Test Sentences, 41

Continuing with Gary’s list:

63. On a sunny morning after the solstice we started for the mountains.

Leaving off the time phrases for the moment, “we started towards the mountains” uses the inceptive (or inchoative, or something) of notɨŋi “to go towards a destination”: lɛnna notambi laɬi. This will come in a second clause after a clause describing the time. The two clauses will be joined by the clausal conjunction na, which implies that the clauses take place simultaneously, or at least that the second clause happens during the first one.

Now for the time phrases. First the solstice, and then a sunny morning after the solstice. For the solstice, I will use the phrase bɨɬɨs da hɨddɨŋi “dawn of the season(s)”, which really corresponds more to the equinox, but…. The word for morning is galnanda and a sunny morning is a bright morning galnanda lo. To describe a morning after the solstice, we would use the verb daɬa, the third of the stance verbs, and one we haven’t had cause to use yet!

By the way, the day is divided into four parts and the four transitions are also named. Dawn and dusk have the same name: hɨddɨŋi. If you really have to distinguish them, dawn can be hɨddɨŋi ola and dusk is hɨddɨŋi tada. Noon is lɨnanda and midnight is lɨsɨnda. Morning is galnanda, afternoon is ɨnnanda, evening is galsɨnda, and late night is ɨssɨnda. The four parts all use daɬa as their preferred verb of stance. lɨnanda and lɨsɨnda prefer sɛdɛ, and hɨddɨŋi prefers tɛndɛ. Furthermore, ɨssɨnda and galnanda both move upwards when necessary, and ɨnnanda and galsɨnda move downwards.

63. galnanda lo daɬa bɨɬɨs da hɨddɨŋi ɨdeba na lɛnna notambi laɬi.

In Kēlen:

63. la jānnalon jalū il jīstū jatāelle il antielen il aþ ñalta jānne rā anlāe;

Questions?