Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Fun editing older Sandic texts (or, the joy of rehashing *all the things* to make them modern so I won't be embarrassed about the anthology)

Last year, on a whim, I created a slightly larger version of my printed dictionary by taking all the assorted stories and things that I'd ever translated (to that point, and to my knowledge) and putting them in chronological order after the dictionary lists.

This year, I've had rather a story-splosion, so the "anthology" (which I've decided to call it, since the name sounds so very official, and I love the sound of the word) will be stand-alone.  If I didn't do it on its own, I'm afraid the book would no longer fit in my pocket and would be a pain to transport- and then what good would it do me?

Last year, when I did it on a whim, I included the original versions of the texts that I'd translated without bothering to update them to more current usages.  This year (of course, sigh) I'm going to do something different.  Starting with the biggest most imposing story I've translated (King Arthur's Courage), I'm going to modernify everything in the collection to make... well, a legible and sharing-worthy (for me, at least) assortment of stories and fables and poems and songs.

I hadn't realized just how much my handling of the language changed until I printed a copy of the biggest story and started line-by-line disassembling it.  Every other line has stuff crossed-out, or re-written, words have to be shifted in place...

It's amazing what use of a conlang will do to the way it looks, even when you aren't intentionally changing anything at all.

I also found a few one-off words that I used and then for some reason either never documented or just forgot about.  Words like tialia (even though, although, despite) and aliv (hay or straw for horses) fell by the wayside, poor things.  I've scooped the ones which don't have replacements and added them to the dictionary now.

Working back over stories I translated a few years ago is fun.  The usage is different enough that I can pretend I'm reading something someone else wrote.  And the practice for my conlang that I'm getting by re-editing older versions is just awesome.

Wenai baahlnia siad ba sa me frn ba sandi skra man me ;)
I speak Sandic a bit better now on account of what I've done, I guess ;)

I should upload a picture of one of the pages I "edited".  It looks like a pencil war. :p

The attributions list for the translated works is several pages long, too.  On the smaller pocket-sized-book pages, I'm guessing it'll take up around 10 sheets or so.  We'll just have to see.  I never thought I would actually find citing something to be a useful skill.  Hooray son of citation machine.

I wonder if I have to give image attributions for public domain images...?  So much to learn!

The anthology and the newer dictionary I plan to have out sometime in April.  Depending on how well I like the results of my efforts, maybe I'll buy an ISBN for them.  I'm not entirely certain anyone would buy them, but it would be amusing to track, don't you think?

Has anyone else around done something similar?  Anyone have any advice for me on this?

I should find a picture for the cover, too.  Hmm.


Hooray projects. :)

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Kannia kafadici brenabin wî naulé


This is a story from the fables book that I recently got.  Flipping through, the "bok" just kind of hit me to translate it.

An oldie but goodie, this is "the boy who cried wolf" (Or, in Sandic, "A boy guarding sheep and the wolf").

I've discovered that almost every story in the book that I bought is taken verbatim from a public-domain text of Gutenberg- the pictures, too.  Since it's all public domain, perhaps I will translate all the little stories here and then set a Sandic copy up on Lulu.  It would be nice to have a little collection of stories to sift through for practicing my reading comprehension.

New words for this story:
I added a definition to fadic, which was previously just "to protect, to shield".  A "guarder of sheep" (fadicka ta brenan, or kafadici brenabin) is a shepherd.  Just fadicka is vague, something like a "protector", or "guardian".  I suppose it could be a word for "babysitter".

I used my favorite new (but not new for this particular story) thing here too- ma talēl (to trick, to win via means of a ruse, to manipulate via lies).

I think this is the first time I've ever used the standalone pronoun élsol ("they") in a post-2008 story.  Poor lonely little guy.

ALSO: I just updated the "Things written in Sandic" list to include stuff from may-onward, if you care to take a peek.

Order of texts: Sandic - Gloss of Sandic

---


Kannia kafadici brenabin wî naulé

Kan kafadici brenabin da ka otiab kaxfadic pal griawa erinjé glénrai pal nât ba mit op. JJiave ân ba erinjé neousai baxahl, ba kan srîtnia kaxneâ pa lor.  Nu kaxméâ ân jae koléian ka, ú muca matak fadickai ka.
Mohnnia, kaxraug ta brenabin, wî ba erinjé hui.  "Bal srîtnia felē nauléb eteraug?" Kian kaxbas.   "Iné da matemâi baahlignia!" Kian kajin ân ma daniab matemâi.
Da ka kian kaxmî ân fî ân nauléb kadami ta brenabin kateraug, ân okamalēî, ân ta kéman ba mit bian otematem, ân ébian obajard. JJiave ân nauléb kaxneot raug, unî ba kan kaxmalēî erin, wî mitian kaxen.  "Nauléb exraug!  Nauléb!"

Auzo kaxma, skra ta kéman, kiab oxbra, élsol kian oxen, wî santâb op biab oxsore.  A pa ba lor ŵak kaxahl nu ba kan kataeni erin skra ma talēli ka.
Gre mohnannia, ba fadicka ta brenan ejj kaxmalēî-
"Nauléb exraug!  Nauléb!"
Kian ejj oxen ta kéman, a ejj kaxahl nu ba kan kataeni.

Nocrnia mér lēnialav ba mlî, mér zefa ta noalan, iné naulé auniai baxféd pa brenan ka, wî otiab baxrep ân tu.  Katemi ra, ba fadicka mitian kaxen, kaxmalēî- "Nauléb!  Nauléb auniai exraug!"

A ta kéman otian oxmî- "Ŵian katjere ân ma talēl."
Érain ta brenan ba fadicka kani otiab baxtu ba naulé, wî pa erinjéb ejj baxjard.

----

A boy guarding sheep and the wolf

A shepherd boy guarded his father's sheep at the edge of a deep and dark forest near their village.  Even though the forest was mysterious, the boy was sometimes bored in the field.  He could only talk to his dog or play his shepherd's flute.
One day, he was looking at the sheep and at the quiet forest.  "Will I one day see a wolf?" He asked himself.  "That might be very frightening!"  He thought of doing something exciting.
His father had told him that if he were to see a wolf eating the sheep, he should cry out, that the people of the village would run to frighten it away.  Even though he did not see a sheep, he cried out very loudly, and he ran towards the village.
"I've seen a wolf!  A wolf!"

He did it well, because all the people that heard him ran to him and forgot their work.  But there in the field there was only the boy laughing because of his trick.
After some days, the shepherd boy cried out again-
"I've seen a wolf!  A wolf!"
The people ran to him again, but once again there was only the laughing boy.

One night during the falling of the sun and the growth of the shadows, a real wolf entered into the boy's herd and began to kill the sheep.  Very afraid, the boy ran towards the village yelling- "A wolf!  I've seen a real wolf!"

But the people said to themselves- "He is trying to trick us."
Many of the boy's sheep were killed by the wolf, and then the wolf fled back into the woods.

Monday, August 20, 2012

I'm in a book apparently! And also now we can spell things aloud in Sandic.

About a year ago (this is how bad I am about answering comments and such) someone left me a message asking me where I had published the Sandic dictionary.  I never responded and never finished reading the comment- mostly because I'm kind of reclusive and didn't want to tell the person.  For the longest time, I looked at this comment and never actually properly read it.  Around May, though, I looked past that frightening first question and read the rest- discovery hit me.  Someone had included Sandic in a book about notable conlangs!

Now unfortunately I accidentally deleted all comments so I can't respond to that person and thank them for giving me a heads up.  I did end up getting the book, though.  It just came today.  While nothing ground-breaking is included (pretty much just info gleaned from my Frathwiki article), it's fun to see myself in a book that I didn't write.

I've been dancing around giving the book name, so let me just out with it.  It's called  "A dictionary of Made-up Languages" by a guy named Stephen Rogers.  Obligatory stealing-bandwidth-from-amazon image here:


Fun book to flip through.   Pretty much every page has a new language mentioned on it.  In a book with around 220 pages devoted to languages, well...  That's a lot of glancing around.

I was doing that today and came across something about spelling.  I forget what exactly I read- all I know is that it prompted me to spend about fifteen minutes in my room spelling things aloud in Sandic while grinning like an idiot.  Why have I never done this before?  Too much fun.

Rules for spelling are simple- consonants make their sound followed by "ih" - so for K, say " kih"- and vowels make their sounds (for a, say "ah").  Y is an exception- it says "yih".

So, to spell:

"jae"-"shi ah ee"
"kaevo" - "ki ah ee vi oh"
"dîo" - "di ii oh"


Saturday, August 18, 2012

Biab kaxade (lēnial) -- It was taken (theft)

Someone a few weeks ago took my wallet and all the money I had in it.  It must have fallen out of my pocket as I was walking through the gas station, and someone must have scooped it up.  They took the money and then tossed it aside.  

I realized how little money means to me when I was more upset over losing the wallet (which I've had for years and which is one of the first things I ever bought for myself) than the money within (about $60).  

After searching for it all over the place where I work, I went back to the gas station- and in a moment of inspiration dug through a trash can.  Sure enough, there it was.  

I can't describe how grateful I was to have found it.  I was sure I'd lost it forever, this silly little thing of leather and string.  Closure is something powerful.  They left all my cards, my id, my good luck coin (no face value, not a money-coin), my zen tag...

God bless 'em.

Had I looked for it any later, the trash would have been changed (they were in the process as I scooped it up), and I never would have found this thing again.  But I did, and I am very grateful.

When I got home, I was in an odd meditative mood.  This poem came from that.  It's original in Sandic.

New things:
I'm pretty sure I created the word amal just for this poem.  Its thought-progenitor (unintentionally) is awen, a term from modern druidry.  The word itself is formed from amal in Sandic, which existed beforehand and means a muttering, a quiet cooing, a divine whisper.

Order of texts: Sandic -- Gloss

Biab kaxade (lēnial)

pa kudab biab kaxpútú,
ba lēlétdab me frn dék-
dab me skrania usei
pal ivi biab kasui exahl
a fian sisi baxféd iné

ŵak baxahlco ŵhé thîâ uxpuri,
pal uvén ba téradan
uxsorei
uxpútúi
uxsui

Jwrian skra amalan ba felē ykaja.

---

it was taken (theft)

He put it into the trash,
my wallet-
this thing which is special somehow
and I looked for it here and there
but a whispering came

there it was like a wounded bird,
under the trash
forgotten
just left there
now found

I thank God for its inspirations.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Jémé dúsniati


We went by Target (tar-zhay, remember) this past weekend to get a few things.  While there, I saw a book of children's fables for a dollar- you bet I snagged it.  This is one of the fables from inside of it, called "the plane tree".  (I'm pretty sure they meant " plain", but oh well.)

This story, though short and to the point, presented a few issues for me.  How, for example, to say " you aren't worthy of" ...?  I ended up (after some help from #conlang) deciding on saying, "pian utorai baneot ahl"- "it is not given to you".

For that matter, why did jéúmé have an extra ú which is never pronounced anymore?  And how about kaejal?  Why not just write it kéjal?

This was a good head-scratcher of a story, then, and resulted in a few vocabulary simplifications.  I look forward to doing more!

Order of texts:
Sandic - Gloss of Sandic

---


*

Jémé dúsniati

Fédkan oxahl jé pa yéâ ba mlî oxtréka.  Jéméb, kaejan ba maoa oxgriaw, oxraug ta fédkan, wî pa noalan ba jémé oxade ân bamo.  Kabamoin wî ba kéjalabin karaugin, oxfe ân jémé dúsniati baxara.

" Neot bama ba jémé dúsniati!"  tré faé ta fédkan tasnidian ka kaxmî.  " Madabin baneot ora, wî mér féúluc, o graŵib oyum ta kéjalan ba ivin!"
" Neot felē yma?"  Rial baxmî ba jémé dúsniati.  "Iné pa noalan félcoin me lēé ta jémarain lēébamo.  Fian lēéneot kaja - a frn me lenadabin lēémî!  Noalan me lēian utorain oneot ahl."

---

The normal tree

There were two travellers walking in the light of the sun.  They saw a tree whose branches spread wide, and agreed that they would rest in its shade.  While lying beneath it and looking at its foliage, they understood that it was a normal tree.

"Normal trees do nothing!"  One of the two travellers said to his friend.  "They don't make fruits, and in the winter every one of their leaves fall to the ground!"
" I don't do anything?" The tree responded.  " You're lying here in my cool shade, you fools.  You don't thank me, but instead speak badly of me.  You don't deserve my shade."




* - image found here.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Le:ee ba sanab kasai -- O knower of wisdom -- Majstro pri sagheco

I have a little Esperanto book called "Diverskolora bukedeto" (" little bouquet of diverse colors" ). In it is a little poem the name of which I unfortunately forget at the moment. I've looked for it once or twice through the book again, but I cant locate it. Oh well.

This fragment of that unnamed poem is the first thing I've ever (to my knowledge) translated from Esperanto into my conlang. I rewrote it a little (with obligatory Deeviat reference) and added a tiny piece at the end.

This could also probably be adapted for use with Kuan Yin instead of Deeviat.

Order of texts: Esperanto -- Gloss of Esperanto -- Sandic -- Gloss of Sandic

Majstro pri sagheco,
forpelu malproksimen de ni
la senton de laceco
che servoj,
kiujn ni devas fari
al niaj nesciaj gefratoj.

--

O sage of wisdom
repel from us
that feeling of tiredness
of help,
which we must give
to our unknowledgeable brothers.

--

Le:ee deeviat, gamiab kasai,
eebian biab ole:eema
ba hamab frn wiic
aan ma iad,
aan iad skra ma op gezotoi
ta kadan aww neokasain
jjiave aan eerain oahlra
le:iab otawwtabe.

--

O deeviat, who knows gamia
put it away
that lack of want
to help
to help because of their childishness
our brothers who do not know.
though their numbers are great,
may we not forget you.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Still alive - Iat fele: ejjew

My laptop died rather suddenly and unexpectedly. I have, however, not been inactive with my conlanging. :)

Find below a short prayer (my own interpretation of an oldie but goodie from Moving breath) and pictures of "ba" and "galo" .

Order: Sandic - Gloss - Original

I really love how the ba turned out- I might have to do that more often.

A ba written in water upon sand.

Le:ee tara le:ee kuan yin le:ee ama miare
xamab me ole:eebra
wiikiacab fian ole:eetora
inee wii ta jutinian

O tara o kuan yin mother mary
hear my prayer
give me compassion
and give it to the others as well

Tara Kuan Yin Mother Mary
Please hear my prayer
Show me compassion for myself
And all things everywhere.

A galo traced on dust in a window.