Question

[Wokan AtanŽeko]

The quote is "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." (Thomas Edison)

[Nyx]

Moved this to beginners, the home of such questions. You'll be more likely to get answers here

[Wokan AtanŽeko]

Moved this to beginners, the home of such questions. You'll be more likely to get answers here

ok thank you

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Sadly there isn't a word for "to fail" yet.

Leaving it in untranslated and assuming it is intransitive we'd get something along the lines of:

ke [f<ol>ail] oe, run zazama fya'ot a ne tseng alahe

Using a  work around for fail we could get:

ke rolun oel fya'ot a ne tseng a new fìkrrvay a fì'ul ke leykam tsnì ke riyevun oel pumit kawkrr

This is very metaphorical and best translated as "that I haven't not found the path to where I want up to now does mean that I will never find it", note that this does make an assumption about how "leykam" would be interpreted and on its syntax when using relative clauses so is potentially very dodgy but does, I think, sound quie nice.

[Wokan AtanŽeko]

Sadly there isn't a word for "to fail" yet.

Leaving it in untranslated and assuming it is intransitive we'd get something along the lines of:

ke [f<ol>ail] oe, run zazama fya'ot a ne tseng alahe

Using a  work around for fail we could get:

ke rolun oel fya'ot a ne tseng a new fìkrrvay a fì'ul ke leykam tsnì ke riyevun oel pumit kawkrr

This is very metaphorical and best translated as "that I haven't not found the path to where I want up to now does mean that I will never find it", note that this does make an assumption about how "leykam" would be interpreted and on its syntax when using relative clauses so is potentially very dodgy but does, I think, sound quie nice.

Thank you could I have the translation for the second phrase?

[kewnya txamew'itan]

What exactly do you mean? The translation of the second sentence is "that I haven't not found the path to where I want up to now does mean that I will never find it".

['Oma Tirea]

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." (Thomas Edison)

Here's my attempt, using ki:

Ke *f<ol>ail* oe, ki oe rolun zazama (ay)fya'o a ke flä.

[Dreamlight]

Of course, there's the issue of whether one should convert the "10,000" to octal. 

['Oma Tirea]

Sran, in which case the number would be mezazampxeyvozamtsìzamevol.

IMHO, a simple "zazam" is stylistic and leNa'vi

[kewnya txamew'itan]

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." (Thomas Edison)

Here's my attempt, using ki:

Ke *f<ol>ail* oe, ki oe rolun zazama (ay)fya'o a ke flä.

I should have thought of ki, that's nice.

Of course, there's the issue of whether one should convert the "10,000" to octal. 

Edison's use was metaphorical so it should not be translated literally and should instead just be a large number.

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

Ke *f<ol>ail* oe, ki oe rolun zazama (ay)fya'o a ke flä.

I thought this was very nice, as well. And although not 10,000, the number really has to be there to mean what Edison intended. (He was referring to materials he had tried to make a filament for the light bulb.) As far as 'fail' goes, here's my attempt at this:

Ke flä niwotx a fi`u oe, ki oe rolun zazama (ay)fya'o a ke flä.

[kewnya txamew'itan]

Ma 'eylan ayfalulukanä, you're going to need to establish the perfective earlier, as it is, without a broader context, flä is in the present tense and aspectually neutral, if you just swap the <ol> from run to flä this would be solved.

Also, you've got a clause missing a verb, splitting your sentence down you get:

{{Ke flä niwotx a} fi`u oe}, {ki oe rolun zazama (ay)fya'o a ke flä.}

But "fì'u oe" doesn't work as a clause, it is both semantically and syntactically meaningless. If however, you were to drop the "a fì'u" you'd have a valid syntax and valid semantics with the meaning "I haven't succeeded completely" although that is the opposite of what the quote meant.

Instead, if you're working with flä I'd go with "flolä oe nì'it" because most closely (IMO) approximates not failing completely.

[`Eylan Ayfalulukanä]

I see what you are saying, ma Kewnya.

The challenge with this sentence is we don't have a term for 'fail' yet. So, we have to settle for constructs based on ke flä As you point, out, we can only roughly approximate the quasi-idiom in this sentence.

It would work, if there was a way to negate a negation. Eample ke {ke flä} That would be saying something like 'not, not succeed'.

[Uktxum]

could Anyone Translate this? "I almost had a psychic girlfriend once, but she dumped me before we met."

[wm.annis]

could Anyone Translate this? "I almost had a psychic girlfriend once, but she dumped me before we met."

Nope.  I'm afraid we don't yet have a word for "psychic" or "dump" in the sense you've used it here.

[Uktxum]

oh. Well thanks anyway. Out of curiosity, what is the word for girlfriend?

[omängum fra'uti]

There is no in QUITE that sense but there are concepts you could use instead...  While 'eylan alu tute would be "friend that is a woman" it soesn't carry the connocation of partnership, so probably it would have to be muntxate for female mated person (wife).

[Uktxum]

Irayo

[Kì'eyawn]

oh. Well thanks anyway. Out of curiosity, what is the word for girlfriend?

For a significant other who is not a spouse, i've been using the gender-neutral yawntu.

[Uktxum]

Oh, Ok. that's very helpful.