nth ZBB Translation Relay (results out)

[Glass Half Baked]

I am planning to use Gullahonka, a Muskogean language of western Georgia, USA.

[Darren]

The torch has been sent and the relay begunned.

[foxcatdog]

I have translated the text and all is clear to me except for one element which i have guessed at its meaning and any confirmation of it being different won't change my translation although i have asked for what it means specifically. The text is also no longer in Amarin but rather a relative known as Manchakaa.

[Glass Half Baked]

Round one and already ahead of schedule!

[bradrn]

Round one and already ahead of schedule!

Yes, that would be because foxcatdog sent me a ‘grammar’ which is barely longer than a single page. I just hope it does contain enough information for me to make some sense of the text…

[foxcatdog]

I get minimalist grammar you get minimalist grammar.

[Lērisama]

Could I be moved down a place or two please? I've got stuff on the next two weeks and didn't consider the relay moving ahead of schedule, for which well done I suppose; you've successfully defeated my timekeeping expectations.

Edit: no longer necessary, see Bradrn's comment below.

[bradrn]

Could I be moved down a place or two please? I've got stuff on the next two weeks and didn't consider the relay moving ahead of schedule, for which well done I suppose; you've successfully defeated my timekeeping expectations.

Don’t worry, what with the other stuff I’ve got on I’ll probably need the full two weeks. (If I make it on time at all…)

[Darren]

Round one and already ahead of schedule!

Yes, that would be because foxcatdog sent me a ‘grammar’ which is barely longer than a single page. I just hope it does contain enough information for me to make some sense of the text…

That is the original idea of these relays.

[Lērisama]

Don’t worry, what with the other stuff I’ve got on I’ll probably need the full two weeks. (If I make it on time at all…)

Ah, excellent¹. I'll cancel that then.

¹ For me, at least

[Morkai5]

Hello! I would like to participate. I would do it with my conlang Naucan. It's an easy one!
It would be better if my turn was in July or August, but I see that there are enough people signed up.

[Darren]

Sure thing! I'll put you in the middle somewhere.

[bradrn]

A week on, and I’m still stuck on decoding foxcatdog’s text. It’s not been too difficult to gloss, but actually making sense of that gloss is a different story. The sum total of the syntactic information I’ve been given is ‘SVO, head-initial, clitics vary in position somehow’, which is not nearly enough. I’ve tried asking foxcatdog for clarification, but he’s not been particularly forthcoming. (Actually, he’s been the exact opposite of forthcoming — for instance, when I asked him to clarify the rules of clitic positioning in Manchakaa, he outright dismissed the question and sent me back some information on nominalisations in Amarin. Which is, for obvious reasons, unhelpful.)

So: what should I do? At this point any translation I give would be largely guesswork; I don‘t like that at all, but I can do it if people think it’s best. Alternately I suppose I could pass the text over to someone else (like Emily did last relay), though I have my doubts it would help at all.

[Darren]

A week on, and I’m still stuck on decoding foxcatdog’s text. It’s not been too difficult to gloss, but actually making sense of that gloss is a different story. The sum total of the syntactic information I’ve been given is ‘SVO, head-initial, clitics vary in position somehow’, which is not nearly enough. I’ve tried asking foxcatdog for clarification, but he’s not been particularly forthcoming. (Actually, he’s been the exact opposite of forthcoming — for instance, when I asked him to clarify the rules of clitic positioning in Manchakaa, he outright dismissed the question and sent me back some information on nominalisations in Amarin. Which is, for obvious reasons, unhelpful.)

So: what should I do? At this point any translation I give would be largely guesswork; I don‘t like that at all, but I can do it if people think it’s best. Alternately I suppose I could pass the text over to someone else (like Emily did last relay), though I have my doubts it would help at all.

I think it's probably best to just guess your way through. As long as you can end up with some kind of text it's okay if it's a lot of guesswork. I want to avoid skipping people because that drags things on and makes the relay less interesting.

[bradrn]

I think it's probably best to just guess your way through. As long as you can end up with some kind of text it's okay if it's a lot of guesswork. I want to avoid skipping people because that drags things on and makes the relay less interesting.

OK, I suppose I’ll just do that then.

[foxcatdog]

I've gone through the text and tried to parse it and have given some more information, modified some words and added some new ones. I've also given a fuller description of the syntax of phrases.

[bradrn]

I've gone through the text and tried to parse it and have given some more information, modified some words and added some new ones. I've also given a fuller description of the syntax of phrases.

Many thanks!

[bradrn]

Question: does it count as a ‘translation’ if it’s completely incoherent from start to finish?

[Lērisama]

Question: does it count as a ‘translation’ if it’s completely incoherent from start to finish?

That is the point of a relay, is it not?

Although I'm still not available until next week, so feel free to spend some time cleaning up if you want to.

[bradrn]

Question: does it count as a ‘translation’ if it’s completely incoherent from start to finish?

That is the point of a relay, is it not?

Yes, but not usually after one round!

Although I'm still not available until next week, so feel free to spend some time cleaning up if you want to.

I’m afraid that in any case I’ll need that extra time to clean up my dictionary…