Tag: sodna-lɛni

Continuing with Gary’s list:

61. We sailed down the river for several miles.

This sentence is a good use of dantɨŋi “go along a path”, with the river as the path. Boat can be the instrument, which is generally… hmm, I can’t believe I’ve gotten this far without an instrumentive marker of some sort. That wouldn’t be the same as the purposive at all. Probably the best candidate is the comitative –nɛn, and I think that is a very common pattern for natlangs, using a comitative for an instrument.

OK, now the “for several miles”: a unit of distance with a non-specific quantifier. amba dɛŋɛ would be the right phrase, but what about it’s relationship to the river, the actual path. I’m inclined to turn this into a possessive phrase “the river’s several miles” or “several miles of river”: tanan ha amba dɛŋɛ. Of course one dɛŋɛ does not equal one mile, but it is a distance along those lines.

61. lɛnna gɛdɛnɛn danotni tanava ha amba dɛŋɛ.

In Kēlen:

61. ñi lēim ānen jahēra sū jatāna il jarāŋŋi pē;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

60. Have you ever travelled in the jungle?

I think this sentence is a good use of eyaŋi “move about in”.

60. ŋidi eyonnɨt gyelele dɛmɛ?

In Kēlen:

60. ñi riēn rā anjēli mē kēñ;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

59. Are you going with us to the concert?

This is simpler than it looks, though I don’t have a word for concert. Let’s substitute some other destination, like a ceremony (katɛn, a class IV noun).

59. ŋidi lɛnnanɛn tɨŋi katɛn dɛmɛ?

In Kēlen:

59. ñi riēn nīkanle rā jakāenal kēñ;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

58. Does the robin sing in the rain?

Earlier, we had a kitten playing in the rain, where “rain” was the destination, and “playing”, or rather “game”, was the purpose/source. And the kitten was “moving about”. Here we have singing, and habitual singing at that. That would probably be “emitting song”, and “emit” is a verb I used early on for the sun shining and people shouting, evi. And, while evi doesn’t allow for destinations, it does allow a location like “in the rain”.

Except, no robins. I dislike birds. (Which is a little odd, ’cause I like reptiles, and birds are essentially modern dinosaurs. When I think of them like that, I dislike them a little less.) Let’s see, what could be singing in the rain? Maybe tiny flying hadrosaurs? Hmm. Maybe the lizards sing on this world. I have a word for that: udle. As for “song”, that would be syɨme, a class II noun.

58. udle syɨme evna tadnavi dɛmɛ?

In Kēlen:

58. ñaxxa ansāla ā jūlri il antārranni kēñ;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

57. Have the neighbors gone away for the winter?

“Going away” is pɛsi for sure. The subject is “neighbors”. Hmm. Back to that in a minute. The purpose (source) is “winter”, implying that the neighbors have gone away from the winter as well as because of the winter.

OK. Vocabulary. There ought to be a word for something like “neighbors”. But what? According to wiktionary, the word derives from something like “near-dwellers”. And if another language uses a different derivation, I can’t find it. So, people in the next camp? no is “near to” and ko is “home”, (and the Kēlen cognate means “hearth”. So noko? There is a collective suffix dɨn for people, so nokodɨn, a class I noun, for “a set of neighbors”.

As for “winter”, well there is the rainy season, which is humid and wet and rainy and has flooding and the occasional mudslide. Then there is the dry season, which is hot, and dry, and hot. I’m not sure which of those someone would leave for. Either way, I need some vocabulary. [pause for a moment while I create some more vocabulary] OK. The word for “season” or “half-year” is bɨɬɨs, a class IV noun. The rainy season would be bɨɬɨs tada and the dry season would be bɨɬɨs sɨdi.

57. bɨɬɨs tada nokodɨn pɛstɛ dɛmɛ?

In Kēlen:

57. ñi xō mēla rā þō il jīlcīlre nāra kēñ;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

56. Can you come tomorrow?

Again, we will use ono, and the source will be “here” as in “Can you come here tomorrow?”

56. susi ŋidi ono lannal dɛmɛ?

In Kēlen:

56. ñi riēn rā þō il lānnāl kēñ;

Questions?

A quarter of the way through and continuing with Gary’s list:

55. Is your sister coming for you?

As I mentioned before “come” is usually handled by the verb ono, which requires a location of some sort in the source slot. In this sentence, since “the sister” is the one moving, she is also the subject. And where is she moving? That is open to interpretation. We could say that the sister is moving to “you” or, she could be moving to a nebulous “here” with “you” as the purpose. In sodna-lɛni, the first interpretation would be the most basic, though it is neutral about whatever might happen next. The second interpretation would imply that then you and she would go on to do something else, which I think is closer to what the English sentence implies.

So, “you” as a purposive source, “here” as a locative source (ono‘s arrow of direction is reversed, so that the “destination” is actually in the source slot), and the sister as the subject.

55. susi ŋideya tiɬa ono dɛmɛ?

In Kēlen:

55. ñi matiē rā þō rā riēn kēñ;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

54. Did the man leave?

Well, this one is easy. Leaving uses the verb pɛsi, which requires a source, usually susi. So:

54. susi kyume pɛstɛ dɛmɛ?

In Kēlen:

54. ñi macūma rūjapēxa kēñ;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

53. Can your brother dance well?

Another question. There is no verb “dance”, but there is a class IV noun gyadad for the event or action of dancing. And if you are doing an activity, the activity is a location. But the question isn’t asking if your brother is dancing, but whether your brother can dance well. So the activity is treated like a mental or physical state, and is co-subject with “your brother” using a verb of stance. The adjective “well” is then put in the destination slot.

53. kaɬa gyadadnɛn sɛdɛ ge dɛmɛ?

(Your) brother stands with dancing well?

In Kēlen:

53. ñamma anjāri anhēi ā makāe kēñ;

Questions?

Continuing with Gary’s list:

52. Were you born in this village?

Ooh, questions! Questions are formed with the quasi-evidential dubitive adverb dɛmɛ, which expresses doubt. So you don’t actually ask a question, you express doubt about a statement, inviting affirmation or correction.

Asking about where you were born is idiomatic. It involves using the class IV noun molola “birth event” as a source. (Giving birth involves tɨŋi molola, with the birth event as the destination.)

52. molola ŋidi sɛdɛ dɛspɛ dɛmɛ?

In Kēlen:

52. ñarra jamāranrie sū jakēste il jamōla kēñ;

Questions?