Kēlen Word of the Day Entries – Page 31

February 24, 2011February 20, 2011

ēnne

We’re still on this sentence in the 17th Conlang Relay Text:

il ñamma jacēha ja ñi sāen rā jakērþe ōl nō ā macūma il ñi jakērþe jasērre tō jōrwe ēnne;

When the man attempted to get on to the horse,
then ñi horse jasērre tō jōrwe ēnne.

We know ansērre, here modifying “horse” means “standing upright”. tō here acts as an instrumentative marker, so jōrwe ēnne is the means by which the horse stands upright. jōrwe looks very much like sōrwe which means “one’s legs”. The s– prefix is only used for animates, however, and the horse is not high enough on the personhood scale to qualify. So, an inanimate form is used instead. Then comes ēnne, which is the word for the number 2, telling us that the horse stood upright on two legs as opposed to one or three or some other number.

When the man attempted to get on to the horse, then the horse stood upright on two legs.

February 23, 2011February 20, 2011

nō

nōÂ

We’re on this sentence in the 17th Conlang Relay Text:

il ñamma jacēha ja ñi sāen rā jakērþe ōl nō ā macūma il ñi jakērþe jasērre tō jōrwe ēnne;

When the man attempted ja ñi sāen rā horse ōl nō
then ñi horse jasērre tō jōrwe ēnne.

rā jakērþe ōl nō looks straightforward. rā plus ōl means “on top of” or “over”. The particle nō generally emphasizes the “to” denoted by rā. However, here, nō is modifying another locative particle rather than a noun or pronoun directly. In this usage nō denotes that there is physical contact with the object of the phrase, namely the horse. So ñi sāen rā jakērþe ōl nō is “he moved to on top of the horse” or “he got on the horse”.

When the man attempted to get on to the horse,
then ñi horse jasērre tō jōrwe ēnne.

We’ll tackle the last clause tomorrow.

February 22, 2011February 20, 2011

sāen

aae

sāenÂ

Now that we have named the story and introduced our characters, the next sentence is:

il ñamma jacēha ja ñi sāen rā jakērþe ōl nō ā macūma il ñi jakērþe jasērre tō jōrwe ēnne;

We already know that il … il means “when” … “then” or “while” … “then”, and we know “horse” and “man” so:

When ñamma jacēha ja ñi sāen rā horse ōl nō ā man
then ñi horse jasērre tō jōrwe ēnne.

We also know that jacēha means “attempt” and ñamma jacēha means a 3rd person entity made an attempt, and looking for an ā phrase, we see “man”, which is a third person entity, so “The man attempted”:

When the man attempted ja ñi sāen rā horse ōl nō
then ñi horse jasērre tō jōrwe ēnne.

We know that ja in this position is a relative clause marker, and it is modifying “attempt”, so ñi sāen rā horse ōl nō is what the man attempted, and we know that ñi … rā denotes motion. Which brings us to today’s word. sāen is the full 3rd person singular pronoun. And our only animate (inanimates don’t get full pronouns), 3rd person singular entity is the man, so the man moved relative to the horse. I will explore the locative rā phrase tomorrow.

February 21, 2011February 15, 2011

jakērþe

Since the 18th conlang relay is not yet finished, (It ran into some delays. All relays run into some delays.) I will cover my text for the 17th Conlang Relay aka “The Unfinished Relay”, because it is still delayed.

The title of the 17th Conlang Relay Text is:

xiēn jē jakērþe japīña;

which I translate as “Concerning the Bad Horse.” jakērþe isn’t exactly “horse” but it does refer to a domesticated animal that can be ridden like a horse, so close enough.

The first sentence in this story introduces us to the main participants in the story:

se macūma; se jakērþe;

The man, the horse.

February 20, 2011February 15, 2011

jīlcīlre

The eighth and final sentence of the 2nd Inverse Relay text:

il ñi liēþ rāmāra il jīlcīlre;

This one is straightforward. ñi liēþ rāmāra is “we go home” and il … il jīlcīlre is “when” plus jīlcīlre which is a word for a period of cold weather, and in a planet with seasons might refer to winter.

il ñi liēþ rāmāra il jīlcīlre;
We go home in the winter.

February 19, 2011February 15, 2011

anñicālte

The seventh sentence of the 2nd Inverse Relay text:

ñalta jahōhhe jahē tō ja ñalta jañicālte sū jahāwekien;

anñicālte is the word for “traded” or “something for trading”. So, this sentence is “we make good cooked food” followed by the instrument-marker tō followed by a relative pronoun ja followed by the ñi clause “we make trade” followed by the locative phrase sū jahāwekien “at the shore”. Put that all together and we get:

ñalta jahōhhe jahē tō ja ñalta jañicālte sū jahāwekien;
We make good cooked food from that which we trade at the shore.

February 18, 2011February 15, 2011

anhōhhe

The seventh sentence of the 2nd Inverse Relay text:

ñalta jahōhhe jahē tō ja ñalta jañicālte sū jahāwekien;

anhōhhe is a stative noun meaning “cooked or otherwise prepared for eating” and is used to describe food. In the sentence, jahōhhe is in the inanimate singular does not modify anything in the sentence. This construction is rather common, actually, and so jahōhhe is “something cooked or otherwise prepared for eating” or “cooked food”. It is further modified by anhē, “good” so jahōhhe jahē is “good cooked food”. ñalta says that a 1st person exclusive plural entity is the agent or cause of that good food, and the tō phrase further elaborates a second cause. More on that tomorrow.

February 17, 2011February 15, 2011

ansēlne

The sixth sentence of the 2nd Inverse Relay text:

il ñi liēþ rā anmāxxānwi nīkan jarēlān jēspe il ñi anālhāri ansēlni;

ansēlne refers to a view and means visible or in view. So, ñi anālhāri ansēlni is the ocean comes into view/becomes visible. The il … il conjunction connects these two clauses:

il ñi liēþ rā anmāxxānwi nīkan jarēlān jēspe il ñi anālhāri ansēlni;
Then we go to a (wide) plain with a continuing light wind then we make sight of the ocean.

February 16, 2011February 11, 2011

anēspe

The sixth sentence of the 2nd Inverse Relay text:

il ñi liēþ rā anmāxxānwi nīkan jarēlān jēspe il ñi anālhāri ansēlni;

jēspe is the inanimate singular form of anēspe which means “continuing in the same state or place, waiting”, so jarēlān jēspe is a continuing light wind, making ñi liēþ rā anmāxxānwi nīkan jarēlān jēspe “We go to a (wide) plain with a continuing light wind.”

February 15, 2011February 11, 2011

jarēlān

The sixth sentence of the 2nd Inverse Relay text:

il ñi liēþ rā anmāxxānwi nīkan jarēlān jēspe il ñi anālhāri ansēlni;

nīkan jarēlān jēspe is a phrase that modifies yesterday’s word anmāxxānwi and means “together with” something something. The first something, jarēlān is the word for a light wind. I’ll cover jēspe tomorrow.