Tag: Mood

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kā

kaa

kā

We’re on sentences 12 and 13 of the LCC4 relay text:

temme ke λi tānre ien pa liēn ancē ja selre ien jasōra wījtē ja la riwēra; temme ke macēna ien serle jāo kā;

Two line of dialog here. First, Tānre says, “I have the ability to tell you the three words of your name.” Then the woman says “Tell it to me.”

I mentioned yesterday that in sentence 11, the woman used cī, a hortative which is often used as a polite imperative. Here she uses the actual imperative, kā, as a sign of her growing impatience with poor Tānre.

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hōkēñ

hookeenj

hōkēñ

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

ñaxxa jāŋŋeren nā ā majjārien ānen ankēwīke pē hōkēñ;

hōkēñ is a combination of the prefix hō and the mood marker kēñ. kēñ has been blogged before as the mood marker governing questions. Being prefixed with hō makes the question a “how” question. So, “How do the dancers make much beauty with little effort?”. This sentence is unchanged from the original.

Tomorrow, the final sentence!

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tōkēñ

tookeenj

tōkēñ

We’re still on sentence 4 of the LCC2 Relay Text:

telme jakēña mo makīþa matēnnā ien tō wā terle jasōra xiēn jē jaþīña tōkēñ;

I’m starting this clause with the last word for a reason. Namely, the tōkēñ at the end is related to the tō at the beginning. tō here is essentially the same tō as here, a conjunctive particle meaning “because”. It is not actually required for the sentence to be grammatically correct, but, hey, redundancy is good!

tōkēñ is this particle glommed on to the interrogative mood marker kēñ to ask “why” something. The initial tō here is followed by the clause-level modifier wā which negates a clause, so altogether tō wā … tōkēñ (or wā … tōkēñ) is “why not” or “why isn’t” or “why didn’t”.

telme jakēña mo makīþa matēnnā ien tō wā terle jasōra xiēn jē jaþīña tōkēñ;
I asked the talking rock, “Why didn’t…”

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lā

laa

lā

We are on the last word of sentence eight of the Babel text:

il tamma ien rēha ñatta janahan ja se jaþēŋŋe jacē lā;

lā is mood marker denoting emphasis. This is probably best translated with an exclamation point!

“Then he said, they will make anything that that can be proposed!”

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hēja & cī

hēja

This is a deontic modal marker that modifies the third clause of the Kēlen rephrasal of the 1st article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It usually translates as ‘should’, and indicates an admonishment to be as described in the third clause.

cī

Is a commissive mood marker and commits the speaker (which in this context is the 1st person paucal/collective encompassing everyone) to do as described in the third clause. Since the 4th clause is subordinate to the third, it is included in this as well.

Confused yet? These two operate together to put a mild imperative and a should into the third clause, like so:

tō jāo hēja senneñ anēla anciēri ke mān mo mīþa
therefore should we to each other personhood courtesies from one to other
therefore we should give to each other the courtesies of personhood
ien sexe mo maþūskīri mo sāim maþūskīriēma cī
that to them to weft-kin to them their weft-kin must
that are given to weft-kin and to their weft-kin

And that concludes the Kēlen rephrasal of the 1st article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Our progress:
tō la mēli manaren tēna ñe anhēnārīki anīλi jañāona jañēie
‘Because each person is an equal thread in the cloth of society…’
tō pa ñēim tēna ē lenārre ē lewēren
‘Because we each of us have soul and identity…’
tō jāo hēja senneñ anēla anciēri ke mān mo mīþa
‘Therefore we should give to each other the courtesies of personhood’
ien sexe mo maþūskīri mo sāim maþūskīriēma cī;
‘That are given to weft-kin and to their weft-kin.’

Tomorrow, more emotions.