Test Sentences, 29

Continuing with Gary’s list:

51. Yesterday the oldest girl in the village lost her kitten.

“Lost” is an adjective, and a kitten becomes lost iddɨse tɨŋi do. Now we just need to specify which kitten and when. When is easy. That is the adverb talondɛ. Which kitten is a little more complex.

Let’s start with the girl’s kitten iddɨse ha laki. But not any girl, the oldest girl in the village. A girl in the village (or rather, of the village) is laki ma dɛspɛ. That is the same possessive construction used for the girl’s kitten. That leaves “oldest”. The speakers of sodna-lɛni don’t really care about relative age, but they do have other hierarchies, and the equivalent of the oldest girl would be the top girl. So one could say laki ola ma dɛspɛ “the village’s top girl”.

Put this all together and we have:

51. iddɨse ha laki ola ma dɛspɛ otni do talondɛ dɛstɛ.

The village’s top girl’s kitten got lost yesterday {I’m told}.

In Kēlen:

51. ñi jalāca ānen anhēna anānexa sū jakēste jatūmsemma jarō il talōnte;

Questions?