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Hear the name of the language pronounced
Q'en|gài (*)Henrik Theiling |
Ring S |
Sexánqgikhákhà Sàn|ú||káukhàn!u!
|K'eninqgukháu! !Xet'ù||kàun|e!xa?
N|gáiqukhán|ú||káukhàhá ngen|è=xái||kàu||káikháihhá=xaun|a||káuhù. Ngexásèn|ehuikhi||k'én|aikhàu ngáixánuqèn|en|aikhàu ngíniqúihhù ngíq'in|guhhúi n!gíhuixikhà. Ngenqganqgihhúkhun|ú. Ngen|u=xe||ká!k'ahai. N|gáikxúingín|i ngen|u=xaikxàuhai.
!Xesèn|e||kún|e!xan|u? !Xesèn|e||kún|e!xan|u? K'endit'ùikhukhi.
=Káiq'è!xái||k'ékhuhaitutìun|en|akhau ||xekuqéndáu||kíkhi||ké.
Click here to see the text in conscript.
Caution, angry Baby!
Good griefs! What has happened? Yesterday, a young girl came to our pretty house to look after our baby-boy. She did all she could to entertain him: she played with him, sang to him, and much more. But despite of this, the baby attacked her, teared apart his food, and threw the remains out of the window.
What will I do? What will I do? I absolutely don't know. So now I have hidden the event so that the police hopefully cannot ask difficult questions.
Literal translation
Parts not mentioned in the Q'en|gai text, thus those that are added in the English text, are in parentheses (typically pronouns). The parts that are usually not translated because they are redundant in English or grammatically required in Q'en|gai, but not in English, are in brackets (typically evidence affixes).
1: Sexánqgikhákhà sàn|ú||káukhàn!u!
Be careful with respect to [an] angry child!
2: |K'eninqgukháu!
[There is] (instinctive) unexpected scaredness! (=~ Good griefs!)
3: !Xet'ù||kàun|e!xa?
What happened?
4: N|gáiqukhán|ú||káukhàhá ngen|è=xái||kàu||káikháihhá=xaun|a||káuhù.
(Presumably) in order that [she] looks after [our] baby boy, yesterday,
(I saw myself) [a] girl came to [our] pretty house.
5: Ngexásèn|ehuikhi||k'én|aikhàu ngáixánuqèn|en|aikhàu ngíniqúihhù
ngíq'in|guhhúi n!gíhuixikhà.
(I saw that) she did all that [is] possible to entertain him,
namely (I saw) [she] played with him, (I saw) [she] sang for
him, [and] much more.
6: Ngenqganqgihhúkhun|ú.
(I saw that) despite of this, the child attacked [her].
7: Ngen|u=xe||ká!k'ahai.
(I saw that) [he] teared apart [his] food.
8: N|gáikxúingín|i ngen|u=xaikxàuhai.
(I saw that) [he] threw [the] remains out of [the] window.
9: !Xesèn|e||kún|e!xan|u.
What will I do?
10: K'endit'ùikhukhi.
(My internal state is that) [I] absolutely do not know.
11: =Káiq'è!xái||k'ékhuhaitutìun|en|akhau ||xekuqéndáu||kíkhi||ké.
In order for [the] police not to be able to ask difficult
things (so I wish), (it is a sequence that) now [I] have
hidden [the] event.
Note that the romanisation has changed a bit: double consonants (graphemes for ejectives) are now consonant plus apostrophe, because I think it's clearer.
Introduction
Because the Q'en|gài grammar is so different from English, the text is presumably quite hard to translate without good hints. Therefore, I will give you some grammar, lexicon, the interlinears, and hints for translation.
One important feature of Q'en|gài is is lack of a destinction between content word classes. Further, there is no strict difference between clauses and words, so English prepositions are expressed in the same way as English conjunctions, namely by case. (There is no difference in 'Peter goes [to the party].' and 'Peter goes [where people meet]'. Both [] would simply be put into the same 'case', indicating direction: in the first example, the noun phrase 'the party' would carry the case, in the second, the whole phrase 'people meet' would.
Also, coordinations like 'and' are usually not explicitly expressed, but rather implied by juxtaposing words in the same case.
Grammar
There three principles are helpful to decompose a Q'en|gài sentence:
derivation
Derivation happens inside words:
A suffix may modify a preceding sub-sequence of a word (there are no derivational prefixes). This is called derivation. The lexicon defines precisely what the derivation means. There are no ad-hoc composites, so the meaning is always clear.
saturation
Saturation happens only inside words in the given text. (Generally, it may happen outside words as well.)
Saturation is the process of adding agent and patient (the arguments) to a predicate. Since Q'en|gài is fluit-S, there are no global constraints on what a predicate needs in order to be saturated. As a rule of the thumb, predicates without A or P translate as nouns, with only A as intransitive verbs, with A and P as transitive verbs and with only P as adjectives. (This is not generally true, but is a good hint for imagination.)
Arguments always follow their predicate. The usual order is VOS, i.e. predicate patient agent. In the text below, there is no exception from this normal order.
Every predicate carries a valence infix to clarify what arguments exist, which are incorporated, and which are free words in the sentence. There are no free arguments in the text below: all are incorporated.
Valence indicates a) a conceptional valence, indicating what arguments are there by the concept of the word, and b) a syntactical valence, indicating which of the conceptual arguments really occur in the sentence.
A valence infix is abbreviated as follows: letters A and P indicate which arguments occur conceptually (agent and/or patient). Following these letters, either * follows, meaning the argument is incorporated in the same word, or . follows, meaning the argument is not mentioned in the sentence. For a translation of an unmentioned argument, consider using a 3rd person pronouns (or sometimes simply nothing, depending on the appropriate English verb). No other suffixes will occur.
If both A and P are followed by *, the order given in the valence is the same order as for the arguments; as mentioned, it is actually always P before A here.
For clarity, arguments will be additionally marked as agent and patient to make translation easier in the first few sentences (in curly braces).
The hardest thing is probably to find the boundaries between derivation endings and arguments inside words. These will be indicated by underbraces in most sentences.
adjuncts
Adjuncts may be added to a predicate. There are quite a few cases in which an adjunct may occur. The description is given locally.
Adjuncts usually precede the modified predicate. However, if the predicate is marked with an 'adjdisloc' marker, some adjuncts will follow the predicate. In the given text, either all adjuncts precede their predicate, or all of them follow their predicate.
All Q'en|gài words carry a case infix. As mentioned, case is the equivalent of prepositions, postpositions, and conjunctions of other languages. Prepositions and postpositions are appropriate translations when a word is translated as a noun, and conjunctions are appropriate when the translation is a verb or clause.
Apart from case, the second mandatory category is mood/evidence. Every word with a non-zero valence, i.e., with conceptual arguments, needs to carry a mood or an evidence marker.
Interlinear
Each word is broken up in three different ways. The first line gives the morpheme in Q'en|gài, the second gives the kind of morpheme, the third a hint of the meaning or function.
The following morpheme kinds will occur:
mood or evidence
Every word that has arguments (agents or patients) must carry a mood or evidence marker. It clarifies the speakers position wrt. the truth value of the given predication.case
A case infix. Since Q'en|gài is primarily head-marking, agents, patients and predicates are all marked in predicative case. In the case of this text, there are no free agents and patient, therefore, predicative case (PRD) marks predicates.Whether a word is agent or patient can be looked up at its the predicate of that clause: the valence infix clarifies the function.
class
Every word carries a class consonant for the main stem. Since the translations of the stems are given, it can be safely ignored here and even should be ignored, since the class might be misleading, since the class assignment is very vague and abstract.val
A valence infix. This marks whether agent and/or patient are given in the sentence, and which arguments the predicate has.degree
A degree, which modifies the directly preceding word constituent. There are vague, course-grained, fine-grained, and integer degrees. The lexicon entry will give the meaning.stem
A lexicon entry carrying content information. Note again that there is no formal distinction of verbs or nouns. However, the valence carries much of the class information of other languages.
Brackets below the words will show what is derivation. Sometimes, special translations are given under these brackets, because some derivation is lexicalised.
Sentence 1 (headline):
sexánqgikhákhà
s e xá nqg i khá khà
mood case stem class val stem degree
imperative PRD adjdisloc dissonance A.,P. pay-attention very
\_____________/
PRD= predicative case: marks predicates (and in other texts than this
one: free agents and patients, but that's irrelevant here).
sàn|ú||kaúkhàn!u
s à n|ú ||kaú khà n!u
class case stem stem degree stem
animate TOP child young very angry
\___________/
\_________________/
TOP= topicative case: to be translated roughly as 'concerning _' or
'with respect to _'
NOTE: This probably translates as an idiomatic construction in English.
Sentence 2
|kkeninqgukhaú
|kk e n i nqgu khaú
evidence case class val stem degree
instinct PRD sentient A.,P. scare unexpected
\_____/
This is an exclamation, an interjection, that is, again, highly
idiomatic on most languages. Try to be innovative! :-)
Sentence 3
!xettù||kaùn|e!xa
!x e tt ù ||kaù n|e !xa
mood case class val stem stem stem
interrogative PRD spacetime P* past p3no which?
\____/
{pat}
Vocab in more detail:
||kaù - to happen in the past
n|e - 3rd person reference (~pronoun) to something not
mentioned before in the text. May also refer to
entities or to full clauses, not only to entities.
!xa - derivational ending asking for the thing it
is suffixed to.
Sentence 4
n|gaíqukhán|ú||kaúkhàhá
n|g aí q u khá n|ú ||kaú khà há
evidence case class val stem stem stem degree stem
hearsay ALL harmony P*,A. look-after child young very male
\__________________/
{pat}
ALL-allative case: used to indicate three things:
- spatial: translations: 'to', 'to where ...'
- temporal: translations: 'up to'
- notional: translations: 'to', 'in order to ...'
ngen|è=xaí||kaù||kaíkhaíhhá=xaun|a||kaúhù
ng e n| è =xaí ||kaù ||kaí khaí ...
evidence case class val stem stem stem degree ...
perception PRD movement P*,A* arrive past day one ...
\__________________/
Vocab detail:
||kaù - past tense (from: 'to happend in the past'):
when modified by a period: that amount of
time in the past. The period may in turn be
modified to indicate the length of the period.
hhá =xau n|a ||kaú hù
stem stem stem stem stem
house pretty person young female
\_____/ \____________/
{pat} {agt}
NOTE: Pay attention to the evidence: when perception evidence
is used, 1st person speaker is indicated, so it is
very likely that things mentioned in the text will
need a 1st person possessive pronoun in the translation.
Sentence 5
ngexásèn|ehuikhi||kkén|aikhaù
ng e xá s è n|e hui khi ||kké n|ai khaù
evidence case stem class val stem stem degree stem stem degree
perception PRD adjdisloc animate P*,A* do some-amount 100% able p3
expected
\______________/ \____/
\_________________/ {agt}
{pat}
Vocab detail:
||kké - derivational meaning: (the) _ that can be done
n|aikhaù - 3rd person reference: the 'expected' degree shows that
an argument referred to is the same argument position as
in this clause (here: agent). (Without this degree,
it could have any function where it occurs.)
ngaíxánuqèn|en|aikhaù
ng aí xá n u qè n|e n|ai khaù
evidence case stem class val stem stem stem degree
perception ALL adjdisloc sentient P*,A. enjoyable do p3 expected
\_________/ \____/
'entertain' {pat}
ngíniquíhhù
ng í n i quí hhù
evidence case class val stem stem
perception ESS sentient A.,P. play COM-3p
\____/
ESS- essive case: translatable as 'as, like' as in
'I work _as_ a programmer'. Here, it is used on a
whole clause, so a conjunction is need in the
translation. This adjunct gives an example for
the general action mentioned before above.
COM- comitative case: translatable as 'together with _'
Vocab detail:
hhù - derivational ending indicating an incorporated
adjunct (a special case): a 3rd person reference
in comitative case.
ngíqqin|guhhuí
ng í qq i n|gu hhuí
evidence case class val stem stem
perception ESS communication A.,P. sing BEN-3p
\____/
BEN- benefactive case: translatable as 'for', 'to the
advantage of _'
n!gíhuixikhà
n!g í hui xi khà
class case stem stem degree
value ESS some-amount more very
\________________/
Sentence 6
ngenqganqgihhúkhun|ú
ng e nqg a nqgi hhú khu n|ú
evidence case class val stem stem degree stem
perception PRD dissonance A*,P. attack CAU-3p not child
\______/
\_____________/
CAU- causative case: translatable as 'due to _', 'because (of) _'
with a suffixed negation marking, the reasoning
is negated, so this is contrary to what is expected.
('anti-causative case')
Sentence 7
ngen|u=xe||ká!kkahai
ng e n| u =xe ||ká !kka hai
evidence case class val stem stem stem stem
perception PRD movement P*,A. pull destroy eat thing
\____/ \____/
Vocab detail:
-||ká - derivation: to destroy by _
-hai - derivation: the patient of _
Sentence 8
n|gaíkxuíngín|i
n|g aí kxuí ngí n|i
class case stem stem stem
distribution ALL hole watch out
\_____/
'window'
\_________/
Vocab detail:
-n|i - derivation: (the) outside of _
ngen|u=xaikxaùhai
ng e n| u =xai kxaù hai
evidence case class val stem stem stem
perception PRD movement P*,A. throw remain thing
\______/
Sentence 9 (repeated once):
!xesèn|e||kún|e!xan|u
!x e s è n|e ||kú n|e !xa n|u
mood case class val stem stem stem stem stem
interrogative PRD animate P*,A* do future p3no which? p1
\____/ \____/
Vocab detail:
-||kú - derivation: future tense
n|u - 1st person reference
Sentence 10
kkendittuìkhukhi
kk e nd i ttuì khu khi
evidence case class val stem degree degree
intuition PRD intelligence A.,P. know not 100%
\______/
\__________/
Note: Mind the evidence.
Sentence 11
=kaíqqè!xaí||kkékhuhaitutiùn|en|akhau
=k aí qq è !xaí ||kké khu hai tu ...
mood case class val stem stem degree stem stem ...
optative ALL communication P*,A* ask able not thing difficult ...
tiù n|e n|a khau
stem stem stem degree
be-in-order do person unspecified
Vocab detail:
-tiùn|en|akhau - this is probably a lexicon entry
-n|e - derivation: make _ (to be true/to happen)
-n|a - derivation: the agent of _
-khau - derivation: 'unspecified' degree may be used to
mark collective number
||xekuqéndaú||kíkhi||ké
||x e k u qé ndaú ||kí khi ||ké
evidence case class val stem stem stem degree stem
conclusion PRD information P*,A. hide be-completed present 100% event
Vocab detail:
-ndaú - derivation: perfective aspect
-||kí - derivation: present tense
-khi - derivation: when used on a tense, this indicates
absolute time (usually, time is relative to
context in Q'en|gài)
Text in conscript
(Click here to see the same text in the same script in two different fonts)
