Conlang Card Exchange 2012b

Second Line:

Ní âre premye babik Yeu ve shapâmet premyeron nenon. 

Ossí premyeron nenon wo' a?

conj first.neuter word be.past interrogative

In the beginning first grandfather Yeu said the first word.

And the first word was 'eh?'

The interrogative particle a usually comes at the beginning of a sentence where it acts like the English verb 'do' in a question: A shapâmet Yeu? Does Yeu speak?  In this text I decided to play with it and use it as an utterance of surprise: oh! hey! huh!  So for the Shente they say, In the beginning was the word, and the word was D'oh!  Maybe things started out differently for them.

Conlang Exchange Card 2012a

I posted my cards for the Conlang Exchange today.  Here is the first line:

Ní âre premye babik Yeu ve shapâmet premyeron nenon.

loc beginning.dat first.masc grandfather Y. nonpresent command.past first.neuter word

In the beginning first grandfather Yeu uttered the first word.

First grandfather Yeu is the primal ancestor of the Shente.  The Shente call him babik grandfather because everything originated from him.  Because of his importance the Shente use superior status language when talking about him.  He doesn't just say the first word, he commands the first word.

 The language of the Shente has grammatical gender.  Babik is masculine and nenon word is neuter.  The word for 'first' changes before each word, being premye before babik and premyeron before nenon.

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