Langs and Conlangs

January 31, 2011January 21, 2011

samōra

The third line of the LCC3 Relay Text:

ñi nāra lemōra ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;

lemōra is the 1st person possessed form of samōra, “one’s dreams”. The first clause, ñi nāra lemōra is incomplete, “All my dreams (become something).” The second clause, the refrain, is again “the wild waves move away”. Putting these two clauses together usually requires some sort of conjunction or relative pronoun or both. As it is poetry, the juxtaposition of these two clauses leads one to interpret this line as “All my dreams become the wild waves moving away”.

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;
la jāo pa anhē ja ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;
ñi nāra lemōra ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;

I am at the edge of the stormy sea and the breaking waves move away
This is good, that the wild waves move away
All my dreams become the wild waves moving away

Tomorrow, we start line 4.

January 30, 2011January 21, 2011

nāra

The third line of the LCC3 Relay Text:

ñi nāra lemōra ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;

nāra is a modifier meaning “all” that generally comes after the noun it modifies. Here it comes before it, likely because of something having to do with meter. Poetry, remember. lemōra will be discussed tomorrow.

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;
la jāo pa anhē ja ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;

I am at the edge of the stormy sea and the breaking waves move away
This is good, that the wild waves move away

January 29, 2011January 21, 2011

antāλa

The second line of the LCC3 Relay Text:

la jāo pa anhē ja ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;

There’s only one unfamiliar word, here, and that is antāλi, a stative noun modifying antāoni in the changing refrain. antāλa means “having the qualities of chaos” so “chaotic, wild, unordered”. The first clause, la jāo pa anhē means “this has goodness”. It is followed by the relative pronoun ja, and then the refrain. So, “This is good, that the wild waves move away”.

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;
la jāo pa anhē ja ñi antāoni antāλi rūjapēxa;

I am at the edge of the stormy sea and the breaking waves move away
This is good, that the wild waves move away

Tomorrow the third line.

January 28, 2011

Friday Cat Pictures

P1260005

Glowing eyes, we have them.

P1230001

Even Foxybutt.

January 28, 2011January 21, 2011

anhūwa

Still on the first line of the LCC3 Relay Text:

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;

anhūwa means “broken into pieces” and in this line it modifies antāoni “waves”. antāoni anhūwi is “the breaking waves” and ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa is “the breaking waves move away”. The phrase ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa really ought to be its own sentence, but since this is poetry, it is simply glommed on to the previous clause in a way that assumes an “and”.

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;
I am at the edge of the stormy sea and the breaking waves move away.

January 27, 2011January 21, 2011

jahāwa

Line 1 of the LCC3 Relay Text:

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;

jahāwa means “the end or edge of something”. Coming as it does after the phrase anālhāri anālri “stormy sea”, it refers to the edge of the stormy sea. The entire phrase anālhāri anālri jahāwa is the object of the preposition sū, which indicates a location. la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa “I am at the edge of the stormy sea”.

January 26, 2011January 21, 2011

anālre

Continuing with our theme, today we start on the text for the LCC3 Relay. The original text was a poem contributed by David J Peterson. I have mixed feelings about translating poetry. I’ve never been good at poetry, even in a conlang. On the other hand, it does provide an opportunity to mess with the syntax and vocabulary. And having a refrain means less to translate, which can be a plus or a minus.

So, the first line:

la liēn sū anālhāri anālri jahāwa ñi antāoni anhūwi rūjapēxa;

Unfamiliar words include anālri, jahāwa, and anhūwi.

anālri is the stative anālre inflected to modify anālhāri “ocean”. anālre means “having to do with storms, having the quality of a storm” or “stormy”, so anālhāri anālri is “stormy ocean”.

Tomorrow jahāwa.

January 25, 2011January 10, 2011

jē nā

Final post on sentence 7 and on the LCC2 Relay Text, concerning the talking rock.

ilwae sele jarūna wā mo lerōña to jakīþa jatēnnā jē nā;

jē nā is a modifier that can be a noun phrase modifier or a clausal modifier. Either way it conveys a meaning of “only”. In this sentence, combined with ilwae it adds emphasis so that ilwae … jē nā is “never at all” with an implied again.

ilwae sele jarūna wā mo lerōña to jakīþa jatēnnā jē nā;
I never had another sight of the talking rock at all.

January 24, 2011January 21, 2011

jarūna

We’re on sentence 7 (the final sentence) of the LCC2 Relay Text, concerning the talking rock.

ilwae sele jarūna wā mo lerōña to jakīþa jatēnnā jē nā;

jarūna means “another sight or glimpse of something” and denotes that one has seen the thing before and is now seeing it again.

sele jarūna “To me: another sight”. ilwae sele jarūna wā is “Never to me another sight”. mo lerōña to my eyes, renaming the beneficiary here. And to jakīþa jatēnnā the source of the sight, the talking rock. And look, it’s got inanimate inflection. No more personhood for that mean ol’ talking rock.

“I never had another sight of the talking rock…”

Tomorrow jē nā and the end of this relay text.

January 23, 2011January 7, 2011

ilwae

On to sentence 7 (the final sentence) of the LCC2 Relay Text, concerning the talking rock.

ilwae sele jarūna wā mo lerōña to jakīþa jatēnnā jē nā;

ilwae is a clause-level modifier dealing with time, so an il-word. It means “never”. More on sentence 7 tomorrow.