Search found 234 matches

by marconatrix
Thu Jan 12, 2017 8:37 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Questions about Welsh
Replies: 308
Views: 61161

Re: Questions about Welsh

In Cornish (and Breton), the -enn (f. sing.) can itself sometimes take a plural -ow where it would make semantic sense. E.g. gwels 'grass, grassland, pasture' (W. gwellt ); gwelsenn 'a blade of grass'; gwelsennow '(several individual) blades of grass'. Breton : geot , geotenn , geotennoù .
by marconatrix
Fri Jan 01, 2016 10:24 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Questions about Welsh
Replies: 308
Views: 61161

Re: Questions about Welsh [was: Welsh "yn"

The words which in the spoken language largely take over the signalling of negation were in origin, and still are to some extent, intensifiers. ni ... ddim = 'not (even) a fragment', ni ... eriod 'not ever' and so on. mo and its inflected forms mono fo etc. < ni ... ddim o 'not a bit of ...'. Where ...
by marconatrix
Tue Dec 29, 2015 8:27 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Questions about Welsh
Replies: 308
Views: 61161

Re: Questions about Welsh [was: Welsh "yn"

The third person alternations between y mae and yr ydyw etc. is not specifically about negation; mae is only used in direct positive statements, other forms are used in questions, negatives, relatives etc. Mae , judging by equivalent forms in Cornish and Breton, seems to have had a locative ('there ...
by marconatrix
Tue Dec 29, 2015 4:12 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Questions about Welsh
Replies: 308
Views: 61161

Re: Questions about Welsh [was: Welsh "yn"

Ah, now I see you've got confused by the yd- prefix on present tense of the verb 'to be'. This is nothing to do with the negative and may simply have been mildly emphatic. In Welsh it has no semantic content as far as I'm aware. Whether it's added or not, and to which persons seems to depend on styl...
by marconatrix
Tue Dec 29, 2015 3:53 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Questions about Welsh
Replies: 308
Views: 61161

Re: Questions about Welsh [was: Welsh "yn"

With regards to wanting my conlang's grammar to be inspired / influences by Welsh I have noticed something which I think I could do without incorporating. Welsh seems to reiterate negatives: (Ry)dw i Dydw i ddim Except that in colloquial speech the verb is often dw in both cases. You need to look b...
by marconatrix
Sat Dec 26, 2015 6:53 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: European languages before Indo-European
Replies: 812
Views: 193188

Re: European languages before Indo-European

I can't get the PDF, cos Academia.edu I'll see if I can attach it here ... ... but I get "the extension pdf is not allowed". The file seems to consist of page images which are quite readable but not good enough for my software to scan and convert to text. But I don't see your problem, IIRC I never ...
by marconatrix
Sat Dec 26, 2015 1:27 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: European languages before Indo-European
Replies: 812
Views: 193188

Re: European languages before Indo-European

I've only been dipping into this thread now and again, so this might be old news. Anyway this article has just been brought to my attention and looks to be very relevant : https://www.academia.edu/7041551/Non-Indo-European_root_nouns_in_Germanic_Evidence_in_support_of_the_Agricultural_Substrate_Hypo...
by marconatrix
Thu Dec 10, 2015 11:16 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Questions about Welsh
Replies: 308
Views: 61161

Re: Questions about Welsh [was: Welsh "yn"

Something else which has bugged me about Welsh - when I was at primary school (so under 11 years old) we had to do certain things in Welsh, like ask for permission to visit the toilet, answer the attendance register, write the date (except in English lessons) etc. We were taught to ask the time by ...
by marconatrix
Thu Dec 10, 2015 10:51 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Questions about Welsh
Replies: 308
Views: 61161

Re: Welsh "yn"

Hopefully the book will expand on what the BBC Learn Welsh PDFs teach, and then some. This is purely out of curiosity: There is a brand of milk here in North Wales called Calon Wen which I know means White Heart , but why is white wen and not gwyn ? I'm guessing that the loss of "g" is soft-mutatio...
by marconatrix
Wed Dec 09, 2015 12:39 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Questions about Welsh
Replies: 308
Views: 61161

Re: Welsh "yn"

"Chwaraeodd y plant ..." will often have a perfective edge to it. "The children (have) played ...". You're looking back at the event from the present. If you say "Roedd y plant yn chwarae ..." = 'The Children were playing' or '... played', you're watching the the ongoing action, a sort of mental rec...
by marconatrix
Thu Dec 03, 2015 10:24 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Questions about Welsh
Replies: 308
Views: 61161

Re: Welsh "yn"

All of the modern Celtic languages form the equivalent of a present participle by prefixing a (more or less gramaticalised) preposition to the verbal noun (gerund??) Welsh uses 'yn' [(ə)n] which otherwise means "in" but without the nasal mutation of the preposition 'yn/ym/yng'. So 'yn mynd' "going" ...
by marconatrix
Wed Sep 09, 2015 2:45 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin version?
Replies: 20
Views: 5623

Re: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin vers

OK, I think Nimrodel is getting close to doggerel, not inspiring like the Galadriel verse, but all the same, here's the start :- Moren Edhleg, neb o mar splann, 'vel sterenn dres an jydh, Hy fows owr-emlyz, marthuz kann, ha'y 'skizyow glas perfydh. Kelmyz dh'y thal, yth o sterenn, hy gols o goloweg,...
by marconatrix
Tue Sep 08, 2015 7:26 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin version?
Replies: 20
Views: 5623

Re: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin vers

Fair enough Sal. You have to understand my mindset. I began by thinking that there must be a Sindarin original out there somewhere. Or even if unpublished, if JRRT had composed it at least with S. in mind, then we might suppose that it would fall back into Sindarin quite 'naturally' for anyone famil...
by marconatrix
Tue Sep 08, 2015 6:42 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin version?
Replies: 20
Views: 5623

Re: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin vers

Searching around the Web I've now come across some more translations. One to Quenya and two to Sindarin, although the quality may be doubtful. They're here : http://xelag.home.xs4all.nl/quenya_comp_i_sang.html http://tara.istad.org/translations.htm#galadriel http://www.lotrplaza.com/archives/index.p...
by marconatrix
Tue Sep 08, 2015 5:41 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin version?
Replies: 20
Views: 5623

Re: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin vers

I'll bite. In Gallo-Brittonic, in a fairly literal reading without much concession to poetry: dolyās wo·cecana, dolyās auri, etic dolyās tumīssont ... Nice one Dewrad, forgive me if I don't get stuck into this until I've finished working through Zaarin's version. There's three loan-words in here: t...
by marconatrix
Mon Sep 07, 2015 8:19 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin version?
Replies: 20
Views: 5623

Re: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin vers

Here is the exact opposite sound texture. I sang of leaves ... Jjup wexnz jot wqp vcznxcznx wqkup chap synp, wop kap wqkup pvpcyp synp [ⁿdʑù wênə̄ɴ dʒó wɒ̀ vv̩̄tsə̂ɴtsə̂ɴ wɒ̄kù tɕà sz̩̀ɴ, wò kà wɒ̄kù pʙ̩̀tsz̩̀ sz̩̀ɴ] leaves gold TOP 1 sing\1S~MAJ 3=ADV PST, and there 3 grow PST ... Well, yes, that'...
by marconatrix
Mon Sep 07, 2015 8:07 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin version?
Replies: 20
Views: 5623

Re: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin vers

A couple of extra lines got added in an edit, I think probably while you were replying. I'm done for tonight but thanks for your attention. My knowledge, such as it is, mostly relates to Middle and Modern WCB, The modern Gaelics and a bit of Old Irish. (If you want to see what happens if a language ...
by marconatrix
Mon Sep 07, 2015 3:33 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin version?
Replies: 20
Views: 5623

Re: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin vers

@ zaarin : Well it has lost IE /p/, has /kw > p/ and /Cs, Ct/ > /xs, xt/ so in that it looks Gaulish, i.e. p-Celtic. And it has what look like reasonably familiar IE noun and verb inflexions. OTOH most of the roots are unknown to me, so a heavy substratum effect? Also you show consistent initial str...
by marconatrix
Sun Sep 06, 2015 11:33 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin version?
Replies: 20
Views: 5623

Re: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin vers

Right, I'll go away and study that and get back to you. I'm thinking the relationship between Brigantian and Neo-Brittanic ought to be roughly equivalent to that between Quenya and Sindarin. Ueruχselobrigas? 'Over-high-nobles' ??? Where did they live then. There's nowhere in Britain that's *that* fa...
by marconatrix
Sat Sep 05, 2015 10:12 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin version?
Replies: 20
Views: 5623

Re: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin vers

That signature would be mine. :D I have also searched for a Sindarin (or Quenya, given that "Namárië" is in the High Elven tongue) original of "Galadriel's Lament," but, to my knowledge, if such a thing existed Tolkien did not record it. Yes, I kept finding the Namárië piece, I probably thought Sin...
by marconatrix
Sat Sep 05, 2015 8:12 pm
Forum: Conlangery & Conworlds
Topic: Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin version?
Replies: 20
Views: 5623

Galadriel's Lament for Lórien : 'Original' Sindarin version?

When I was on here the other day I saw the lines "But if of ships I now should sing ..." as someone's sig and half remembering the quotation put it into a search engine, expecting it to be Yates or some such. It is of course from LOTR. So hunting around I found the full text here : https://www.youtu...
by marconatrix
Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:07 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: please call stella
Replies: 23
Views: 7365

Re: please call stella

Why have you got your head inside a tin bucket?
by marconatrix
Sat Jun 20, 2015 1:04 am
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread
Replies: 2225
Views: 448426

Re: The Great Proto-Indo-European Thread

KathAveara wrote: IMO, gemination is quite likely, as it would explain the consistent doubled writing, its application to almost all consonants, and the "lenition" laws (V­̄́CCV̀ > V­̄́CV̀ and V̀CCV̀ > V̀CV̀) very easily.
Could you explain those vowel diacritics. Was Hittite a tone language??
by marconatrix
Wed Jun 17, 2015 5:25 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Proto-Indo-European Lexicon
Replies: 75
Views: 16849

Re: Proto-Indo-European Lexicon

Interesting, Thurneysen (s) 190 (English trans.) associates this word with the weak verb damnaid 'to tame' ('cause to submit'?) ( s. 692 end), and the noun 'ox' OI dam , and gives the following cognates : Skt. dā'myati ; Gk. δάμνημι , δαμάζω , δαμάλης ; L. domare ; Goth. tamjan . How is the long vo...
by marconatrix
Tue Jun 16, 2015 6:10 pm
Forum: Languages & Linguistics
Topic: Proto-Indo-European Lexicon
Replies: 75
Views: 16849

Re: Proto-Indo-European Lexicon

JOUNA: This item can be added yes, but it is different. The DIL lemma daimid pr. i. ACT.-pres. ind. 3 sg. damuid, -daim is meant Just to avoid any confusion, da(i)mid /daμ'ıð'/ is the citation form of a verb (3s pres), root daim- /daμ'-/ + -id /-ið/ < unstressed /-iθ#/ < IE /-V+ti/, 'to allow, subm...