Category: Conlanging

Continuing with Gary’s list:

66. The squirrel’s nest was hidden by drooping boughs.

OK. No squirrels. We’ll use kyɨlan, which is a largish sort of insect that build nests, sometimes even in trees.

If I were to say that the kyɨlan‘s nest is hidden, I’d use a verb of stance. The addition of the by phrase makes the drooping boughs a cause. So I could say that the boughs “sent” the nest to hiding. Or I could stick with the verb of stance and say that the nest sat in hiding in the boughs. I think that “by” means I should use the equivalent of “sent”, which would involve tɨŋi.

The next question is whether to mark the source (the boughs) with tto. I state in my published grammar that the causative tto attaches itself only to motile sources. The branches aren’t actually motile, but leaving them sessile turns them into a point of origin or a purpose. So I think I will have to allow tto to attach to any source and turn it from a purpose to a cause.

66. nɨdi nubitto kyɨlan ha lomu tɨŋi lammo dɛstɛ.

In Kēlen:

66. ñi jalōmme jē jacīla jalāma tō janīri janūwi;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

65. An old man with a walking stick stood beside the fence.

Standing next to a location involves the verb dansɛdɛ.

65. kyume tɛta dappomonɛn dansɛttɛ askɨba da kɨdan.

In Kēlen:

65. la macūma mahēna nīkan japōma jarāka sū jakāste nū;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

64. Tom laughed at the monkey’s tricks.

So, is laughter a destination? Did the monkey’s tricks move Tom to laughter? Or is it a companion mental state? Tom stands with laughter because of the monkey’s tricks. Or is laughter to be treated like shouting and singing, a noise emitted by someone? Either way the monkey’s tricks belong in the source slot.

A monkey’s tricks would be sɛmba ha dindi. And let’s use the first option with laughter as the destination.

64. sɛmbava ha dindi Tom otni pilile tɛlɛ.

In Kēlen:

64. ñi Tom mamārienne tō jakāe jasānne;

Questions?

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?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

62. Everybody knows about hunting.

Everybody knows about hunting? I don’t. 🙂 But, OK. This is not saying that everyone knows how to hunt, just that everyone has heard of it and knows something about it, not necessarily how to do it. So, I guess, everyone stands with some knowledge at/in hunting.

So, a hunter is ɛdan, a class I noun. The activity of hunting, though, is ɛdannan, a class IV noun. Knowledge syeni is also a class IV noun.

62. nadna amba syeninɛn sɛdɛ ɛdannan dɛstɛ.

In Kēlen:

62. sexe anērān;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

61. We sailed down the river for several miles.

This sentence is a good use of dantɨŋi “go along a path”, with the river as the path. Boat can be the instrument, which is generally… hmm, I can’t believe I’ve gotten this far without an instrumentive marker of some sort. That wouldn’t be the same as the purposive at all. Probably the best candidate is the comitative –nɛn, and I think that is a very common pattern for natlangs, using a comitative for an instrument.

OK, now the “for several miles”: a unit of distance with a non-specific quantifier. amba dɛŋɛ would be the right phrase, but what about it’s relationship to the river, the actual path. I’m inclined to turn this into a possessive phrase “the river’s several miles” or “several miles of river”: tanan ha amba dɛŋɛ. Of course one dɛŋɛ does not equal one mile, but it is a distance along those lines.

61. lɛnna gɛdɛnɛn danotni tanava ha amba dɛŋɛ.

In Kēlen:

61. ñi lēim ānen jahēra sū jatāna il jarāŋŋi pē;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

60. Have you ever travelled in the jungle?

I think this sentence is a good use of eyaŋi “move about in”.

60. ŋidi eyonnɨt gyelele dɛmɛ?

In Kēlen:

60. ñi riēn rā anjēli mē kēñ;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

59. Are you going with us to the concert?

This is simpler than it looks, though I don’t have a word for concert. Let’s substitute some other destination, like a ceremony (katɛn, a class IV noun).

59. ŋidi lɛnnanɛn tɨŋi katɛn dɛmɛ?

In Kēlen:

59. ñi riēn nīkanle rā jakāenal kēñ;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

58. Does the robin sing in the rain?

Earlier, we had a kitten playing in the rain, where “rain” was the destination, and “playing”, or rather “game”, was the purpose/source. And the kitten was “moving about”. Here we have singing, and habitual singing at that. That would probably be “emitting song”, and “emit” is a verb I used early on for the sun shining and people shouting, evi. And, while evi doesn’t allow for destinations, it does allow a location like “in the rain”.

Except, no robins. I dislike birds. (Which is a little odd, ’cause I like reptiles, and birds are essentially modern dinosaurs. When I think of them like that, I dislike them a little less.) Let’s see, what could be singing in the rain? Maybe tiny flying hadrosaurs? Hmm. Maybe the lizards sing on this world. I have a word for that: udle. As for “song”, that would be syɨme, a class II noun.

58. udle syɨme evna tadnavi dɛmɛ?

In Kēlen:

58. ñaxxa ansāla ā jūlri il antārranni kēñ;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

57. Have the neighbors gone away for the winter?

“Going away” is pɛsi for sure. The subject is “neighbors”. Hmm. Back to that in a minute. The purpose (source) is “winter”, implying that the neighbors have gone away from the winter as well as because of the winter.

OK. Vocabulary. There ought to be a word for something like “neighbors”. But what? According to wiktionary, the word derives from something like “near-dwellers”. And if another language uses a different derivation, I can’t find it. So, people in the next camp? no is “near to” and ko is “home”, (and the Kēlen cognate means “hearth”. So noko? There is a collective suffix dɨn for people, so nokodɨn, a class I noun, for “a set of neighbors”.

As for “winter”, well there is the rainy season, which is humid and wet and rainy and has flooding and the occasional mudslide. Then there is the dry season, which is hot, and dry, and hot. I’m not sure which of those someone would leave for. Either way, I need some vocabulary. [pause for a moment while I create some more vocabulary] OK. The word for “season” or “half-year” is bɨɬɨs, a class IV noun. The rainy season would be bɨɬɨs tada and the dry season would be bɨɬɨs sɨdi.

57. bɨɬɨs tada nokodɨn pɛstɛ dɛmɛ?

In Kēlen:

57. ñi xō mēla rā þō il jīlcīlre nāra kēñ;

Questions?