ārre
wījtē
Sentence 10 of the LCC4 relay text:
wā pa riēn ancē ja serle ien jasōra wījtē ja la lewēra lā;
The subordinate clause ja serle ien jasōra wījtē ja la lewēra lā is “you say to me the three words that are my name!”
wījtē is the main word for three, and is derived from wīj “half” and tē “six”. That’s because the older word for three is ārre, which sounded a lot like ālle (“four”) and ōr (“eight/ten”). ārre still is used in poetry and deliberately archaic speech.
sawēλa
We’re still on the fourth sentence of the 18th Conlang Relay Text
sū jatāsa la jatēwa jaλāona jarōllōl ja sūjōl la macēna maranīsa masērre saŋē ē jawūña ē jāŋŋeren sawēλa jatāña janēūñ ñe anmāe;
sawēλa is a term for facial cheeks. The stem –wēλ– refers to curves. This word, like saŋē refers back to the woman. Tomorrow, we finish this sentence.
“In the market square is a wide, snow-covered table, on top of which is standing a well-dressed woman, her face contemptuous and beautiful, her cheeks….”
anwūña
We’re still on the fourth sentence of the 18th Conlang Relay Text
sū jatāsa la jatēwa jaλāona jarōllōl ja sūjōl la macēna maranīsa masērre saŋē ē jawūña ē jāŋŋeren sawēλa jatāña janēūñ ñe anmāe;
macēna maranīsa masērre is a noun phrase meaning a “well-dressed, upright-standing woman”. This is followed by the possessed noun saŋē which means “her face”. Then come two conjoined stative nouns, inflected in inanimate singular to modify saŋē. The first of these is anwūña “showing or exhibiting contempt, disapproval, disdain, or scorn”. The second of these is anāŋŋeren “beautiful” (of the awe-inspiring kind).
“In the market square is a wide, snow-covered table, on top of which is standing a well-dressed woman, her face contemptuous and beautiful….”
jawēlrienāl
We’re still on the third sentence of the 18th Conlang Relay Text
samma japēlti mo jaxēxi ja ē ñi jarewēλi ī ñi jahūwi ī ñi jasēþa ñe jawēlrienāl rū jatāsa λi xēþa āñ;
OK, here is where I put on my evil hat and just messed with stuff because I could! jawēlrienāl is a letter of the interlace alphabet. Needless to say, the previous text did not say this. It had a word that was glossed “knot, maze”. I have no idea what the subsequent text did, but I hope Herman Miller appreciated it anyway.
So far we have: “The tūmse is barking at the smoke that twists and breaks and makes a knot like a letter of the interlace alphabet…” followed by a locative phrase that I will discuss tomorrow.
anwāra
We’re on this sentence of the 15th Conlang Relay Text:
se jaþēma ien pa jāo anwāra nā;
Here the only word I haven’t blogged before is anwāra. This is a stative noun meaning “easy”. This sentence translates to “It seems that it is very easy.” Compared to the original, I again have jaþēma for “seems” and pa rather than la for the dependent clause. That’s because anwāra is an attribute and to say la jāo anwāra means that something equals easiness whereas pa jāo anwāra is something has easiness as an attribute, or something is easy.
wa
We’re on this sentence of the 15th Conlang Relay Text:
wa majjārien pa anākexa nā;
The only word here I haven’t blogged before is wa. This is the negative form of the relational la, denoting the non-existence of the rest of the sentence. The reset of the sentence here reads “The dancers have much agility.” With wa, this becomes “The dancers do not have much agility.” This sentence is unchanged from the original.
The next two sentences in the text do not have any new words. They are:
ñaxxa jarāki rā satēsa rā sahūta rājanū rājakiē;
They step to one’s left, to one’s right, to this side, and to that side.
Though, this does show how various prepositional phrases can simply be juxtaposed without any conjunctions. This sentence is also highly changed from the original, as the original sentence had words in it that I didn’t like and didn’t keep. This happens occasionally, generally with words that I create for a relay, since a relay text is supposed to be passed on within 48 hours of receipt, and I sometimes need weeks to meditate over a word to decide if it fits or not.
se jaþēma ien la sāeþ sasōna jānīke;
It seems that they are of one mind.
This sentence is also changed from the original. jaþēma has been substituted for a word that isn’t currently in the dictionary, and the pa relational has been changed to la, mostly because the sentence doesn’t require pa.
jawālīke
The next sentence in the 15th Conlang Relay Text:
wā sexe jawālīke to jajāra jaxūna;
jawālīke means “close observation” and is used also for research and study. As an object of se, which is here inflected with a 3rd person plural beneficiary/experiencer, this means “they experienced close observation”. The wā particle at the beginning of the sentence negates the sentence, so this part is “they did not experience close observation”. The thing observed or experienced in indicated by the to phrase, which I will discuss tomorrow.
In the original sentence, I used the word jatawāla instead of jawālīke. jatawāla does not currently exist in my dictionary, though it is in the spreadsheet of possible words.
jawāññerāñ
So, the 18th Conlang Relay is still not quite finished, the book that I’d been waiting for arrived and is now read, and while I could go on with numbers (indefinitely :-)), I have been slowly redoing various older relay texts. The older the text, the more work it is because the language has changed. Today, I will start blogging the 15th Conlang Relay text. (Yes, I skipped the 16th.) The original text I submitted is here, the rewritten text is here.
The first sentence in the text is the title:
se jawāññerāñ;
jawāññerāñ is the word for riddle or paradox. This makes the title of this text: “The Riddle”, or “Here is a Riddle”.
anwāna
Continuing with the first sentence of the LCC2 Relay Text, concerning a talking rock:
il talōnte tiēlen ñi le rā jahāwekien nō il ñi lerāka jawāna sū jakīþa ja pa antēnnā ōl;
anwāna means “the quality of being out of place and therefore wrong” and appears here as an inanimate singular noun modifying lerāka. lerāka is simply the familiar jarāka inflected as a possessed noun. This is perfectly okay, if a bit informal. Together, lerāka jawāna means something like a “wrong step” or a “false step” meaning one that was interfered with somehow.
sū jakīþa ja pa antēnnā ōl is “on a rock that could talk” (a rock which has the attribute able-to-talk), and is the location of the wrong step, implying one tripped over this rock.
“Yesterday I was going along the beach, when I tripped over a rock that could talk.”
wā
Continuing on the fifth sentence of the Babel text:
ē teteñ ien hēja ñanna lewēra tō tūaþ wā ñi ñēim makkepōlien rā anmārwi āñ pēxa;
wā is one of those words that can modify a noun phrase or a clause. In either case it carries a meaning of negation.
So far we have:
And they said to each other: We should make ourselves a name in order that not ….