Glossing challenge for Wena, an isolating language

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Imralu
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Re: Glossing challenge for Wena, an isolating language

Post by Imralu »

GLOSSES ADDED

MOAR!

OK, here's some more. It's not terribly systematic and to work out what everything is, I'll probably have to provide more sentences so feel free to ask "how would you say ..." or "would XYZ mean ..." kind of questions.

Hi e mba.
DEM.E COP house
[ˈhi emˈba]
= This/that is a house.

Hina i gwa.
DEM.E-1s COP fish
[ˈhinaj ˈgwa]
= This (here by me) is a fish.

Na i ze mu.
1s COP NEG.E know.AG
[ˈnaj ze ˈmu]
= I don't know.

Na i ze mu zyu ha na i mu.
1s COP NEG.E know.AG GEN.C Q 1s COP know.AG
[ˈnaj ze ˈmu ʒu ha ˌnaj ˈmu]
= I don't know if I know.

Na i ze mu zyu na i mu mya.
1s COP NEG.E know.AG GEN.C 1s COP know.AG GEN.what
[ˈnaj ze ˈmu ʒu ˌnaj ˈmu mja]
= I don't know what/who I know.

Na i bo mu zyu wa i ma.
1s COP want.AG know.AG GEN.C 2s COP what
[ˈnaj bo ˈmu ʒu ˌwaj ˈma]
= I want to know who/what you are.

He ze ngu nga.
JUSS.E NEG.E kill.AG.M* 1s
[he ze ˈŋu ŋa]
= Don't kill me!

*Ngu is one of the "semantic masculines". It refers strictly to an adult male (or animal/inanimate object) that kills. Most of these words have to do with violence. Also, this sentence is simply a noun phrase. Just a noun phrase directed at someone is calling them that thing, just like saying "idiot!" to someone in English, only in this case, it's basically "Man who should not kill me!"

Ze ngu i zyenda.
NEG.E kill.AG.M COP cause-strong.E
[ze ˈŋuj ˈʒenda]
= What doesn't kill (you) makes (you) stronger.

De i ngu zyi u lyu i mba nga u dya i nggo.
DEF.E COP kill.AG.M GEN.DEF.E ADV location COP house ADV tool COP stick
[ˌdej ŋu ʒiw ˌʎujmˈba ŋaw ˌdʒajŋˈgo]
= He killed/kills/will kill it in my house with a stick.
= Understood entity is (male) killer of understood entity, with location being house of me, with tool being stick

De i dwi ngu zyi u dya i mizyo zyi.
DEF.E COP dwi* kill.AG.M GEN.DEF.E ADV tool COP internal.E-head GEN.DEF.E
[ˌdej dwi ŋu ʒiw ˌdʒaj ˈmiʒo ʒi]
= She killed/kills/will kill it using her mind.

*A dwi is a person who breaks the gender taboos and takes on the wrong role. It is a very insulting word. In this sentence, it indicates that de refers to either a woman or a child (or an uninitiated man), while also condemning that person. For simplicity's sake, I translated the sentence with "she". It would also be correct to use go ("similar entity") in place of dwi. A woman cannot be a ngu as it means "man (or animal or thing) who kills", but she can be a go ngu "something similar to a ngu". This does not carry the sense of condemnation that dwi ngu does.

Lyu wo i ma?
location GEN.2s COP what
ʎu woj ˈma]
= Where are you?

Wa i zi mo zyi u lyu i ma?
2s COP PRF.E eat.AG GEN.DEF.E ADV location COP what
[ˈwaj zi ˈmo ʒiw ˌʎuj ˈma]
= Where did you eat it?

Ma i lyu zyu wa i zi mo zyi?
what COP location GEN.C 2s COP PRF.E eat.AG GEN.DEF.E
[ˌmaj ˈʎu ʒu ˈwaj zi ˈmo ʒi]
= Where did you eat it? (alternative)

De i zi ngu zyi gwi u (de i) mo (zyi).
DEF.E COP PRF.E kill.AG.M GEN.DEF.E fish ADV (DEF.E COP) eat.AG (GEN.DEF.E)
[ˈdej zi ˈŋu ʒi ˈgwiw (ˌdej) ˈmo (ʒi)]
= He killed the fish by eating (it). (The "de i" and the "zyi" in brackets are independently optional and don't have to occur together.)

Edit: Changed gwenda to zyenda, part of an arbitrary reform just because I like [ʒ] so much.
Edit: Swapping lu and lyu.
Last edited by Imralu on Sat Nov 26, 2016 5:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Glossing Abbreviations: COMP = comparative, C = complementiser, ACS / ICS = accessible / inaccessible, GDV = gerundive, SPEC / NSPC = specific / non-specific
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Imralu
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Joined: Tue Mar 28, 2006 9:14 pm
Location: Berlin, Germany

Re: Glossing challenge for Wena, an isolating language

Post by Imralu »

GLOSSES ADDED:

Ne mu i yu na i nda
undergo.AG know.AG COP C 1s COP strong.E
= It is know that I am strong.

Na i zyu na i gi zyonda u ba i wa.
1s COP GEN.C 1s COP slight.E head-strong.E ADV extreme.E COP 2s
= I don't think I'm as smart as you. / I think I'm less smart than you.

Mye na i mu zyu na i zinye (ba) nda u gi e wa.
but 1s COP know.AG GEN.C 1s COP PRF.E-PROG.E (extreme.E) strong.E ADV slight.E COP 2s
= But I know I'm still stronger than you.

The ba can be dropped in this sentence ....

Na i zyu wa i (ba) nda u gi e na u (wa i) hu.
1s COP GEN.C 2s COP (extreme.E) strong.E ADV slight.E COP 1s ADV (2s COP) man
= I think you'll be stronger than me when you're a man.

(The wa i in brackets can be dropped. The sentence would then technically be syntactically ambiguous but people can cope.)

Lo mo i zye zyu wa i (ba) nda u gi e na.
situation eat.AG COP cause GEN.C 2s COP (extreme.E) strong.E ADV slight.E COP 1s
= Eating will make you stronger than me.

Ha wa i bo (ba) nda u gi e na?
Q 2s COP want.AG (extreme.E) strong.E ADV slight.E COP 1s
= Do you want to be stronger than me?

Ha wa i bo nda do wa i he mo ya bandya gwi.
Q 2s COP want.AG strong.E thus 2s COP JUSS.E eat.AG GEN extreme.E-amount fish
= If you want to be strong, you should eat lots of fish.

U hu ye nda do wa i mwe ngge ya eda u me na.
ADV man ATTR strong.E thus 2s COP able.E hunt.AG.M GEN cassowary ADV accompany.AG 1s
= When you are a strong man, you can hunt cassowaries with me.

(The final phrase could be u me na, u me nga or maybe even u me i na or u na i me but the final two would have a slightly different sense, as if I were tagging along with you rather than you with me. U me na would probably be more common than u me nga but both are grammatically correct.)

Wana i mwe mo ya eda ye ne ngge wona.
2s-1s COP able.E eat.AG GEN cassowary ATTR undergo.AG hunt.AG.M GEN.2s-1s
= We can eat the cassowaries that we hunt.

The ya could also be dropped from the last two sentences. From a lot of sentences, actually, but maybe that's something a bit more advanced.

I homo! Yu wa i hu i he byu.
COP good.E-eat.AG | C 2s COP man COP JUSS.E fast.E
= Yum! I'm looking forward to you being a man.

I swear "homo" was entirely unintentional. It actually made me laugh out loud.

EDIT: With the silliness around "homo" I forgot to mention that the last phrase is probably hard because of the funny way they say "look forward to".

EDIT: Changed gwe to zye as part of a language reform just because I like post-alveolar voiced fricatives.[/quote]
Glossing Abbreviations: COMP = comparative, C = complementiser, ACS / ICS = accessible / inaccessible, GDV = gerundive, SPEC / NSPC = specific / non-specific
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