LCC3 Relay Text – Langs and Conlangs

February 3, 2011January 21, 2011

ī

The fourth line of the LCC3 Relay Text:

se jīxōsa cī ānen anwālte annāra il anpēxeni ī ñi rūjapēxa;

ī is one of those particles that can mean several things. As a conjunction, it means “and also”. As a clause-level modifier, it means “again, also”. If this is the conjunction ī then this sentence has to mean, “Let’s passionately look back in final moments and also (they) move away.” Hmm. If this is the clause-level modifier ī, then the sentence can mean “Let’s passionately look back again in final moments (as) (they) move away.” if ī is modifying the first clause, or “Let’s passionately look back (as) the final (waves) again move away.” if ī is modifying the second clause. Personally, I like the last interpretation, but they are all valid.

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;
la jāo pa anhē ja ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;
ñi nāra lemōra ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;
se jīxōsa cī ānen anwālte annāra il anpēxeni ī ñi rūjapēxa;

I am at the edge of the stormy sea and the breaking waves move away.
This is good, that the wild waves move away.
All my dreams become the wild waves moving away.
Let’s passionately look back as the final waves again move away.

February 2, 2011January 21, 2011

anpēxena

The fourth line of the LCC3 Relay Text:

se jīxōsa cī ānen anwālte annāra il anpēxeni ī ñi rūjapēxa;

anpēxena means “last, final”. Here it appears after il, a marker denoting a time phrase, and in the collective, though there is no collective noun in the sentence for it to modify. So, either it is modifying an elided noun like anīli “moments” or it’s doing something else. Since il also acts as a conjunction, (usually a coordinating conjunction, but this is poetry,) let’s see if that makes more sense. If so, and if ī which I will discuss tomorrow can also be parsed with the refrain, then anpēxeni can be modifying the elided “waves”. Of course, putting the object of the relational at the very front of a clause is unusual.

February 1, 2011January 24, 2011

jīxōsa

The fourth line of the LCC3 Relay Text:

se jīxōsa cī ānen anwālte annāra il anpēxeni ī ñi rūjapēxa;

jīxōsa means “a second look at someplace or in some direction because one is searching for something”. As the object of an uninflected se followed by the mood marker cī, this clause implies “Let’s look back” or “Let’s look again”. cī does not actually belong here. It would belong at the end of the whole sentence, but this is poetry. cī here makes it ambiguous as to which clause (this one or the truncated refrain, “(they) move away”) the phrases ānen anwālte annāra, il anpēxeni, and ī belong to.

ānen anwālte annāra is composed of familiar words and means “with strong emotion” or “passionately”. So, are we passionately looking back or passionately moving away. Neither clause has an overtly animate participant capable of experiencing anwālte, though since the first line of the poem does contain a first person singular pronoun, and the refrain generally refers to waves, we can mostly assume that ānen anwālte annāra should be parsed with the first clause and its unspoken experiencer rather than with the second.

Tomorrow il anpēxeni.

January 31, 2011January 21, 2011

samōra

The third line of the LCC3 Relay Text:

ñi nāra lemōra ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;

lemōra is the 1st person possessed form of samōra, “one’s dreams”. The first clause, ñi nāra lemōra is incomplete, “All my dreams (become something).” The second clause, the refrain, is again “the wild waves move away”. Putting these two clauses together usually requires some sort of conjunction or relative pronoun or both. As it is poetry, the juxtaposition of these two clauses leads one to interpret this line as “All my dreams become the wild waves moving away”.

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;
la jāo pa anhē ja ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;
ñi nāra lemōra ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;

I am at the edge of the stormy sea and the breaking waves move away
This is good, that the wild waves move away
All my dreams become the wild waves moving away

Tomorrow, we start line 4.

January 30, 2011January 21, 2011

nāra

The third line of the LCC3 Relay Text:

ñi nāra lemōra ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;

nāra is a modifier meaning “all” that generally comes after the noun it modifies. Here it comes before it, likely because of something having to do with meter. Poetry, remember. lemōra will be discussed tomorrow.

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;
la jāo pa anhē ja ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;

I am at the edge of the stormy sea and the breaking waves move away
This is good, that the wild waves move away

January 29, 2011January 21, 2011

antāλa

The second line of the LCC3 Relay Text:

la jāo pa anhē ja ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;

There’s only one unfamiliar word, here, and that is antāλi, a stative noun modifying antāoni in the changing refrain. antāλa means “having the qualities of chaos” so “chaotic, wild, unordered”. The first clause, la jāo pa anhē means “this has goodness”. It is followed by the relative pronoun ja, and then the refrain. So, “This is good, that the wild waves move away”.

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;
la jāo pa anhē ja ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;

I am at the edge of the stormy sea and the breaking waves move away
This is good, that the wild waves move away

Tomorrow the third line.

January 28, 2011January 21, 2011

anhūwa

Still on the first line of the LCC3 Relay Text:

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;

anhūwa means “broken into pieces” and in this line it modifies antāoni “waves”. antāoni anhūwi is “the breaking waves” and ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa is “the breaking waves move away”. The phrase ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa really ought to be its own sentence, but since this is poetry, it is simply glommed on to the previous clause in a way that assumes an “and”.

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;
I am at the edge of the stormy sea and the breaking waves move away.

January 27, 2011January 21, 2011

jahāwa

Line 1 of the LCC3 Relay Text:

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;

jahāwa means “the end or edge of something”. Coming as it does after the phrase anālhāri anālri “stormy sea”, it refers to the edge of the stormy sea. The entire phrase anālhāri anālri jahāwa is the object of the preposition sū, which indicates a location. la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa “I am at the edge of the stormy sea”.

January 26, 2011January 21, 2011

anālre

Continuing with our theme, today we start on the text for the LCC3 Relay. The original text was a poem contributed by David J Peterson. I have mixed feelings about translating poetry. I’ve never been good at poetry, even in a conlang. On the other hand, it does provide an opportunity to mess with the syntax and vocabulary. And having a refrain means less to translate, which can be a plus or a minus.

So, the first line:

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;

Unfamiliar words include anālri, jahāwa, and anhūwi.

anālri is the stative anālre inflected to modify anālhāri “ocean”. anālre means “having to do with storms, having the quality of a storm” or “stormy”, so anālhāri anālri is “stormy ocean”.

Tomorrow jahāwa.