Monday, March 7, 2011

The sound of Baljek vs. Sandic

I've finally gotten to a point where I feel comfortable giving voice to Baljek words and phrases. I decided to compare the sounds of the two languages, and was surprised to find them sounding quite a world apart from one another.

Considering that I built Baljek off of a deconstructed version of Sandic, I was expecting them to sound quite a bit similar. Apparently, though, taking the trill out of the r and replacing 'ba' and 'ta' with lé makes quite a difference. It's of course easy to change sounds on paper and 'know' the changes. Hearing it with one's own ears is another matter entirely.

I recorded the same sentence in each of the languages for comparison. Both of them are the second sentence in the tower of Babel story. ("While the people came from the west, they found a plain in the land "Shinar", and made their homes there.")

Have a listen for yourself!

Sandic: Listen
Mér ba kéman baxfézu dé lēra, baxsu lorab pa ba poc "Jînar", mé ŵak baxma ta safpabin.

Baljek: Listen
Mar fédi lé dél dé ra, te daju lé dél lorat pa lé pos "Jînar", ma pa rak te dama lé ralditan lé also.

-Deconstruction:

Sandic:

Mér ba kéman baxfézu dé lēra,
While the(sing.) people it-past-go from west,
While the people went from the west,

baxsu lorab pa ba poc "Jînar",
it-past-find plain(acc.) in the land "Jinar"
It found a plain in the land of Jinar,

mé ŵak baxma ta safpabin.
and there it-past-make the houses(pl.acc.)
And it made its houses there.

Baljek:

Mar fédi lé dél dé ra,
During going(posessed) the people from west,
While the people went from the west,

te daju lé dél lorat pa lé pos "Jînar",
past it-find the people plain in/at the land Jinar
the people found a plain in the land of Jinar

ma pa rak te dama lé ralditan lé also.
and in/at there past it-make the houses(pl. acc. posessed) the they.
and there they made their houses.