Habakkuk 1:8

Started by Eltu Lefngap Makto, November 30, 2011, 02:40:46 PM

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Eltu Lefngap Makto

I'm giving myself the reward of translating another verse because I finished another paper.  I'm in grad school and getting back into studying is really hard after ten years off!

My translation of the Hebrew:
Their horses also are swifter than leopards, and are more fierce than the evening wolves. Their horsemen proliferate. Yes, their horsemen come from afar. They fly like an eagle that hurries to devour.

Na'vi:
Lu fa'li feyä win to sanhìpalulukan, lehrrap to aynantang txon'ongä.
Pa'li aymakto feyä virä ulte ftu alìm za'u.
Tswayon fo na toruk a lu letxi fte yivom.

Back to English:
Their direhorses are faster than freckled-thanators, more dangerous then viperwolves of nightfall.
Their horse-riders proliferate and come from afar.
They fly like a leonopteryx which is frenzied to eat.

Yes, I made up a word for 'leopard': tanhì+palulukan.
'Ivong, Na'vi!

`Eylan Ayfalulukanä

Hmmm.... Habakkuk was the book I originally intended to do ;)

I have been really busy, and hope to catch up with your prolificness by this weekend.

I like sanhìpalulukan, but in general, we shouldn't be creating words like that. We need to work with the vocabulary we have or leave troublesome words untranslated for now (the Klingon Bible does a lot of that). We can use a construction like palulukan fa sanhì or maybe even palulukan-fa-sanhì, although hyphes have a specific meaning in Na'vi. You could always just use palulukantsyìp. Although that is generalizing a bit, palulukantsyìp does not have an attested meaning (you can establish the exact meaning in context). And -tsyìp is freely productive.

You are good enough at linguistics to benefit from a careful reading of William Annis's reference grammar, if you haven't read it already.

Yawey ngahu!
pamrel si ro [email protected]

Eltu Lefngap Makto

I just picked this verse because I wanted to use the verb 'fly' and toruk for 'eagle'.  Didn't mean to step on your turf!  ;)

So, aside from the neologism, no complaints?  I wondered about the compound pa'li makto in the plural.  Somewhere I read about such compounds, but I couldn't find it.  The last five words were also tricky.  I really thought about win säpi, but I wanted to use the txi root since it seemed less about speed and more phrenetic.
'Ivong, Na'vi!

`Eylan Ayfalulukanä

I haven't had the time to go through these verses word-by-word yet (this stuff helps me, too by helping expand my vocabulary and think each word choice through). But I'll comment on one idea. I think your pa'li aymakto is good because the plural here falls on the riders. A very weak argument could be made for pa'liyä aymakto (and this was the subject of the posts you were referring to), but I don't think you really need that here.

It looks like I will have more time than anticipated this weekend to look at what you have done.

As far as 'stepping on my toes', this is not a problem. I have other projects to work on right now (including managing the Dothraki dictionary) that are keeping me more than busy enough. (BTW, the Bible-in-Dothraki project will eventually come. That language will be easier from a terminology sense, but it is much more challenging gramatically.)

Yawey ngahu!
pamrel si ro [email protected]

Eltu Lefngap Makto

Quote from: `Eylan Ayfalulukanä on December 01, 2011, 04:11:10 PM
much more challenging gramatically.
That was the right thing to say to get my interest up!  Where can I found out more?  What was this language invented for?  How much well-spoken/written content is there for it?  Is there a grammar book/document?
'Ivong, Na'vi!