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.
ancē
On to the next sentence of the LCC4 relay text, sentence 10:
wā pa riēn ancē ja serle ien jasōra wījtē ja la lewēra lā;
wā pa riēn ancē consists of the negative clause-level modifier
wā, the relational pa, the 2nd person singular pronoun riēn, and the stative noun ancē “ability”. Not having verbs, one doesn’t have modals like “can” either, and so those concepts have to be conveyed some other way (if at all). wā pa riēn ancē is “You haven’t the ability” or “You can’t”. What you can’t do is in the subordinate clause modifying ancē. More on that tomorrow.
jahē
Sentence 9 in the LCC4 relay text:
kexien jahē lā;
Despite the fact that it looks like a noun, the word jahē is another clause-level modifier. It is one of the several words for “yes” and it implies that this is as it should be. Combined with kexien and with the exclamatory marker lā, the woman is saying “Of course, yes (as it should be)!” and the combination of these three in this context implies sarcasm.
I have often wondered if there was a proper emoticon for sarcasm, and now think that maybe I should create one (or a word or a sentence construction) to convey it in Kēlen. Though, on second thought, that might defeat the purpose of using sarcasm in the first place.
kexien
Sentence 9 in the LCC4 relay text:
kexien jahē lā;
Here is a three word sentence that is going to require two posts. 🙂
kexien is a clause level modifier that denotes that the speaker has expected whatever is in the clause. I usually translate it as “of course”, but “expectedly” is also correct. So the woman is signalling that she expected this sort of situation.
jamārienne
Sentences 7 and 8 in the LCC4 relay text:
ē tema jāo mo macēna sasāra ī temme jamārienni ien la lerōña ñe mamōra mīña kēñ; sere jakīña ien ñi jatēnnīke ja pa liēr kēñ;
tema jāo mo macēna sasāra is “the woman hears this” and temme jamārienni is “she laughs”. jamārienne is the word for a laugh, and the plural here implies ongoing laughter. Furthermore, since the laughter is followed by the woman repeating back what Tānre has just said to her, it implies laughter and speech interposed.
The woman hears this and laughs, “My eyes are like small moons? You wish that we were joined in marriage?”
liēr
On to sentence six in the LCC4 relay text:
sele jakīña ien ñi jatēnnīke ja pa liēr;
More of Tānre’s speech. sele jakīña “I want” and ien ñi jatēnnīke ja pa liēr, which is what is wanted. ñi jatēnnīke is “become joined as family” and really can refer to adoption as well as to marriage. Here it seems to obviously refer to marriage. Then comes ja pa liēr, which modifies jatēnnīke. liēr is a dual pronoun meaning “you and me” or “you and I”, making it a 1st person inclusive dual pronoun.
“I wish that we were joined in marriage.”
anīña
Here are sentences four and five of the LCC4 relay text:
temme ien la rixōλa ñe jajāra; la rirōña ñe mamōra mīña;
This is what Tānre said. We know this from the temme ien at the beginning of sentence four. se followed immediately by ien is generally a quote marker. la rixōλa ñe jajāra “your beauty is like a dance” is a fancy way of saying “you are graceful”. la rirōña ñe mamōra mīña is “Your eyes are like small moons”, mīña being the animate singular inflection of the stative anīña which means “little” or “small” in size or volume.
anlāmen
The third sentence of the LCC4 relay text:
ñamma jacērja ja semme jasōri rēha ā λi tānre ma ñi malāmen;
So, the second relative clause. This is ma ñi malāmen and it modifies Tānre. anlāmen means “hidden”, so ma ñi malāmen is “who has become hidden”.
Tānre, who was hidden, decided he would say something to her.
jacērja
The third sentence of the LCC4 relay text:
ñamma jacērja ja semme jasōri rēha ā λi tānre ma ñi malāmen;
This one has two relative clauses! The main clause is ñamma jacērja and the agent referred to in ñamma is renamed in ā λi tānre. jacērja means “choice” or “decision”. So “Tānre made a choice” or “Tānre chose”.
The first relative clause is ja semme jasōri rēha and it modifies jacērja, thus detailing the choice that Tānre made. semme is se plus a 3rd person source and a 3rd person beneficiary, jasōri “words” is the object of se, and rēha is a future marker. The choice, then is for someone (Tānre) to give someone else (the pretty woman) words, or to say something to someone.
So far we have: Tānre made a choice to say something to her.
I will tackle the second relative clause tomorrow.
ōl
On to the second sentence of the LCC4 relay text:
iēlte ñi macēna maxōλa rā jatōna nō sū jatāna ōl;
There’s not much to say here. iēlte is “Once upon a time”, ñi … rā jatōna nō means that someone is going along a road; macēna maxōλa “a pretty woman”, the object of ñi, is that someone who is going along the road; and sū jatāna ōl means above or on top of the river.
I have talked about ōl before, in the context of rā and rū phrases. It’s not much different in sū phrases. While ōl means top, it can also mean up or above depending on context.
In any case, the phrase sū jatāna ōl modifies the whole sentence.
“Once upon a time a pretty woman was going along a road above the river.”