Tag: sentences

Continuing with Gary’s list:

176. The dress of the little princess was embroidered with roses, the national flower of the Country.

Well, no country, so no national flowers. And no princesses. Sorry, Puey. I could come up with a rough paraphrase, but it wouldn’t include that phrase modifying roses. Bah. Let’s look at a few more:

177. They wore red caps, the symbol of liberty.
178. With him as our protector, we fear no danger.
179. All her finery, lace, ribbons, and feathers, was packed away in a trunk.
180. Light he thought her, like a feather.

I could probably come up with something for 177. It wouldn’t be a symbol of liberty, though. 178 I can do, though it would be two clauses. 179? Oh dear. Lace? No. Trunks are also problematical. At this point I am spending more time trying to twist the vocabulary into something my conculture might actually have that it is getting out of hand. Then we get to 180, and I am ready to call it quits. No. Just, no. I think I have come to the end of this exercise. I’ve already identified several places where my grammar needs serious work. I think that rather than go on, I will quit. I will go on vacation, I will come back. I will contemplate the deficiencies of my current grammar. I will hopefully come up with cures for those deficiencies. I will do some more work on vocabulary. Someone has a conlanger’s thesaurus, right? 🙂

Then after all that I will probably revisit this exercise, revising what I already have and doing more sentences per post.

Continuing with Gary’s list:

176. Sit here by yourself.

This is another one that looks like a reflexive but isn’t really.

176. ŋidi tɛndɛ susi naddeya ka.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

175. I feel ashamed of myself.

This is not actually a reflexive, or rather, it doesn’t have to be. As a simpler “I am ashamed”, we have “I go about in shame.”

175. lene eyaŋi iɬɛt.

But then I asked myself how would I say “I am ashamed of him.”

lene mava iɬɛtnɛn ono.

Which means one could say:

175. lenada iɬɛtnɛn ono.

but the previous sentence is more likely to be found in the wild (so to speak).

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

172. He proved himself trustworthy.
173. We could see ourselves in the water.
174. Do it yourself.

More reflexives. The first one is closer to “He made himself trustworthy.” The last one translates really to “Go by yourself”.

172. mahanɨt gɛnada omɛt.

173. le doŋi lɛnnanada tono gadava kadeya.

174. ŋivaŋya tɨŋi ka.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

170. I hurt myself.
171. She was talking to herself.

These are reflexives, in the sense that the same argument appears in two different roles. For reflexives (subject to change) the pronoun is not repeated, but suffixed with a reflexive suffix that varies by person and noun class (which is a touch of whimsy on my part).

170. lenada otni tude.

171. mahanɨt deya duso.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

169. The little girl made the doll’s dress herself.

The first is similar to the previous two. On the surface it looks like it has a reflexive, but really, that means by herself or alone. Also, I am also going to simplify doll’s dress to doll.

169. laki ɨsa gyɛdɨdɛn omɛt naddeya dɛstɛ.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

167. We will make this place our home.
168. The squirrels make their nests warm and snug with soft moss and leaves.

These two use the same structure.

167. leni kohɨdɛn eyɛmɛ da sota dɛga.

168. kyɨlna lomɨdi kyalɨdi kɨdlɨdi eyɛmɛ gɛŋyi mɛsyi malinɛn dɛstɛ.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

166. We consider them our faithful friends.

This is two clauses, but the second is elaborating on the subject of the first clause. So it goes in the otherwise empty destination slot.

166. lɛnna dɛɬɛ ono mavna sɛdɛ syanna loŋina.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

165. Be satisfied with nothing but your best.

This sentence translates to “Do not go about comfortable without your best.”

At this point I’ve decided to treat adjectives somewhat like Latin adjectives. They look like nouns, but can take their class from what they modify or are assumed to modify. In this case best is assumed to be modifying a class III noun muhe, seen a couple of sentences ago.

I am also experimenting with using a set of adjectival possessive pronouns. We’ll see if they stick or not.

165. ŋidi andanɨdɛn ŋivɨdɛn tɛpa eyaŋi kɨdla voya ka.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

164. Show the guests these shells, my son, and tell them their strange history.

Actually, not that complicated, just two clauses. We already covered vocatives, which tend to come in the source slot. And extraneous possessives like “their” are generally assumed rather than expressed.

164. koda, ŋidi dɨdi gɨlɨdi tɨŋi madɛlɛnavi mavnavi doŋinavi ki ladi ŋidi satteneya mɛɬodeya tɨŋi mavnavi sadnavi ki.

Questions?