Monday, 28 June 2010

Sentence 1.6

Moving on we have an exchange between the host and his servant, Shinuwin. First the host calls the servant by name, Shinuwin. No use of the vocative marker. This might mean something, I don't know, everyone else will prove to be of equal status.

Shinuwin replies Íe, which means yes. Shinuwin is a good servant, attentive to his master's wishes.

The host calls him over Dâdâ!. It's a reduplicated command. The simple stem for come is . The same verb can be prefixed to other verbs to mean here, hither, to here, to the speaker.

When Shinuwin is in attendance his master gives him his instructions, Ei chomú-dâ kú druí. Yirú shahestant tai tí ta chomú, Someone is at the door; Go and see who it is. Most of this is self-explanatory. (I'm not sure of the order of the subordinate clause yet, we'll see.) Yirú is the simple imperative, it means go! Shahestant is the infinitive following the command and in this case is not joined by a preposition. Tai is a new word introducing the subordinate clause. This language has several different ways of introducing a subordinate clause governed by that or which, and this is the first that we have met. The clause that follows translates as Is he who?

Íe, Shinuwin goes to address the stranger at the door.

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