It’s been awhile since the last time we saw our two “Let’s make a language” conlangs in action. Since I’m a bit preoccupied right now, to the point where I’m not really “feeling” the series as much, I thought I’d change that. So, here we’ll see another short bit of text translated into our two favorite fictional languages.
A year and a half ago, I used the Babel Text. This time around, it’s another linguistic classic, Aesop’s fable of the North Wind and the Sun. I chose it because it’s very popular for comparative language research, and—oh, never mind. I picked it because it’s short.
The North Wind and the Sun
The version of the fable I’m using is lifted directly from Wikipedia. I’m not entirely sure which translation it is, so yours may be slightly different. Nonetheless, it’s not that difficult a text, except for some fairly complex grammar bits.
The North Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger, when a traveler came along wrapped in a warm cloak.
They agreed that the one who first succeeded in making the traveler take his cloak off should be considered stronger than the other.
Then the North Wind blew as hard as he could, but the more he blew the more closely did the traveler fold his cloak around him;
and at last the North Wind gave up the attempt. Then the Sun shined out warmly, and immediately the traveler took off his cloak.
And so the North Wind was obliged to confess that the Sun was the stronger of the two.
Isian
First up is Isian, and here’s what our little story looks like in it:
E Ul Naf wa e Sida nactas ed e folosin mid, ha ta usangam cosas cu disine ta him capat ijedo.
Is awcos ed ke costan hi ades los e usangam cu asine ey capat cal par pasa folosin dir a.
Ad e Ul Naf dosemay hi furus, nu i cu furus, e usangam otasis ey capat im oto;
ar tarkinas ni, e Ul Naf madeshis cu gati. Ad e Sida him hi shalis, ar necamay e usangam asines ey capat.
Teti e Ul Naf tole kinadid e Sida tes e folosin a o es naw.
Grammar
Mostly, the hardest part about translating this story is the sometimes complex sentence structure. Fortunately, Isian is fairly close to English in word order and the like (except for the postpositions thing), so it’s a lot more straightforward than it might seem at first glance.
That said, there are a few pitfalls. Lo, for instance, is a new verb meaning “to cause”. As you might expect from that gloss, it’s a causative verb. Its object is a subordinate clause, which makes things a bit hairy in line 2.
Most of the rest is just finding out which word to use. The indefinite pronoun ed is used to mean “which one” on line 1, and ijedo has a secondary meaning of “when” or “at the time of”.
Vocabulary
Not too much new vocabulary in this one, as you can see. Then again, there’s not a lot of text to translate, and it’s a bit repetitive.
- to dispute/argue: nacta
- about/concerning: mid
- strong: folos
- to travel: usanga
- cloak or coat: capat
- to cause, make happen: lo
- to take off, remove: asine
- other: dir
- but: nu
- to release, let go: madeshi
- to try, attempt: gati
- to shine: shali
- immediately, at this moment: necamay
- to admit, confess: kinadi
Ardari
Now we’ll move on to Ardari, and you can’t believe how much this one made my head spin.
Kyama Fawatövi Chitö qa èlldad am dortö mantö krazènedyt, tym jechinkön fynine pärine ilya ky vi tonad.
Ys bèt torydyid: Mantö qa jechinköntö ani pärine sudram ky twèralyët am dor zèt lembejëdall.
Drä, Kyama Fawatövi am dor èll ky furadökhan, adam furad jechinköntö ani pärine anön òs sòvadjyn,
Kyama Fawatövi èftanyntö zhajopad. Drä, Chitö fynin blajadjyn, jechinköntö ani pärine nyasab sudramad.
Ghinyas Kyama Fawatövi qa Chitö am dortö weghetö èllda is ky kómaryd.
Grammar
As with Isian, most of the grammar should be obvious. Here’s what’s not:
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-khan is a conjunction clitic. When added to a verb, it’s like saying, “, but…”
-
len- is a derivational affix for verbs, roughly connoting “in a specific way”. Here, it’s used to create lembejë- “to think of” from bejë- “to see”. (Usually, this will make a ditransitive verb, but Ardari is fairly free about dropping verbal arguments.)
-
The verb kóma- “to cause” works essentially the same way as Isian lo, taking a subordinate clause as an object. Again, this is much different from the English method of “that” followed by a clause.
Vocabulary
Note that, in this list of new vocabulary, I haven’t included regularly derived terms like jechinkön “traveler”.
- to dispute, argue over: krazèn-
- strong: dor
- when: tym
- to travel: jechin-
- coat, jacket: pärin
- to consider, see as, think of: lembejë-
- should (adverb): zèt
- to take off: sudram-
- but (conj.): -khan
- more: adam
- near, close: myll
- to give up, surrender: zhajop-
- to attempt, try: èfta-
- to shine: blaja-
- immediately: nyasab
- to make, cause: kóma-
Conclusion
And there we go. It was a bit later this year, and it wasn’t nearly as much as last time, but we’ve successfully added another extended text to our repertoire for Isian and Ardari. Hopefully, you can do the same for your conlangs, whatever they are.
Next month, we’ll pick back up with the usual topic-based posts. Specifically, we’ll be looking at government, because nobody’s doing that these days, right?
Will there be more translation exercises? Probably. Not this year, most likely, but stay tuned. Who knows? 2018 might have something even better in store.