Reciprocal Translation Challenge: Translate Each Other's Conlangs
Posted: Tue Aug 06, 2019 12:35 pm
I propose a new relay game, wherein we translate a short sentence (should be relatively simple and basic to accommodate grammars of varying levels of completeness) from another's conlang. Maybe for the first few rounds we work with the same sample sentence.
In the process, hopefully we point out missing pieces of grammatical description, new vocabulary that's needed etc.
Since I'm starting off, I'll start by translating something into Zompist's Old Skourene which I've been rereading recently. Sections I found currently untranslatable based on existing grammar and lexicon are in brackets.
The sample I chose is from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Ḍaigi mandimadoḷ aṭaḍi ḷa-uanni(?) [in dignity and rights]. Bauiṭşim dilad ebudera, nsul-aḍediri.
be.born-DES-3p person-PL-all free and-be.same(?) []. inherit-3p.INAN-3p reason consciousness, therefore-act.as.brother.to-3p-RECIPR
I'd be surprised if I got all of the verb conjugations correct, and as you can see, I could not find a noun meaning equality, nor a verb meaning "be the same" so I pretended the connector nen- could be a verb meaning that. However, I also couldn't figure out how to do a delimitive "as far as diginity and rights" nor could I find the nouns dignity and rights. For "be endowed with" I used baṭş- "inherit" and "act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood" happens to be a simple verb. How did I do?
In the meantime, would someone like to take a crack at Duriac?
Duriac Grammar | Lexicon
In the process, hopefully we point out missing pieces of grammatical description, new vocabulary that's needed etc.
Since I'm starting off, I'll start by translating something into Zompist's Old Skourene which I've been rereading recently. Sections I found currently untranslatable based on existing grammar and lexicon are in brackets.
The sample I chose is from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Ḍaigi mandimadoḷ aṭaḍi ḷa-uanni(?) [in dignity and rights]. Bauiṭşim dilad ebudera, nsul-aḍediri.
be.born-DES-3p person-PL-all free and-be.same(?) []. inherit-3p.INAN-3p reason consciousness, therefore-act.as.brother.to-3p-RECIPR
I'd be surprised if I got all of the verb conjugations correct, and as you can see, I could not find a noun meaning equality, nor a verb meaning "be the same" so I pretended the connector nen- could be a verb meaning that. However, I also couldn't figure out how to do a delimitive "as far as diginity and rights" nor could I find the nouns dignity and rights. For "be endowed with" I used baṭş- "inherit" and "act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood" happens to be a simple verb. How did I do?
In the meantime, would someone like to take a crack at Duriac?
Duriac Grammar | Lexicon