< 8: Lortho by Brian Bourque Lusitanian by Doug Barton 10: iljena by Pete Bleackley >

Translated by: Doug Barton
Torch:
Lusitanian Text
Եιa x'aθrea μlecta vι caɼro μιxrιl ι δraʌo veɔιեւ· Eηtιδ luηat èեւηo ·ιμ δraʌo
·ιc òlo ɼa "Soδeեւ aեւμ vιβιa ɜιɜloեւ·"
Ol δraʌa v'èեւηa, "Οlδaեւ xa ɜιɜloեւ·" Ateβ èեւηa vι δraʌa, "Ete xreեւ x'à
xuδloեւ βι haro·" Luto δraʌa, "Haեւ ιlatιl?"
Maδa եւact èեւηa ɼa "Xrua laδar x'uηseեւ aβatloեւ βι haro· Veեւ ιβloեւ aηδraς
μotιl ժaեւ actιr ʌaեւ δextoc·" Lut
δraʌa, "Mռ ctrelδloեւ pro reaser δextà?" Կact èեւηa, "Mռ θetaեւ xa cιδea ʌarol
luβa xrol xa ժuեւ aβataեւ?"

Romanized Text (IPA characters with punctuation but no majuscules; only
non-initial stress is marked)
ðiə kh-aθ'ɾeə mjɛstə lɪ safɾu mɪ'kɾij ɪ dɾagu lɛ'ʒiw. e't̃hid jʊ'nat ɛwnu ʔɪm
dɾagu ʔɪs ɔju fə "ʃɔ'dew awm lɪ'biə
vɪ'vjow." ɔj dɾagə l-ɛwnə, "oj'daw khə vɪ'vjow." a'theb ɛwnə lɪ dɾagə, "eti kɾew
kh-a kʊ'djow bɪ haɾu." jutu
dɾagə, "haw ija'thij?" madə wast ɛwnə fə "kɾuə ja'daʁ kh-u'̃ʃew aba'tjow bɪ
haɾu. lew ɪ'bjow ã'dɾaʃ mɔ'thij ðaw
as'tiʁ gaw dɛx'thos." jut dɾagə, "mæ stɾej'djow pɾo hea'ʃeʁ dɛx'tha?" wast ɛwnə,
"mæ θɛ'thaw khə sɪ'deə
ga'ɾoj jubə kroj khə ðuw aba'thaw?"
Smooth translation:
Now let us change the subject to a little story about a clever dragon. Once a a
bird was talking to a dragon and
said, “I wonder if he ever lived.” The dragon said to the bird, “You know that
he lived.” The bird replied to the
dragon, “I thought he had hidden himself in the mountain”. The dragon asked,
“What mountain?” The bird
simply responded, “It’s sad to think he lived all alone in a mountain. To me it
showed a lot of courage living
there without clothes.” The dragon asked, “Did he fight to get his clothes
back?” The bird replied “Do you
suppose they laugh at us because they think you live over there?”
Translation of previous torch
ha: dʰamiden/naʔ/inan nolʰekʰi/me lalʰa tʰemaina hammi toshani/nalo kʰan.
interj Let us change subject/acc little story/nom clever dragon/gen about.
konpʰar/ikʰu akʰannu tʰen toshani/mela hana semanikʰu, “limed/in kaura
tʰomid/ikʰini rokʰa?”
Was speaking bird/nom with dragon/gen and said, I wonder interr he had lived
ever. who???
seman/ikʰi toshani akʰannu/mela, “denanannu tʰomid/ikʰini.”
Said dragon/nom bird/dat, You know he had lived.
remedʰ/ikʰu akʰannu toshani/mela, “hamed/ikʰinin nedanikʰini dʰarakʰime.”
Replied bird/nom dragon/dat, I had thought he had hidden (the)mountain/acc.
semanikʰi toshani akʰannumela, “kaura mashar dʰarakʰi?”
Said dragon/nom bird/dat, interr What mountain?
remedʰ/ikʰu akʰannu toshani/mela,“mekʰar/ikʰa hamet tʰomid/ikʰia dʰarakʰi/mela.
Liran/ikʰa malʰi
Replied bird/nom dragon/dat, It was hard to think it was living mountain/dat. It
showed big
kʰorti/me nima/mela. rushenikʰa minan/ime lima/ʔ/alikʰa/len.”
courage/acc them/dat. It embarrassed us/acc our clothing/instructive. wt*???
semanikʰi toshani akʰannumela, “kaura hankʰanikʰa kʰatʰuro shuma
la/ʔ/alikʰa/mela?”
Said dragon/nom bird/dat, interr it wanted to fight because-of its clothing/dat
?
remedʰ/ikʰu akʰannu toshani/mela,“hamed/ikʰanni shinalʰar/ikʰ/ia
Replied bird/nom dragon/dat, Do you suppose laugh/3S subject?/continuous?
minan/edan/ekʰon hamed/imi tʰomid/ikʰanni dinapʰadan.”
at us but they think you live over there. nonsense
Interlinear Missing
Glossary/mini dictionary
VOCABULARY (in order of appearance in text within each word class)
Adjectives
mɪ'kɾij short (spatial or temporal)
lɛ'ʒiw clever
ija'thij what, which questions existence, adjectival counterpart of
interrogative pronoun "what"
kɾuə sad
mɔ'thij much; many (with countables)
Adverbs
ðiə now, at this time (1st-person temporal deictic)
e'thid ̃ temporal particle marking an imperfect verb as past; may be translated
here as "once"
fə not translated; introduces direct speech, replacing a comma in writing and
pause in

speech; use is optional

lɪ'biə really, ever
eti not translated; as a temporal particle it marks the action of an imperfect
verb as

beginning in the past and continuing into the present

madə only, just, simply
u'̃ʃew alone
ðaw there, the place just mentioned (2nd-person spatial deictic)
mæ not translated; clause-initial interrogative particle
ðuw (over) there, yonder (3rd-person spatial deictic)
Articles (suffixed and stressless*)
-ə definite the
-u indefinite a(n) (< Old Lusitanian "one")
-i partitive some, some of (not in our text)
*An exception is when the partitive article is suffixed to a plural noun stem
(which ends in a palatalized
consonant). Here a prohibited sequence, *-Cji, becomes -'Ci, where the consonant
is de-palatalized but the
syllable receives stress in compensation (reflected in Lusitanian spelling:
unstressed -e /-i/, stressed -ι /'-i/).
Conjunctions
khə, kh- before vowel that; as subjunctive particle changes a 1st-/3rd-person
indicative verb into an imperative
ɪs and (connects clauses)
awm if, whether
pɾo in order to
jubə because (looks back to cause)
Nouns - stems are given in brackets where they differ from citation form; there
are no plural nouns in our text.
mjɛst topic, subject
safɾuʃ
1
(safɾ-) tale, story
ɛwn bird
dɾaw2
(dɾag-) dragon
haw2
(haɾ-) mountain
ã'dɾaʃ courage
dɛx'thos1
(dɛxt-) clothing, clothes; in plural = pieces of clothing
1
the epenthetic syllable /-uʃ/ (stressless) or /'-os/ (stressed) is attached to
undetermined nouns whose stems
end in a prohibited coda cluster, eg *-fɾ, *-kt. Although -kt > [-xt] in the
modern language, which is not
prohibited as a coda, -os is retained in dɛx'thos and -os or -uʃ in a few other
noun stems ending in -xt.
2 stem-final liquids and voiced peripalatals usually mutate to /-w/ in
undetermined singular nouns but resurface
as onsets (ie when a vowel-initial suffix is added to the noun).

Prepositions
lɪ (l-) to; as l-, marks indirect object pronouns (< Old Lusitanian dative
marker)
ɪ about, concerning, regarding (< OL accusative marker)
ɪm with
bɪ at, in (< OL locative marker)
gaw without
sɪ (sɪd- in text) from (< OL ablative marker)
Pronouns, personal (in matrix order not by appearance in text)
ew 1S I/me/my ej 1P we/us/our eə IP, addressee-inclusive (= 1 e + 2 a)
aw 2S you/your aj 2P y’all/y’all’s (not in text)
ow 3S he/she/it etc oj 3P they/them/their
a (Lusitanian orthography à) 1) reflexive object (any person or number); 2)
reflexive possessive adjective
(any person or number; must be used if the possessor is subject in its
clause).

Pronoun review
-- In writing, personal pronouns are suffixed as subject of a verb, object of a
preposition or possessive
adjective modifying a noun. In each case stress moves to the pronoun suffix
following regular rules (closed
ultimas are stressed unless a written accent appears elsewhere. The exception is
epenthetic final -uʃ).
-- Personal pronouns are written independently when they are direct objects
(where they precede their verbs).
There is no familiar/formal distinction in the use of 2nd-person Lusitanian
pronouns. Note the deictic adverbs
listed above also function as pronouns.
Verbs (stems before pronoun subjects are given in brackets)
infinitive imperfect finite perfect finite
aθ'ɾaʁ
1 aθɾu (aθ'ɾ-) aθju
2
(aθ'j-) switch, change (transitive only)

juna'thiʁ jʊ'nat (juna'th-) jʊ'natj (juna'tj-) converse, talk
ɔ'ɾaʁ oɾu (ɔ'ɾ-) ɔj
2
(ɔ'j-) say (modern use usually confined to narrative)

ʃɔ'daʁ ʃod (ʃɔ'd-) ʃodj (ʃɔ'dj-) wonder, question (intransitive only)
vɪ'viʁ viv (vɪ'v-) vivj (vɪ'vj-) live (be alive)
oj'daʁ ojd (oj'd-) ojdj (oj'dj-) know (something, a fact)
ate'beʁ a'theb (ate'b-) a'thebj (ate'bj-) respond
kɾeʁ kɾu (kɾ-) kju2

(kj-) believe (a fact), think, assume

kʊ'deʁ kud (kʊ'd-) kudj (kʊ'dj-) hide (in text reflexive "a kʊ'deʁ", hide
oneself)
jʊ'theʁ jut (jʊ'th-) jutj (jʊ'tj-) ask
wa'staʁ wast (wa'st-) wastj (wa'stj-) reply (to a question), answer
ja'daʁ jad (ja'd-) jadj (ja'dj-) contemplate, picture (something), consider
aba'thiʁ a'bat (aba'th-) a'batj (aba'tj-) live (somewhere)
ɪ'baʁ ibu (ɪ'b-) ibju (ɪ'bj-) show, demonstrate
a'stiʁ ast (a'st-) astj (a'stj-) remain, stay, stay put
stɾej'deʁ stɾejd (stɾej'd-) stɾejdj (stɾej'dj-) fight
hea'ʃeʁ he'aʃ (hea'ʃ-) he'aʃj (hea'ʃj-) win back, get back, recoup
θɛ'thiʁ khə θet (θɛ'th-) θetj (θɛ'tj-) suppose, imagine (that) (< θɛ'thiʁ put)
ga'ɾaʁ gaɾu (ga'ɾ-) gaju1

(ga'j-) laugh (laugh at = ga'ɾaʁ sɪ, literally laugh "from")
1 in infinitive endings, ɾ does not mutate to /w/ as expected in coda position
but > [ʁ], one of its two allophones.
2
liquids and voiced peripalatals collapse to /j/ under palatalization, eg *ɾj >
j.

For euphony a final stressless -u may be added to finite forms that have noun
subjects (or implied subjects/zero
subjects), producing doublets such as ɔj/ɔju, jad/jadu, θetj/θetju etc. There is
no difference in their meanings.
With most verbs euphonic u is inserted at the speaker’s discretion, but it is
mandatory in the following:
1) verbs whose stem-final consonant would otherwise mutate to -w: *oɾ > oɾu, not
*ow as expected in nouns
2) verbs whose stem-final consonant is part of a prohibited coda: *aθɾ > aθɾu
3) verbs with consonantal stems: *kɾ, *kj > kɾu, kju (stressed u in
monosyllables)
For no phonological reason, a few verbs like ibu, ibju lack simple forms (*ib,
*ibj) and so are irregular. Another
of these verbs, jɛstu, jɛstju (eat), is distinguished from the existential jɛst,
jɛstj (there is/are, was/were) only by
final -u. Uniquely, the latter has no -u variants.
Grammar notes
Pronunciation - only a couple points since this exercise is about translation
not Lusitanian phonology:
1) Two successive vowels (including V+/ə/) represent two syllables, never
diphthongs.
2) Sequences of vowel + /j/, /w/ are monosyllabic, whether analyzed as
diphthongs or VC sequences.
Otherwise the IPA is clear enough I hope. The text shows a couple allophones of
/ɾ/ ([h, ʁ]) and /k/ ([x]),
aspiration of /ptk/ in two environments, and the various vowel realizations. The
glottal stop /ʔ/ (represented
by the high dot · in Lusitanian orthography) is not a phoneme in Lusitanian and
only used between words as a
liaison device. No words in citation form begin with it.
Word Order
1) Unmarked word order is verb-subject. Personal pronoun objects
(direct/indirect/reflexive) precede the
verb, producing OVS. Noun objects follow the subject, producing VSO, but may be
fronted without particle
marking for emphasis or style (no examples in our text), or when the subject is
either implied or zero.
2) As expected with VS order, modifiers follow their heads, eg noun-adjective
and noun-genitive (none in our
text), and adpositions are prepositions, preceding their objects.
3) Adverbs almost always precede their heads: adverb-verb, adverb-adjective
(none in our text).
Inflection
Word order and/or prepositions show all syntactic relationships in Lusitanian
(rarely case-marking particles,
which are now semantically-empty prepositions – none in our text).
Morphologically, there is only one
instance of inflection in Lusitanian: Nouns/verbs palatalize their final stem
consonant to mark the plural (in
nouns) or perfect (in verbs). A few stem-final voiced consonants mutate to /j/
under palatalization or to /w/ in
coda position when not palatalized, but these are phonological processes, not
inflections, and will be shown in
the vocabulary. All other words are invariable in form (hence no agreement in
number/gender/etc between
any two words), although suffixation is common in personal pronouns and
obligatory in articles:
Suffixation
1) Personal pronouns are suffixed to nouns in writing, where they function as
possessive adjectives.
2) Personal pronouns are suffixed to verbs in writing, where they function as
subject of the verb.
3) Personal pronouns are suffixed to prepositions in writing as prepositional
objects, usually preceded by a
euphonic -δ- /d/ (noun objects are never suffixed to prepositions). The
so-called "dative" or indirect-object
pronouns are simply the preposition /lɪ > l-/ (to) + pronoun; the possessive
pronouns (mine, yours etc) are
simply /jɪ(d-)/ (of) + personal pronoun (none in our text).
Otherwise personal pronouns are written independently, ie as direct objects or
in citation.
4) The definite/indefinite/partitive articles are always suffixed to their noun
in writing.
In no case does suffixation in writing equal morphological inflection since,
aside from any euphonic consonant
insertion, word shapes are invariable in both head and suffix.
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