Category: Conlanging

Continuing with Gary’s list:

147. The boat sails away, like a bird on the wing.
148. They looked cautiously about, but saw nothing.

The first sentence here uses the particle go to turn the destination into a manner adverb.

147. gɛdɛ ŋyɛttenɛn pɛsi tutava ŋyandinɛn go.

The second uses an indefinite pronoun vudeya “nothing” as a subject. I am not sure I will let that stand, but it’ll do for now.

148. mavna doŋina soteya tono mɨdeya na vudeya tono badi dɛstɛ.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

145. Our bird’s name is Jacko.
146. The river knows the way to the sea.

Straightforward! Though the river cannot “know” anything, so I paraphrased that as “The river’s path goes to the sea.” And, of course, no birds!

145. bɛdɛ Jacko daɬa udlava.

146. tanan ha toneya tɨŋi agada dɛstɛ.

I am wondering if tanan toneya tɨŋi agada dɛstɛ, where tanan is a source would convey the same thing.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

144. On a fine summer evening, the two old people were sitting outside the door of their cottage.

Straightforward! Though now I am considering having a word for senex.

144. bɨlɨs sɨdi da galsɨnda ge ɛlɛna tɛtna ɛnna mɛttɛndɛ laka da syudo dɛstɛ.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

143. This cottage stood on a low hill, at some distance from the village.

If we assume that it is the cottage (and the hill) that is some distance from the village, we can make this a single clause with “village” as the source.

143. dɛspɛ da laka tɛttɛ lɛnɛ ɨsa sɨsya dan dɛstɛ.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

142. Jack seized a handful of pebbles and threw them into the lake.

Here we can get by with a serial predicate.

142. Jack amba kɨdɨdi onnɨt ma kunava iɬanya eyonnɨt ɛbɛ dɨmmeya dɛstɛ.

Jack filled his hand with pebbles and forcefully sent them into the lake.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

140. We are a brave people, and love our country.
141. All the children came except Mary.

Country? Yeah, no. That implies a level of political organization that just isn’t there. And substituting “village” or “territory” doesn’t really work, either. This sentence is essentially saying, “Hey, we are willing to go to war over our piece.” And I don’t feel like figuring out all the concepts and words for this in SL. So I am skipping this sentence.

Luckily, the next one is easy.

141. susi nadna hɨsna tono na Mary vono badi.

Questions?

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?