Tag: sentences

Continuing with Gary’s list:

139. They heard the warning too late.

Mostly straightforward.

139. mavna sadna sɛŋeya tono ɨdeba alam.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

137. Whew! that cold wind freezes my nose!
138. Are you warm enough now?

Also straightforward, though I will reuse u! rather than make another interjection.

137. u! ha udan kyɨlde le gɨŋi tɛndɛ ɛlkeya bala.

138. ala ŋidi sɛdɛ kyaleya dan dɛmɛ?

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

135. Oh, dear! the wind has blown my hat away!
136. Alas! that news is sad indeed!

Another interjection! Or maybe not. The rest is fairly simple.

135. udan dolɨdɛn le pɛstɛ maseya.

The adverb maseya actually means “sadly” or “frowningly”. It makes a nice stand-in for “oh dear”. It also makes a nice stand-in for “alas!”, but the next sentence already uses “sad”. So, here’s a new interjection: u!

136. u! da sala daɬa maseya no bala.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

134. This string is too short!

This is easy. This string sits too short-ly.

134. da ŋyonadan tɛndɛ ɨseya alam.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

133. Aha! I have caught you!

Aside from the whole issue with interjections, there is the issue with “catch”. “I” might be the agent, but “you” are the subject of the sentence–the entity that is moving. “I” am also the destination. So, we will use a reflexive form there, and a form of tɨŋi prefixed by eya to denote less volitionality in the subject (that’s “you”).

Oh, and we’ll make that interjection he!

133. he! lenada ŋidi eyotni.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

132. I awoke early, dressed hastily, and went down to breakfast.

Another set of connected clauses…. “I left sleep soon/early, I clothed myself hastily, and I went downwards to food.”

132. syɛɬɛ lene pɛstɛ galaba ladi lenada iɬyɨdi omɛt tandeya ladi lene otni goga tadya.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

131. Take this note, carry it to your mother; and wait for an answer.

Hmm. Normally the first two clauses would be combined into one: “take this note to your mother”. But, since they are separated, I will keep them separated, though I am tempted to add lene ŋidi dossalɨdɛnnɛn ono ki to the end.

131. lene dɨdɛn salɨdɛn tɨŋi ŋideya ladi ŋidi dɨdɛnnɛn tɨŋi madeya ki; dossala ŋidi sɛdɛ goɬi ki.

Questions?

And, yay, we have reached episode #100! And this is my 999th post to this blog, so tomorrow, I will have something special. 🙂

Continuing with Gary’s list:

130. They won the first two games, but lost the last one.

Right. A few days ago, in episode #94, I used the construction aŋi gyɛdɛ for “play a game”. Here we are going to use a related construction gyɛdɛ A aŋi syosso “A plays a game to victory”. These two clauses are connected with ladi, and the second clause uses a frustrative construction.

130. gyɛdi ɛni hanni mavna onnɨt syosso ladi gyɛdɛ hodno mavna aŋŋi syosso badi dɛstɛ.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

129. They popped corn, and then sat around the fire and ate it.

Ooh, three clauses! They cooked food ladi they sat around the fire na they ate it.

129. mavna gogɨdiya otni nɛlɨdiya ladi mavna notɛndɛ nolako dugaŋya na mavna kye dɨdiya ono dɛstɛ.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

128. That boy will have a wonderful trip.

That boy will move along a wonderful road.

128. ma koda dantɨŋi tona gɛkɛdɛ dɛga.

Questions?