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Ring B: 10/20: iljena |
Pete Bleackley | ||
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| << Klingon | Old Tükwäi >> |
nerite jgada. eposen hfara hpuso ksipa djasa ijegd. ktada hfara hops wtigu oswive unves. watig mogn praka awamr. tnaja nkaja kvis ejgad kolv. ajegd ijigid kivas. kovs ejgad kolv kvisu esnas oswive unves. wutig bnaga oswive unves. wetigu mahne wmara ehfar mjaza stulo. iwteg thala bnaga ekavs kolt. witog hops esnas oswive unves. |
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The story describes a boy. Someone had removed the cold time to make the boy happy [1]. For a long, cold time, the student [2] saw the ice ship [3] approaching. The student dwelt in a field near the wall. A small black raven perched on the boy's shoulder. The boy tried to force the raven to leave. The raven held the boy's shoulder to see the teacher's ice ship come [4]. The student worried because the ice ship was coming. The student raised his hand to touch the wall, which was very cold [5]. The student became calm because the raven went into the cargo. The student rejoiced when the teacher's ice ship came.
[1] This is just as garbled in the Klingon, or at least that's my excuse.
[2] The student is presumably the same person as the boy.
[3] What's an "ice ship"? I came up with three alternatives -
A) An icebreaker. Plausible but prosaic.
B) A kind of large sledge with sails. Sounds fairly plausible, and seemed
to ring bells from somewhere.
C) A ship made of ice. A rather fantastical concept, but I liked it
and decided to run with it. Implausible but irresistible.
[4] These two sentences were joined with a "but" in the Klingon.
[5] The Klingon was "but it was very cold".
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Interlinear |
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story-describe boy-be. someone-remove cold-be time-undergo, purpose-make happy-be boy-benefit [1]. long-be cold-be time-hold student-see [2] ice-compose ship-come [3]. student-dwell field-hold nearby-be wall-stand. small-be black-be raven-perch boy-have shoulder-hold. boy-try boy-force raven-leave. raven-hold boy-have shoulder-hold raven-see teacher-have ice-compose ship-come [4].
student-worry reason-be ice-compose ship-come. student-raise hand-touch wall-be cold-have great-be manner-undergo [5]. student-begin calm-be reason-be raven-go cargo-hold.
student-rejoice time-hold teacher-have ice-compose ship-come.
Grammar |
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The most important feature of iljena grammar is that each word is both a noun and a verb. The consonants of the word comprise the nominal root, while the vowels and their arrangement with respect to the consonants give the verbal sense. An iljena sentence has no subject or object - everything is a participant in the action described, and each word describes the role that one participant plays in the action. Humans learning iljena (Literally "ljn speak", ljn (normally rendered "Leyen" in English) being the self-designation of the speakers) often find it difficult to chose appropriate vowels for the participant that they regard as the object, while ljn learning human languages have difficulty with the idea of separating objects from their actions. Word order is used to convey the flow of the action between the participants, and to bring together closely related participants. As "The Essential Guide to Alien Languages" puts it, "Morphologically, iljena is essentially a Semitic language turned up to 11. Syntactically, it is essentially a slightly exaggerated version of Mandarin."
If this all seems a bit abstract, an example sentence might help:
ewtag kvis mohn student.have raven.perch hand.hold The student's raven perches on his hand.
Vocabulary |
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Noun roots bng reason djs happy thing hfr cold thing hps time jgd boy klt cargo klv shoulder ksp purpose ktd long kvs bird similar to a raven mgn field mhn hand mjz great nky black thing nrt story nvs ship prk nearby thing psn somebody sns teacher stl manner swv ice thl calm tnj small thing wmr wall wtg student Verb patterns (the numbers 123 represent consonant positions) 12a3a be 12i3 perch 12i3a make 12i3u see 12u3o undergo 1a23e touch 1a2i3 dwell 1e2i3e describe 1e2i3u raise 1i2a3 leave 1i2o3 rejoice 1o23 hold 1u2i3 worry a1a23 stand a1e23 try e12a3 have e1a23 go e1o2e3 remove i12e3 begin i1e23 benefit i1i2i3 force o12i3e compose u12e3 come
| << Klingon | Old Tükwäi >> |
