Category: Ā

Posted on

āñ

aanj

āñ

We’re on this sentence in the 15th Conlang Relay Text:

la sāeþ ānen anexīmi wā ānen sawūrre āñ ēmma;

sawūrre is the word for one’s voice. The particle āñ is modifying sawūrre and is acting as a reflexive marker, thus implying ‘own voice’. Since the entire phrase ānen sawūrre āñ ēmma is modifying sāeþ ‘they/them’, and since possessed nouns as a rule do not show plural marking, ānen sawūrre āñ ēmma is best translated as “except for their own voices”.

la sāeþ ānen anexīmi wā ānen sawūrre āñ ēmma;
“They are without music except for their own voices.”

There are only minor changes between this sentence and the original one I submitted in the relay. One minor change is the plural marking on sawūrre. The other is the singular inflection of anexīmi.

Posted on

ānen

aanen

ānen

The second sentence of the 15th Conlang Relay Text:

la sāeþ ānen jaxūnīki honahan wā;

ānen has appeared before as a preposition that when combined with a stative noun makes a clause-level modifier. It also has other functions. For instance, here it combines with the particle wā to mean “without”. In the next sentence, it combines with the particle ēmma to mean “except for”. The object of these phrases appears between ānen and the particles. So, ānen jaxūnīke honahan wā is “without jaxūnīke honahan“, which are the next two words I’ll be blogging.

Posted on

āllaral

aallaral

āllaral

āllaral is also derived from āral and is the word for 60 base 8, or 48 base 10. The more prosaic way to say 60 is tēōr. Both terms are in common usage.

Posted on

āral

aaral

āral

āral is the word for 14 base 8, or 12 base 10. It consists of the stem for the old form of 3 and the stem for the old form of 4.

The more prosaic way to say 14 is ōr awīor (10 and 4), but very few people use that, and then only in technical applications.

Posted on

ālū

aaluu

ālū

ālū also has that –ū suffix, and it means 20 in base 8 or 16 in base 10. The stem āl is derived from an old word for 4, which is only ever found these days in derived words and in old poetry.

The other word for 20 is ēnnōr, and while it is rarely used in counting ōrū aþōnne (17), ālū (20), ālū aþān (21), it is used after aþ– as in ōrū aþēnnōr (100 and 20).

Posted on

ārū

aaruu

ārū

ārū has that –ū suffix, and it means 11 in base 8 or 9 in base 10. The stem ār is derived from an old word for 3, which is only ever found these days in derived words and in old poetry.

The other word for 11 is ōr aþān (10 and 1), but rather than count ōnne (7), ōrū (10), ōr aþān (11), ōr aþēnne (12) many people will count ōnne (7), ōrū (10), ārū (11), ārū aþān (11 and 1).

Posted on

jālme

jaalme

jālme

The fifth sentence of the 2nd Inverse Relay text:

selte jālme japāsre to jakēþa jatāra;

selte here says that there is a 1st person plural experiencer. What ‘we’ experience is jālme japāsre and the source of the experience is jakēþa jatāra. Several unfamiliar words here. First, jālme which means simply a place of crossing, like a ford in the river. I’ll discuss japāsre tomorrow.

Posted on

anālre

anaalre

anālre

Continuing with our theme, today we start on the text for the LCC3 Relay. The original text was a poem contributed by David J Peterson. I have mixed feelings about translating poetry. I’ve never been good at poetry, even in a conlang. On the other hand, it does provide an opportunity to mess with the syntax and vocabulary. And having a refrain means less to translate, which can be a plus or a minus.

So, the first line:

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;

Unfamiliar words include anālri, jahāwa, and anhūwi.

anālri is the stative anālre inflected to modify anālhāri “ocean”. anālre means “having to do with storms, having the quality of a storm” or “stormy”, so anālhāri anālri is “stormy ocean”.

Tomorrow jahāwa.

Posted on

ānen

aanen

ānen

Last post for sentence 6 of the LCC2 Relay Text, concerning a talking rock:

tō tele janūra to makīþa matēnnā jerrasōr tō jāo ñalla ja rā anālhāri mē ānen antāken;

ānen when followed by a stative noun, here antāken, makes a clause-level modifier that best translates into an adverb. antāken means “physical strength”, making ānen antāken mean “forcefully”.

ñalla ja rā anālhāri mē ānen antāken is “I moved it into the ocean forcefully” or “I threw it into the ocean”.

tō tele janūra to makīþa matēnnā jerrasōr tō jāo ñalla ja rā anālhāri mē ānen antāken;
The talking rock’s reply made me angry that I threw it into the ocean.

Posted on

jānne

jaanne

jānne

OK. Last post on the seventh sentence of the Babel text:

il tamma ien ē pa mēli anānīke ī pa sāim antaxōni ān tēna ī la ankāe ancēji ja ñatta rēha pa jāo jānne;

jānne means “beginning” and modifies jāo, and the phrase pa jāo jānne modifies ankāe ancēji ja ñatta rēha. I mentioned yesterday that jāo refers to pa mēli anānīke ī pa sāim antaxōni ān tēna “the people have unity and they have only one language”. So that state is the beginning of ankāe ancēji ja ñatta rēha “the doable deeds that they will do”.

“And he said: the people have unity and they have only one language and the deeds they will do have this as a beginning.”

And that’s all for the seventh sentence. Yay!