Clare-Dragonfly

I was totally going to do Lexember, but forgot until I saw a post on Tumblr today! So here it is, catching up for the last three days.

These words are all in Gavath. If you're coming to this from a Lexember link, just click the "world: gavat" tag for more information!

jāntāk: weather
zhud: light (adjective form: zhu∂
vēd: darkness (adjective form: vē∂)

Let's put it all together!

Here's the original sentence: Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.

And in Gavath: Arladislen Vruik-ihe et rhadud efi 'ash lerislen vathanus ki idged jen.

I'm not entirely certain I've got the word order correct, since I have no idea how a VSO language should treat a phrase like "which seems." But hey! It's done!

to have (possess): arladis
to appear: leris
to flatten: thanus
opposite/negating prefix: va-
and thus, to throw into relief/un-flatten: vathanus

OK, next I need to figure out "which," "by," "poor," and "dress."

Gah, forgot to post yesterday! I'll try to make up for it this weekend.

Anyway, I think it's time to get started on the sentence translation. I've chosen this one:
58. Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.
—George Eliot, Middlemarch (1872)

(Because I recently read Middlemarch and it was great.)

And oh dear, I'm already running into trouble, because Gavath has neither a b sound nor an oo sound. How shall I transliterate this?

OK, v is closest to b, and I think ui is the closest to oo. I like it more than u because it's longer.

So Miss Brooke is Vruik-ihe, depending on the speaker, but I'm going to just go with "same age." She's relatively powerful in Middlemarch, and not particularly educated, though she'd like to be. (I think it would be a great compliment for her to be called Vruik-ija, but the narration wouldn't.)

I think it would actually be more appropriate to call her Darethia-ihe (the character's first name is Dorothea) in Gavat, but the sentence uses her surname.

I'm glad I've read the book so I know what is the proper honorific to use for her!

And that's enough for today. I'll try to figure out "that kind of beauty" tomorrow.

(woo, now caught up!)

To create the historical/literary past tense, add these suffixes to the end of the infinitive.

2nd singular formal: -le
2nd plural formal: -la
3rd singular informal: -len
3rd singular formal: -len (these are different vowel sounds)
3rd plural informal: -lag
3rd plural formal: -lan

First person is not used in the historical/literary past, since any use of it means that the time being referenced is prior to the lifetime of the speaker. Second person is rarely used and usually means a generic "you."

Gal, the word for "to be," is of course irregular.

2sf: gle
2pf: glei
3si: geja
3sf: gela
3pi: gija
3pf: gila

I was going to start working on the writing system, but then I realized that I would have to take pictures with my phone and upload them, and I never get around to uploading phone pictures. So that might wait until after January.

Instead, have some number words!

zero: 'i
one: she
two: sheshi
three: sha
four: sa
five: se
six: sere
seven: sara
eight: zeri
nine: zele
ten: †an

Using the syntax tests that Lyn posted...

The sun shines.
The sun is shining.
The sun shone.

Sun: ki'
To shine: vutus

The sun shines: u ki' vutuhis
The sun is shining: u ki' vutusus
The sun shone: u ki' vutirh

Conjunctions!

for: la
and: ai
nor: en
but: ei
or: ui
yet: te
so: ve

Have some building parts! (And one entire building.)

wall: dak
door: rhedzat
window: zug
house: nithd
barn: lad
floor: je'
roof: neg

So I've been sick, but I'm way better now, and I'm going to try to catch up on Languary! It may take me until the end of the month, but I'm going to do it.

For day 15, here's some verbs.

to give: ganis
to come: hakuis
to go: gejkis
to say: vestis
to see: nisdis
to get: jendus
to put: nevdis
to take: tavis
to keep: seddis
to let: saisus
to push: kiltis
to pull: kaijdis
to think: navdus