÅ«na wÄ mo lerÅÃ±a to jakÄ«Ã¾a jatÄ“nnÄ jÄ“ nÄ;

jÄ“ nÄ is a modifier that can be a noun phrase modifier or a clausal modifier. Either way it conveys a meaning of “only”. In this sentence, combined with ilwae it adds emphasis so that ilwae … jÄ“ nÄ is “never at all” with an implied again.

ilwae sele jarÅ«na wÄ mo lerÅÃ±a to jakÄ«Ã¾a jatÄ“nnÄ jÄ“ nÄ;
I never had another sight of the talking rock at all.

January 24, 2011January 21, 2011

jarÅ«na

We’re on sentence 7 (the final sentence) of the LCC2 Relay Text, concerning the talking rock.

ilwae sele jarÅ«na wÄ mo lerÅÃ±a to jakÄ«Ã¾a jatÄ“nnÄ jÄ“ nÄ;

jarÅ«na means “another sight or glimpse of something” and denotes that one has seen the thing before and is now seeing it again.

sele jarÅ«na “To me: another sight”. ilwae sele jarÅ«na wÄ is “Never to me another sight”. mo lerÅÃ±a to my eyes, renaming the beneficiary here. And to jakÄ«Ã¾a jatÄ“nnÄ the source of the sight, the talking rock. And look, it’s got inanimate inflection. No more personhood for that mean ol’ talking rock.

“I never had another sight of the talking rock…”

Tomorrow jÄ“ nÄ and the end of this relay text.

January 23, 2011January 7, 2011

ilwae

On to sentence 7 (the final sentence) of the LCC2 Relay Text, concerning the talking rock.

ilwae sele jarÅ«na wÄ mo lerÅÃ±a to jakÄ«Ã¾a jatÄ“nnÄ jÄ“ nÄ;

ilwae is a clause-level modifier dealing with time, so an il-word. It means “never”. More on sentence 7 tomorrow.

January 22, 2011January 7, 2011

Änen

Last post for sentence 6 of the LCC2 Relay Text, concerning a talking rock:

tÅ tele janÅ«ra to makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ jerrasÅr tÅ jÄo Ã±alla ja rÄ anÄlhÄri mÄ“ Änen antÄken;

Änen when followed by a stative noun, here antÄken, makes a clause-level modifier that best translates into an adverb. antÄken means “physical strength”, making Änen antÄken mean “forcefully”.

Ã±alla ja rÄ anÄlhÄri mÄ“ Änen antÄken is “I moved it into the ocean forcefully” or “I threw it into the ocean”.

tÅ tele janÅ«ra to makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ jerrasÅr tÅ jÄo Ã±alla ja rÄ anÄlhÄri mÄ“ Änen antÄken;
The talking rock’s reply made me angry that I threw it into the ocean.

January 21, 2011January 7, 2011

ja

We’re still on sentence 6 of the LCC2 Relay Text, concerning a talking rock:

tÅ tele janÅ«ra to makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ jerrasÅr tÅ jÄo Ã±alla ja rÄ anÄlhÄri mÄ“ Änen antÄken;

ja is the 3rd person inanimate reduced pronoun. There is no full pronoun for 3rd person inanimate. This form of ja looks exactly like the much more common inanimate relative pronoun ja . The reason it can’t be that ja is that there is no noun phrase in front of it.

The use of ja here initially looks ungrammatical because it refers to makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ, an animate noun phrase. And, indeed, ma would be entirely appropriate here. But, remember I talked about raising things to animacy and imbuing them with personhood. The opposite is also possible and one can interpret this as lowering the talking rock back into inanimate object status. And considering the rest of the clause and the next sentence, that is what is happening here.

Ã±alla ja rÄ anÄlhÄri mÄ“ is “I moved it into the ocean” signalling a change in location for the talking rock.

The talking rock’s reply made me angry that I moved it into the ocean…”

January 20, 2011January 7, 2011

to

Sentence 6 of the LCC2 Relay Text, concerning a talking rock:

tÅ tele janÅ«ra to makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ jerrasÅr tÅ jÄo Ã±alla ja rÄ anÄlhÄri mÄ“ Änen antÄken;

to is used with se to mark an inanimate or involuntary source. makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ jerrasÅr “the talking rock’s reply” is therefore the inanimate source for janÅ«ra “anger”. tele janÅ«ra to makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ jerrasÅr is “The talking rock’s reply made me angry…”.

One might ask why se is used here and not Ã±i since I have just indicated a change of state to angry. But anger is an emotions, and emotional states are expressed with se. A more literal translation of tele janÅ«ra to makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ jerrasÅr is “From the talking rock’s reply to me: anger”.

The talking rock’s reply made me angry…

January 19, 2011January 7, 2011

jerrasÅr

Sentence 5 of the LCC2 Relay Text, concerning a talking rock:

temle jerrasÅr ien tÅ la liÄ“n makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ mapÄ“nne lÄ;

jerrasÅr means reply, and if it looks like it is related to jasÅra, that’s because it is. Anyway, temle jerrasÅr “He replied to me”: tÅ la liÄ“n makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ mapÄ“nne lÄ, which easily translates into “Because I am a mean talking rock!”

temle jerrasÅr ien tÅ la liÄ“n makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ mapÄ“nne lÄ;
He replied to me, “Because I am a mean talking rock!”

Tomorrow, sentence 6!

January 18, 2011January 7, 2011

jaÃ¾Ä«Ã±a

We’re still on sentence 4 of the LCC2 Relay Text:

telme jakÄ“Ã±a mo makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ ien tÅ wÄ terle jasÅra xiÄ“n jÄ“ jaÃ¾Ä«Ã±a tÅkÄ“Ã±;

jaÃ¾Ä«Ã±a means “path” and in this story refers to the path the narrator was taking before s/he tripped over that talking rock. xiÄ“n jÄ“ does not occur only in titles, and it still means “concerning” or “about”. tÅ wÄ terle jasÅra xiÄ“n jÄ“ jaÃ¾Ä«Ã±a tÅkÄ“Ã± is therefore “why didn’t you tell me about the path” i.e. why didn’t you warn me about where I was going so I wouldn’t have tripped over you.

telme jakÄ“Ã±a mo makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ ien tÅ wÄ terle jasÅra xiÄ“n jÄ“ jaÃ¾Ä«Ã±a tÅkÄ“Ã±;
I asked the talking rock, “Why didnâ€™t you tell me about the path?”

Tomorrow, sentence 5!

January 17, 2011January 7, 2011

jasÅra

We’re still on sentence 4 of the LCC2 Relay Text:

telme jakÄ“Ã±a mo makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ ien tÅ wÄ terle jasÅra xiÄ“n jÄ“ jaÃ¾Ä«Ã±a tÅkÄ“Ã±;

jasÅra means “word” and in the context of being an object of se, it means “say” or “tell”, so terle jasÅra is literally “from you to me (in the past): word” or “you told me” or “you said to me”.

telme jakÄ“Ã±a mo makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ ien tÅ wÄ terle jasÅra xiÄ“n jÄ“ jaÃ¾Ä«Ã±a tÅkÄ“Ã±;
I asked the talking rock, “Why didnâ€™t you tell me… ”

P.S. the stative form ansÅra would mean “currently talking“.

January 16, 2011January 7, 2011

tÅkÄ“Ã±

We’re still on sentence 4 of the LCC2 Relay Text:

telme jakÄ“Ã±a mo makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ ien tÅ wÄ terle jasÅra xiÄ“n jÄ“ jaÃ¾Ä«Ã±a tÅkÄ“Ã±;

I’m starting this clause with the last word for a reason. Namely, the tÅkÄ“Ã± at the end is related to the tÅ at the beginning. tÅ here is essentially the same tÅ as here, a conjunctive particle meaning “because”. It is not actually required for the sentence to be grammatically correct, but, hey, redundancy is good!

tÅkÄ“Ã± is this particle glommed on to the interrogative mood marker kÄ“Ã± to ask “why” something. The initial tÅ here is followed by the clause-level modifier wÄ which negates a clause, so altogether tÅ wÄ … tÅkÄ“Ã± (or wÄ … tÅkÄ“Ã±) is “why not” or “why isn’t” or “why didn’t”.

telme jakÄ“Ã±a mo makÄ«Ã¾a matÄ“nnÄ ien tÅ wÄ terle jasÅra xiÄ“n jÄ“ jaÃ¾Ä«Ã±a tÅkÄ“Ã±;
I asked the talking rock, “Why didn’t…”