jatāena
Welcome to my text for the LCC4 relay text. The first sentence (the title) is:
xiēn jē λi tānre jatāenamma;
This translates to: “Concerning Tānre’s story.” The word jatāenamma is a combination of jatāena “story, tale” and the suffix –mma, associating the story with a 3rd person entity, namely Tānre. And it is a weird story, too.
anlūnte
Last post on the final sentence of the 18th Conlang Relay Text:
ā macēna nīkamma sālne jajēren jē nā ñamma sū ma hāl jalāmīke jalūnte rājatā;
As mentioned yesterday, the object of ñi is the phrase jalāmīke jalūnte. jalūnte is the inanimate singular form of the stative attribute anlūnte. anlūnte means “shiny, lustrous, or sparkling” so jalāmīke jalūnte is a shiny, lustrous, or sparkling mask or veil.
“The woman with only a playful smile set down in front of him a shiny veil.”
Tomorrow I will start on the LCC4 relay text, which should take us through mid-June. After that, I am not sure what to blog about. Suggestions are welcome. Requests will likely be granted.
jalāmīke
We’re still on the final sentence of the 18th Conlang Relay Text:
ā macēna nīkamma sālne jajēren jē nā ñamma sū ma hāl jalāmīke jalūnte rājatā;
Looking at the main part of the sentence, we have the relational ñi signalling a change of state. Interposed between ñi and its object is a locative phrase sū ma hāl which means “at the front of him/her”. The reduced pronoun ma most likely refers to the other actor in our story, the carved statue of the young man. There is another locative phrase following the object, namely rājatā “to the bottom [of it]” which clarifies that the change of state is actually a change in location.
The object of ñi is the phrase jalāmīke jalūnte. I’ll discuss the first word today and the second word of it tomorrow. jalāmīke refers to a facial or head covering designed to obscure ones features, and so can denote a mask or a veil. So, “The woman with only a playful smile set down in front of him…” some sort of mask or veil.
anjēren
Now for the sixth and final sentence of the 18th Conlang Relay Text:
ā macēna nīkamma sālne jajēren jē nā ñamma sū ma hāl jalāmīke jalūnte rājatā;
This sentence has an unusual structure in that the ā phrase modifying the relational ñi (inflected for 3rd person singular) is in front of the relational instead of trailing at the end as usual. An ā phrase names an agent for the change of state indicated by ñi, and ñi is inflected to match. The ā phrase is ā macēna nīkamma sālne jajēren jē nā. The first word after ā is macēna “woman”, and then comes nīkamma which is an associative preposition and a bit redundant since the next word is the obligatorily possessed sālne “smile”. The smile is described as jajēren, the inanimate singular form of anjēren meaning “having to do with games or play, playful”. The phrase is finished with the modifier jē nā “merely, just”, which is likely what triggered the inclusion of the redundant nīkamma. So the whole phrase translates as “The woman with only a playful smile…”
anērre
We’re on the fifth sentence of the 18th Conlang Relay Text:
ewaþ ñi ē antiēleni nāra anrūēñi ē anērre ī;
And here is where I realize that I messed something up. It happens in every text, of course. So, anērre means “a sense of self-worth and dignity”. The original text implied that past events and dignity were both forgotten. But here forgotten (anrūēñi) is modifying past events (antiēleni) but it is not modifying anērre because anrūēñi and anērre have different inflections. The first is inanimate collective and the second is stative. The parallel ē … ē construction implies that anrūēñi and anērre have something syntactically in common. But, I messed up. And turning anērre into anērri in order to match anrūēñi doesn’t make semantic sense. I will think about this and someday figure out how to rewrite it so that the semantics and the syntax match. Suggestions are welcome.
anrūēñ
We’re on the fifth sentence of the 18th Conlang Relay Text:
ewaþ ñi ē antiēleni nāra anrūēñi ē anērre ī;
anrūēñ means “forgotten” or “no longer remembered”. It obviously is modifying antiēleni because it has the same inflection. So ñi antiēleni nāra anrūēñi is “all past events are forgotten”. Tomorrow I will discuss anērre.
antiēleni
On to the fifth sentence of the 18th Conlang Relay Text:
ewaþ ñi ē antiēleni nāra anrūēñi ē anērre ī;
This starts with the conjuction ewaþ “yet”, and then the relational ñi. The object of ñi is a double object, antiēleni nāra anrūēñi and anērre. Today’s word, antiēleni, means “past events”. Here it is modified by nāra which means “all, the whole of”. The rest of the phrase I will discuss tomorrow.
antāña
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;
The attribute antāña means “flushed (with a pale tint)” or “blushing”. The woman’s cheeks are flushed janēūñ ñe anmāe “pink like tea”.
“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 flushed pink like tea.”
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….”