Tag: sentences

Continuing with Gary’s list, and still experimenting with a one-a-day format:

35. We should eat more slowly.

“Eating” as ingesting uses the verb ono, which requires a source, namely one’s belly, kye. From a previous post, we determined that the evidential dɛstɛ with the hortative ki makes a suggestion. And in another previous post, we decided to make the adverb-modifying adverb no, which here will modify the adverb tosi “slowly”. So:

35. lɛnna kye gogɨdiya ono tosi no dɛstɛ ki.

Food should go more slowly to our belly.

In Kēlen:

35. hēya ñanta anhōhi anjīlni ānen antōxa nā;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list, and still experimenting with a one-a-day format:

34. Lovely flowers are growing everywhere.

OK, “growing”. Remember back in post #3 of this series when I said that olaya and tadya were not going to be prefixable, and then I made an exception for tadya + tɨŋi when it came to rain in post #6 of this series. Well, here we are in post #15, and I am going to make another exception. olaya can be prefixed to tɨŋi in order to describe plants growing (going up out of the ground). But not for sunrises or children getting taller, ok?

34. maladɨdi syoɬɨdi olatɨŋi nadi soti.

In Kēlen:

34. ñi jamāli jaxōλi jajāēli sūnnarien;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list, and still experimenting with a one-a-day format:

33. This mist will probably clear away.

“Away” again. OK, using pɛsi, what is the source? A nebulous (sorry) “here”? If so, I think I will make it “the mist” (syaggaga) rather than “this mist” (ha syaggaga). And probably is giya I think. It could be dɛga as that is for a certain future, or a very probable one, so just using dɛga might be enough for “probably will”, though I tend to use it more for “certainly will”. giya has more to do with potentiality and ability, so it is more like “possibly will/could”. So, let’s stick with giya. Except, I don’t really like using giya by itself for this, so let’s use it in conjunction with the adverb noya, which can be used to mean “much” or “many” of an adjective with the “to be” verbs. And since noya is modifying giya rather than pɛsi, it will take the form no and follow giya.

33. susi syaggaga pɛsi giya no tɛlɛ.

In Kēlen:

33. pa ankīhāe rēha ñi anxāhi rūjapēxa;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list, and still experimenting with a one-a-day format:

32. The two boys are working together.

Hmm. “are working”. That definitely implies motion, though it is motion in place. I suppose this can be expressed with a “to be” verb, using an abstract noun like “labor” as the destination: The two boys are standing in labor together. Yes. I like that. OK.

“Two boys” is the subject: kodna ɛnna. The verb is sɛdɛ, which is the default “to be” when humans are the subject. Labor, or rather “work, project”, is a class IV noun, kɛbɛdan, in the sessile singular. “Together” is the adverb nɨki:

32. kodna ɛnna sɛdɛ kɛbɛdan nɨki.

The two boys are working together.

In Kēlen:

32. ñatta jakēwīke jānīke ā mamōīñi ēnne;

The two boys are working together. (The two boys are making joint work.)

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list, and experimenting with a one-a-day format:

31. The baby’s ball has rolled away.

“Away” in this one signals that pɛsi is probably the verb to use. pɛsi requires a source, but that can easily be the baby (class I noun kyɨbe). As a source, kyɨbe will need to be in the sessile singular, unless the baby deliberately made the ball roll away. “Ball” is a class III noun, kyoda, which will need to be motile as it is the subject of the sentence. Which leaves “rolled”, for which we will use an adverb of manner, namely bɛldɛnya, for something that exhibits a rolling, turning, or spinning motion. Putting this all together:

31. kyɨbava kyodɨdɛn pɛstɛ bɛldɛnya.

The ball (presumably the baby’s) went away from the baby rollingly, or The baby’s ball has rolled away.

In Kēlen, any observer of this scene wouldn’t care about expressing the “rolling” part, because what else is a ball supposed to do, hop?

31. ñi jacāora rū macīwa;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

30. He will arrive soon.

This one uses ono, which requires a source. Arrive means to come to a place, usually where the speaker is, so we will use “here” as a source.

30. susi mava ono galaba tɛlɛ.

He will come here soon (I infer).

In Kēlen

30. anniþen ñi sāen rā þō.

He will go to here soon.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

26. Go away!
27. Let’s go!
28. You should go.
29. I will be happy to go.

Right. Generic “go” is usually tɨŋi, though “go away” is pɛsi. But pɛsi requires a source, so “go away from S”. The source is often susi “here, there”.

26. susi pɛsi ka

Go away from here! or Get away from here!

But,

26. tɨŋi dupɛsya ka

Go away!

also works. The rest of the sentences also use tɨŋi.

27. leni tɨŋi ki.

Let’s go.

28. ŋidi tɨŋi dɛstɛ ki.

You should go.

Evidentials are generally not used with commands and suggestions, but using the reported evidential dɛstɛ here with hortative ki makes this a polite suggestion.

29. lene tɨŋi andabalya dɛga.

I will be happy to go. / I will go happily.

In Kēlen:

26. ñi rūjapēxa ka;

27. ñanna rū þō cī;

28. ñarra rū þō cī;

29. rēha ñalla rū þō ānen anālne.

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

25. Slowly she looked around.

Well, “slowly” is easy enough. That is the adverb tosi. Looking and seeing is covered by the verb ono, which requires a source (the experiencer). The source here would be “she” in the form of “her eyes” ma doŋi. The subject would be whatever her eyes are experiencing, which is undefined in this sentence. Looking around implies looking in a place, and we know about places from the last post–soteya.

But ma doŋi soteya tono tosi is really “She saw the place slowly”. Looking has an agency to it that mere seeing does not. That can be solved by adding the causative/agentive –tto to the source. tto acts to increase the animacy of the source, which is equivalent in SL to increasing the agency. So ma doŋitto soteya tono tosi “She deliberately saw the place slowly.” or “Slowly she looked around.”

25. ma doŋitto soteya tono tosi.

In Kēlen:

25. sema jasēlni mo maroña ānen antōxa;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

24. Once wild animals lived here.

Well, “wild animals lived here” is a simple sentence. However, “live somewhere” as in dwell is one of those concepts that tends to be idiomatic in other languages. Of course, I already sort of came up with this in the Babel text, using

ɛlɛna mesɨdɛn mɛhaŋi dɛspi.

The people make settlements on the plain.

The adverb mɛya, when prefixed to aŋi means that D dɛspi is made out of A mesɨdɛn. However, for this sentence we are going to use ko “home” instead of dɛspɛdan “settlement”, which means that “here” is essentially the subject of the SL sentence, and “wild animals” is the source.

Regarding “here”, the usual word is susi, but susi cannot be used as a subject of a sentence. But, there is another word, sota “place” which can be used. It is a class IV abstract noun, so the motile singular is soteya. We might even make it more specific, saying deya soteya “this place”.

The word for animal is paki, pakina in the motile plural. It can mean any kind of animal, including pets, so we need the adjective “wild” to modify it. That would be gyɛttaɬ, making pakina gyɛttaɬna the source, deya soteya the subject, mɛhaŋi the verb, and ko the destination. Now all that is left is that pesky “once”.

“Once” to me implies that either the animals lived here long ago, or that however long ago it was, it will not happen again. The adverb tilɛnya mostly sort of covers that. Plus, we need the evidential dɛstɛ to explain how we know this.

24. pakina gyɛttaɬna deya soteya mɛhonnɨt ko tilɛnya dɛstɛ.

Wild animals once made home(s) here. (I’m told)

In Kēlen:

24. iēlte ñatta jamāra þō ā japāci;

Wild animals once lived here.

Questions?

The next three sentences in Gary’s list concern more rain:

21. The rain has stopped.
22. Soon the rain will stop.
23. I hope the rain stops soon.

21. tadna otni bodna.

bodna is an adjective. The construction N tɨŋi ADJ means that the N becomes ADJ.

22. tadna tɨŋi bodna galaba tɛlɛ.

tɛlɛ is the inference evidential. One could also say tadna tɨŋi bodna galaba dɛstɛ. “Soon the rain will stop (I’m told).”

23. lene kyɛsinɛn sɛdɛ tadna tɨŋi bodna galaba.

sɛdɛ is one of the three verbs to be. Its subject is something with a strong vertical configuration, like a person. Its subject can be either motile or sessile, which is why kyɛsi stays sessile. All of the to be verbs can take a clause in the destination slot, which refers to one of the subjects, in this case kyɛsi.

In Kēlen:

21. ñi antārranni antōrreni;

22. anniþen ñi antārranni antōrreni rēha;

23. sele jacēxa ien anniþen ñi antārranni antōrreni rēha;

Questions?