Friday, September 15, 2000

Malt§egj Project, 04.20.00.09.15.15.20

Okay, i've reached that annoying point in a language when i must find something worthy of translating and try to translate it, making up new words as necessary, to see what new grammar kinks i've got to work out.  The biggest problem with this is always finding something to translate.
   
I thought briefly about using the vǫluspá, but i'm not sure that really has the right "mood" to it.  But since i'm not sure anything really has the right mood, i'm willing to try a few verses...

Here is the registry of dwarves from the vǫluspá.  It's a bit long, but mostly because of names, and the translation shouldn't be too complex.

Þá gengo regin ǫll    á rǫcstóla,

Oh my various gods, first line and i realize an enormous oversight already that i hadn't thought of before.  I suppose it would be good if things could be plural.  Okay, this is going to be a pre-prepositional suffix, i suppose.  Or should it be a prefix?  Hmm, that would be interesting.  Or a vowel shift?  Nah, that's what i've got tsœxisca for.  Prefix it is.  For now, let's say "ac-." 

e cului acdje§tinul dyd t§oc    acdje§tbvlacatul,

I think i may be using too many syllables with this bloody language!  Anyway, one tiny line and we're at a whole new level now.

New words:

eand
culuiall
dje§tinruler
dje§trule, government
bvlacachair, stool

ginnheilog goð,    oc um þat gættuz,
craaga bjolet acblot,    e uleloi parþ dyd sembliv.

I had to fudge this one a bit.  "ginnheilog" i translated as "all-holy" which i then turned into "very holy."  "Sembliv" i kinda fudged as well.  "Sem" i just decided means "together" and "bliv," as stated earlier, means "think," so "think together" i thought worked nicely for "gættuz" (took council).

New words:

craaga very
bjolet holy, good
blot god
sem together

hverr scyldi dverga    dróttin scepia,

Uh-oh, interrogative pronouns!  Now, do i want to have a nice theme to them, like english and its wh's or french and its qu's or icelandic and its hv's, or do i just pull letters out of a hat for this one too?  I am quite fond of that gj sound—perhaps i'll use that as a basis.  Or how about the combination "ml"? 

mleð who
mloc what
mlaac which
mlumwe when
mlaga where
mlimiem why
mlycþid how
mlaih how much/many

mleð djogo§ acmalkiul    ga§agað mahat

New words:

djogo§ to ought, should
malki dwarf
ga§ag people, race
mahat to make, to create

ór Brimis blóði    oc ór Blains leggiom.
Brimiul svarðoc§ul    e Blainul acsturðoc§ul

New words:

-oc§ out of, from, made of
svarð blood
sturð bone

Notice that i've decided to add the definite article in here as well.  It is easier to see why if you read it as "from the blood of Brimi" than "from Brimi's blood." (Lit: "Brimi's blood-from-the and Blain's plural-bone-from-the."

Well, just that one verse caused quite a lot of rearranging and thinking to be done.   It's been two hours, and i really should start doing some work.  Unfortunately they don't pay me to sit around and make up strange languages all day.  Actually, they do, but they don't know that, and i don't want them to find out.

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