Tag: Relational

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wa

wa

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.

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te & la

te

te by itself can be either the past tense of se or of la. When in doubt, assume la, since se is usually inflected.

la

la is a relational that takes an object and asserts its existence. So, in the third sentence of the Babel text

ē teteñ ien
hēja ñanna jacālmi jajūti nā
aþ te sāim nīkan jacālmi ñe jakīþi
aþ te sāim nīkan ancēwri ñe anhērmi;

te merely asserts that the object or situation (sāim nīkan jacālmi ñe jakīþi in the first te clause, and sāim nīkan ancēwri ñe anhērmi in the second) is so. It is in the past tense because the whole narrative is in the past tense.

And they to each other (said)
we should make many baked bricks
and they with bricks as stones
and they with mud as mortar.

And that ends the third sentence. The fourth tomorrow.

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ke

ke

ke

ke is a particle that only occurs with the relational se. It denotes a volitional, animate source. In the ninth sentence of the North Wind and the Sun:

tō jāo temme jalerāen ien la malō pa antāken anānexa ke mūrāna masīrien;

ke renames the source referred to by the inflected temme. temme is se in the past tense plus a third person source and a third person beneficiary. The object of se is jalerāen “admission/confession” and what is admitted is la malō pa antāken anānexa “the sun is strongest”. The source of the admission, the person admitting this, is mūrāna masīrien “the North Wind”.

Thus:

tō jāo temme jalerāen ien la malō pa antāken anānexa ke mūrāna masīrien;
So, the north wind admitted that the sun had the most strength.

All that is left is to say se jatōrren “The end.”

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ā

aa

ā

ā marks an animate agent of ñi. In the current sentence:

il ñamma anūri nā ā mūrāna masīrien
il ñamma jalūra rā sāen āñ nō ā marāona;

we have two agents. The agent of the first clause is mūrāna masīrien, the North Wind. The agent of the second clause is marāona, the wanderer. In both cases ñi is inflected for a 3rd person singular agent. So we have:

happening at the same time:
the North Wind causing/doing something
the wanderer causing/doing something

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ñi

nji

ñi

ñi is one of the relationals. It denotes an object that has changed its state or location. ñi is often inflected for animate agent.

In the North Wind and the Sun, sentence four reads:

il aþ ñi marāona nīkamma jalūra jacālle rājanō;

We discussed marāona nīkamma jalūra jacālle yesterday. ñi plus rājanō (“along“) denotes the change in location of our wanderer with a warm cloak. Namely, that s/he is in motion along a path that leads to our protagonists.

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(la)…pa

pa

(la)…pa

pa is one of the four relationals. It concerns itself with whole::part and thing::attribute relationships. la … pa … is an alternative syntax and is best read as la THING pa ATTRIBUTE.

la … pa antāken anānexa
… has attribute: the most strength.

Tomorrow we tackle … .

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se

se

se

se is one of the four relationals, one of the four particles that stands in place of what would be a verb in English. Relationals tell one what to expect in the rest of the sentence. Se expects an object (such as a thing being passed from one person to another, or speech, or a feeling) and expects that that object will have a source (someone speaking, for example) and/or a beneficiary (such as someone experiencing a feeling). These may not always be expressed overtly, but they are considered to exist.

se, by itself, uninflected and followed by a simple animate noun phrase or a name is often used to introduce characters. The idea is that the unexpressed source is the person speaking or narrating the story, and the unexpressed beneficiary is the person addressed or the audience of a story.

So, in the first sentence of the North Wind and the Sun, we get introduced to our two characters using this uninflected se.