Starlings' Song 5

Some final comments on this translation.

rodinití heroic deeds the stem is rodina hero.  The ending makes it into an abstract noun.

imbon song or hymn a neuter noun

I needed to create three words for names of bird species.  I chose in the end to look in a guide to birds of my local city.  I found out that 'starling' has been borrowed into Maori as taringi.  I borrowed that word and disguised it as tadrin.  

'Heron' came from the Maori word kotuku which I can trace back to a proto-Polynesian list of words.  The Kotuku is the white heron, a sacred bird in some traditions.  It crosses between the worlds of the living and the dead.  I made the word kôduk.

I was pleased to find the skylark in the guide.  Its Maori name is whioi, the whistler.  I couldn't find a word for 'whistle' so I used the word wúya, to blow. Wúyayon means 'instrument for blowing', I changed the ending to a diminutive, wúyayet, little whistler.  I don't rule out that the stem of the bird-name may change if I uncover a more suitable word.

The word for rain is wua.  Feminine nouns in the dative change the stem with the inclusion of an i-sound, wia.

Bina see, look is one of a handful of verbs that changes stem if it is in a dependent clause, a rule borrowed from Irish Gaelic.  In this case the dependent verb is wabina.

The sentiment of the last line appeals to me in this language.  Who knows the truth about birds?  My theory is we create language to make a model of the universe.  I think the Shente have a creation myth that when premye babik Yeu first grandfather Yeu said Ai petten? what's that? the universe came into being.

Now to play with something new.  See you in a while.

Starlings' Song 4

Ei rodinití imbon e tadrinte gúyet

Pena wia matina kôduk pret

Ninosht wúyayet bitwente dyayet

Chota lideyen e dengí so wabina?

Who sees the truth of birds?

who.nominative truth.accusative accompanitive.plural bird.plural be.relative dependent.see.infinitive.

The last line of four lines.  That was fun to do.  I will post a final note on this translation at a future time.

Starlings' Song 3

Ei rodinití imbon e tadrinte gúyet

Pena wia matina kôduk pret

Ninosht wúyayet bitwente dyayet

In the night the skylark worships the stars

locative-night skylark star.plural worship.present.singular

Starlings' Song 2

The second line:

Ei rodinití imbon e tadrinte gúyet

Pena wia matina kôduk pret

In the morning rain the heron washes

locative rain-dative morning-genitive heron launder.present.singular

Starlings' Song 1

I enjoyed working on the text from the Conlang Relay.  I've gone back and had a go at the first relay, the Starlings' Song.  Here is the first line:

Ei rodinití imbon e tadrinte gúyet

About heroics the song of starlings speaks

topic hero.abstract.plural song accompanitive.plural starling.plural speak.present.singular

Conlang Relay Nineteen: Some Final Observations

Habot is the word for rock or stone.  The plural is botí, which makes the stem bot with different affixes for the singular and plural.  It is also the word for milestone, and by extension the word for mile, the measured distance between stones.

Bena, mountain, is a feminine noun.  The genitive is benas.  After a verb of motion the indirect object is the accusative benan, otherwise bena is used for the indirect object as well.

This language has three gramatical genders: masculine, feminine and neuter.  Masculine nouns are usually unmarked after the stem.  Feminine nouns end in -a, neuter nouns in -on.  The plural endings are -í, -e, and -a.  There are other plural endings that have slipped into the language like the marker -ga.  Nouns and adjectives agree for endings in gender, number and case.

I have used surut, stream, to translate river, and ríon, brook, to translate valley as I don't have these words yet.  This would mean that ríon has the extended meaning of a watercourse that may be dry for part of its time.

Shradye means 'heart, emotional organ', different from heart, physical organ which pumps blood.  The phrase for 'sad' literally means 'troubled heart'.  The construction is repeated in the final quote as a balance.  Shradye is a feminine noun with a soft ending.

There are two stems for the word 'be at, be here': âya for inanimates like rocks, and íya for people and animals.

The associative preposition has different forms.  If it governs a masculine or neuter noun it is ya or a.  If it governs a masculine or neuter noun in an indirect clause after another preposition it is ye or e.  This form is also used before plural nouns.  If the noun is feminine it is yí or í.  The y is dropped if the word before it ends in a consonant.  In context it can mean 'and' or 'with'.  It can join verbs together as an infinitive marker.  It cannot join clauses.  In that case the conjunction dok is used.

Conlang Relay Nineteen Paragraph Four

Last paragraph:

Nidolgon poslí merega, luk ve dâyet lúb a kashte:

“Bodú ve seft nisha benan, dok bodú ve bint títíg haní, títíg bishí, ye títíg dúdwan.”

Premye habot ve kashte “Na'dâ wolenshim bina ten.”

Tal ve bonte, “Nas shradyega budet shaten nipana.”

Nidolgon poslí merega, luk ve dâyet lúb a kashte:

A long time after some days, the mouse came back and said:

locative.long-time after day.plural mouse.nominative non-present come.past return associative say.past

“Bodú ve seft nisha benan, dok bodú ve bint títíg haní, títíg bishí, ye títíg dúdwan.”

"I went beyond the mountain, and I saw the same grasses, the same seeds, and the same insects."

1s non-present gone.past locative.beyond mountain.accusative, then 1s non-present see.past demonstrative-plural.same-plural grass.plural demonstrative-plural.same-plural seed.plural associative demonstrative-plural.same-plural insect.plural

Premye habot ve kashte “Na'dâ wolenshim bina ten.”

The first rock said, "We don't want to see that."

first rock non-present say 1p.here want.present.plural.negative see.infinitive demonstrative.neuter

Tal ve bonte, “Nas shradyega budet shaten nipana.”

The other answered, "Our hearts will be happy forever."

other non-present answer.past our.plural heart.plural will-be.present happy locative.ever

Good night