Vreleksá

achemel · Joined: 29 Mar 2009 Posts: 556 Location: up for debate

Once there were two donkeys. One was a domesticated animal and had heavy bags on his back. The other was a wild animal, and it was naked. Those two donkeys met. The wild donkey asked the domesticated donkey, “Aren’t those bags heavy?” And the domesticated donkey answered, “What does ‘heavy’ mean?” – From Love Roma (a manga)

I thought this might be interesting. Does your conlang accept the hypothetical situation that animals could speak? Do animals actually speak in your conlang's world? Is this indicated in any fashion, as opposed to humans/other creatures speaking? Would you use "naked" to describe a wild animal? Just things to contemplate. Wink

achemel · Joined: 29 Mar 2009 Posts: 556 Location: up for debate

And, here it is in ddamychal, because it's the easiest for a quick translation. Wink

As a note, the speakers of ddamychal actually do use "naked" when referring to animals, due to the large populations of outworlders that have no clothing and are somewhat less than human in appearance. In context it can be somewhat derogatory to call someone a "naked (whatever)." Also there is not and never has been an animal in their world that resembles a donkey, and "horse" actually is not exactly a horse as we know it, and /zhankhald/ is an approximation given to any creature that remotely resembles a /khald/, which resembles a horse. And one more thing; I've written it in a very colloquial style, due to the nature of the original conversation I took it from, although the person telling the story speaks in a formal style, even though they're children... I just felt it would suit it better to be very grammatically familiar rather than correct.

Anyway. The explanation is now almost longer than the translation and the gloss combined. Rolling Eyes

ddamychal:
Ihar azachkh sif zhankhaldin. Pa halakh ga-khiam tuzehanta, shi herakh dahenan chara kha ami chiás. Al-meli halakh ga-khiam khta, shi hesakh halteha. Te sif zhankhaldin hikhni. Al-zhankhald khta siuekh an al-zhankhald tuzehanta, “Halni chara te dahenan, fethe?” Ghe al-zhankhald tuzehanta shalrakh ga, “Llor sa ‘chara’?” – im Love Roma

/once be-(pl.)-PAST two strange-horse-pl. one be-PAST a-animal tame-PP-ADJ. and have-PAST bag-pl. heavy on he(GEN) back the-other be-PAST a-animal wild and be-PAST naked that two strange-horse-pl. meet-PAST-pl. the-strange-horse wild ask-PAST (at) the-strange-horse tame-PP-ADJ. be-PRES-pl. heavy that bag-pl. (tag) and the-strange-horse tame-PP-ADJ. answer-PAST thus, how mean-PRES heavy/