| Smooth translation: |
(1) It's about a joke and the cleverest of the artificial waterfowl.
(2) The waterfowl said, "I learned that I was created."
(3) I'm an artifical one!
(4) A game fowl said, "You're indeed an artificial one!"
(5) The waterfowl said, "Any courageous ones spy from a mountain!"
(6) The game fowl asked, "Where's that mountain?"
(7) The waterfowl said, "Some who have been cut by a knife stand in that land
and are always discomforted by their pants."
(8) The game fowl said, "Anyone who didn't put on long pants fights!"
(9) And the game fowl and the clever waterfowl joked that being alive is
discomforting. |
| Translation of previous torch |
This translation had both an easy part and some extremely difficult parts. The
easy part was because May28 and Valaklwuuxa are syntactically similar. However,
the text was full of non-sequiturs and there were a couple of phrases I couldn't
translate into either English or May28; these were replaced or omitted. Finally,
I had to revise the May28 grammar in order to make the translation less clumsy. |
| Glossary/mini dictionary |
This lists the verbs and particles. Verbs are cited using the -a ending. The
action type letter and class number are combined, e.g. T3 = telic and
transitive. A = agent and P = patient.
baha S2 stand
blitka S3 A spies on P
bre'ka H1 game fowl
cjaaba S1 where (interrogative)
dan det universal quantifier, "all"
danna H1 always
dau conj begin quote (direct speech)
diisa S3 A knows fact P
fenka H1 waterfowl
fiila D3 wear
gema A1 alive
gin conj and (clauses)
gora T3 create
ha det indefinite
hena T3 A makes joke P
hjoobra H1 pants
hlaaya H1 mountain
iga T3 A tells P (complement clause)
laa det distal demonstrative, "yon"
misa S1 be me/us (1st person singular or exclusive plural)
moga S3 A possesses P
na conj while, when (temporal)
nida H1 knife
njuuga A1 clever
nusa S1 be you (2nd person)
on det non-referential, "any"
por prep from
raaga A1 long
s Q many, much (plural)
selpa H3 A is a story about P
sima H3 P is part of A
soo det medial demonstrative, "that/those"
taba S3 A is in P
te det definite
tlenta T3 cut
trooya H1 land
xlespa A3 A is discomforted by P
xrega D3 fight
yos conj and (phrases)
zjolta A1 courageous |
| Grammar notes |
Morphosyntactically, there are only verbs, which are inflected, and various
kinds of uninflected particles. Verbs are classified 2 ways: (a) according to
action type and (b) according to agreement class.
The agreement classes are:
1. sole argument is patient (P)
2. sole argument is agent (A)
3. both agent and patient are specified or implied (transitive or bivalent)
Agreement for bivalent verbs is direct-inverse with a 2 > 1 > 3 hierarchy.
ORTHOGRAPHY
An ASCII romanization is used here to avoid the diacritical marks normally used
(cj, nj, sj, zj, and hj are the substituted digraphs, along with double
vowels).
MORPHOLOGY
Each action type defaults to a particular aspect when the aspect isn't marked.
The action types are:
H. habitual or long-term process (habitual aspect)
A. scalar (static; stative aspect)
S. static (non-scalar; stative aspect)
D. dynamic (non-telic; progressive aspect)
T. telic (aoristic aspect, may imply past tense)
The marked aspects that occur are:
ba- perfect
fi- habitual
go- aoristic (may imply past tense and/or inceptive derivation)
Other prefixes are:
doo- affirmative polarity
le- indicates head of complement clause
The agreement suffixes that appear here are:
-a 3rd person proximate agent and 3rd person obviative patient OR
3rd person intransitive subject
-ar 3rd person obviative agent and 3rd person proximate patient
-(i)ma 3rd person agent, no patient (antipassive)
-ji 1st person singular agent and 3rd person patient
-ta 3rd person patient, no agent (passive)
-cji 1st person singular patient, no agent (passive)
Other suffixes are:
-il instrumental applicative (replaces patient with instrument)
SYNTAX
The syntax is head-modifier, with the head of the clause preceding the sole core
argument phrase (if any is expressed). Core argument phrases must agree with the
head verb in person and number. When both arguments of a transitive verb are 3rd
person, the proximate argument is usually supplied by an earlier clause with the
core argument being obviative.
A prepositional phrase and/or complement clause may follow the argument phrase.
For a few verbs (such as "tell"), the complement clause acts as a 3rd argument;
otherwise, it replaces the obviative argument (in which case, the proximate
argument phrase may appear).
A phrase begins with a determiner, which may be followed by a possibly enclitic
quantity word. The phrase's content is provided by subsequent relative clauses.
A relative clause consists of the head verb possibly followed by its sole core
argument.
If the relative clause verb is intransitive, no phrase is possible. Otherwise,
assuming both arguments are 3rd person, the proximate argument is relativized,
so that the phrase must be obviative.
The determiners used are listed in the vocabulary.
The quantity words used are:
s enclitic plural, "many"
A scalar verb preceding a partitive (sima) construction is semantically
superlative. |
