Tag: Relay Texts

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antāλa

antaalja

antāλa

The second line of the LCC3 Relay Text:

la jāo pa anhē ja ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;

There’s only one unfamiliar word, here, and that is antāλi, a stative noun modifying antāoni in the changing refrain. antāλa means “having the qualities of chaos” so “chaotic, wild, unordered”. The first clause, la jāo pa anhē means “this has goodness”. It is followed by the relative pronoun ja, and then the refrain. So, “This is good, that the wild waves move away”.

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;
la jāo pa anhē ja ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;

I am at the edge of the stormy sea and the breaking waves move away
This is good, that the wild waves move away

Tomorrow the third line.

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anhūwa

anhuuwa

anhūwa

Still on the first line of the LCC3 Relay Text:

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;

anhūwa means “broken into pieces” and in this line it modifies antāoni “waves”. antāoni anhūwi is “the breaking waves” and ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa is “the breaking waves move away”. The phrase ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa really ought to be its own sentence, but since this is poetry, it is simply glommed on to the previous clause in a way that assumes an “and”.

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;
I am at the edge of the stormy sea and the breaking waves move away.

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jahāwa

jahaawa

jahāwa

Line 1 of the LCC3 Relay Text:

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;

jahāwa means “the end or edge of something”. Coming as it does after the phrase anālhāri anālri “stormy sea”, it refers to the edge of the stormy sea. The entire phrase anālhāri anālri jahāwa is the object of the preposition sū, which indicates a location. la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa “I am at the edge of the stormy sea”.

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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.

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jē nā

jeespacenaa

jē nā

Final post on sentence 7 and on the LCC2 Relay Text, concerning the talking rock.

ilwae sele jarūna wā mo lerōña to jakīþa jatēnnā jē nā;

jē nā is a modifier that can be a noun phrase modifier or a clausal modifier. Either way it conveys a meaning of “only”. In this sentence, combined with ilwae it adds emphasis so that ilwae … jē nā is “never at all” with an implied again.

ilwae sele jarūna wā mo lerōña to jakīþa jatēnnā jē nā;
I never had another sight of the talking rock at all.

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jarūna

jaruuna

jarūna

We’re on sentence 7 (the final sentence) of the LCC2 Relay Text, concerning the talking rock.

ilwae sele jarūna wā mo lerōña to jakīþa jatēnnā jē nā;

jarūna means “another sight or glimpse of something” and denotes that one has seen the thing before and is now seeing it again.

sele jarūna “To me: another sight”. ilwae sele jarūna wā is “Never to me another sight”. mo lerōña to my eyes, renaming the beneficiary here. And to jakīþa jatēnnā the source of the sight, the talking rock. And look, it’s got inanimate inflection. No more personhood for that mean ol’ talking rock.

“I never had another sight of the talking rock…”

Tomorrow jē nā and the end of this relay text.

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ilwae

ilwae

ilwae

On to sentence 7 (the final sentence) of the LCC2 Relay Text, concerning the talking rock.

ilwae sele jarūna wā mo lerōña to jakīþa jatēnnā jē nā;

ilwae is a clause-level modifier dealing with time, so an il-word. It means “never”. More on sentence 7 tomorrow.

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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.

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ja

ja

ja

We’re still on 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;

ja is the 3rd person inanimate reduced pronoun. There is no full pronoun for 3rd person inanimate. This form of ja looks exactly like the much more common inanimate relative pronoun ja . The reason it can’t be that ja is that there is no noun phrase in front of it.

The use of ja here initially looks ungrammatical because it refers to makīþa matēnnā, an animate noun phrase. And, indeed, ma would be entirely appropriate here. But, remember I talked about raising things to animacy and imbuing them with personhood. The opposite is also possible and one can interpret this as lowering the talking rock back into inanimate object status. And considering the rest of the clause and the next sentence, that is what is happening here.

ñalla ja rā anālhāri mē is “I moved it into the ocean” signalling a change in location for the talking rock.

The talking rock’s reply made me angry that I moved it into the ocean…”

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to

to

to

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;

to is used with se to mark an inanimate or involuntary source. makīþa matēnnā jerrasōr “the talking rock’s reply” is therefore the inanimate source for janūra “anger”. tele janūra to makīþa matēnnā jerrasōr is “The talking rock’s reply made me angry…”.

One might ask why se is used here and not ñi since I have just indicated a change of state to angry. But anger is an emotions, and emotional states are expressed with se. A more literal translation of tele janūra to makīþa matēnnā jerrasōr is “From the talking rock’s reply to me: anger”.

The talking rock’s reply made me angry…