Re: Translating from a conlang into a conlang

[Padraic Brown <pbrown@POLARIS.UMUC.EDU>]

On Mon, 19 Apr 1999, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:

> So, what I would like to propose is a translation exercise where the
> source language is a conlang.

Attempting to come at this excercise from the point of view of a native
speaker of Kernu, who have been given this text and a smallish cheapish
second-handish English-Kernu dictionary, I turn up an interesting
translation.  Mine in Kernu turned out to be a nonsensical word-for-word
rendition.

Ech! y havallon sa chadhens!            Lo! the apples they fall!
nus pertenem deck-padguar divonnes      we grasp ten-four wells
ke serjuremus?  il corts le nusteor!    who we look up?  our own heart!
il caboels le nusteor, dubh e lath      our hair, black and wide
"la nus fin," la senseoer dhech         "Our pretty self," elder sister
                                        says
vadiomus, nalchyn renponuremus nus      andiamo! someone we shall sue we
en finna nus, commyn flora la ceres     for lovely we, like a cherry-
                                        blossom

That was actually fun!  Conlanging doesn't always have to be serious.  The
"dictionary" used wasn't really a quality research tool, by any stretch of
the imagination so it turned up all sorts of rubbish.  While not incorrect
_technically_ (a divona is a kind of spring, and, though usually censored
in print, pertener _is_ a valid word), the sense is led somewhat astray in
translation.

For the terminally curious, the English-Kernu dictionary used turned up
these gems:  have = pertener (lit. to have on the carpet; grasp by the
bullocks); spring = divona (a holy well), persaltar (leap about like a
rabbit); ask for = serjer (search for in a telephone directory or
dictionary); thick = lath (lit. wide), dondon (stupid); urge = la
necesitats de poner yn denare (really didn't make sense in context); court
= il louces de serjer la Lege.  I really ought to use a better dictionary
for these sorts of projects! ;-)

Padraic.

>
> Well, good luck all!
>
>
> Boudewijn Rempt  | www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt
>