back
11. Kanłäñ (Delfin)
Text
Šõl beuwu kwelšo lasuruduru, woš tsaysenduru, ro nawa bew tšamamburu. Tšwos šõl beuwu nawa olduru, bewtsu delnuru. Bewku mẽsyemmayi ro beuwu tsanhaburu me, ro semi num wošmyupa tsaysemzaburu. Semi mwaburu surha semzãy, ro semi bum seloburu. Semdzi pwaykõburu. Ro šaw bewtsu dello pwemburu, beuwu bewku pandzanhañepowełtis pandzamburu: “Imaritupi, sew bewku mẽsyen piš beuwu tłɑhełluru tishela niš suruluru. Ro šõl num tammołos nipä, semi purtan‘ayemmidil lasayduru ti. Semdzi satšewmburuyõ tšihan ewłka paš narruru naš nomen.”
Backtranslation
While I was doing writing¹, the fire was burning and it pleased me.² But while I watched it, I started to fall asleep.³ Then, my friends and I⁴ talked and we caused six matches to be burned.⁵ Afterwards, we sat down together, and we did not move. We were tired. And because I wanted sleep, I addressed my translator: “Imaritupi⁶, you are the friend whom I love the most.⁷ And during these six hours, we have been sitting here as passengers.⁸ Tomorrow, we will meet the eater of the white valley.”
¹ Even though the original Ɔtˤuːtˤɪv language text was in the present tense, I decided to write the Kanłän translation in the past tense, because it seems that the narrator in the text was relating a past event.
² Kanłän wan- ‘good’ has the sense of ‘not evil’, and thus would have been inappropriate in this context. It seems that narrator uses the Ɔtˤuːtˤɪv adjective sˤuɔɪxɪɣi:sˤ ‘good’ to mean pleasing.
³ There is not yet an Kanłän equivalent for the Ɔtˤuːtˤɪv adverb muɔɪlamɔɪʕu ‘sleepily’. To convey the sense that the narrator was beginning to fall asleep, but not by their own volition, the inchoative aspect was used with an experiencer subject. Thus, bew-tsu del-nuru ‘1.SG-EXP sleep-INCH’
⁴ The subject of this clause in the original Ɔtˤuːtˤɪv text was ɣixi:sˤɔɪ a:ɔɪðˤaniːvʕub, which I translated as ‘we, the friends’. There is no inclusive-exclusive distinction in Ɔtˤuːtˤɪv, but I assumed that the narrator in the text is speaking exclusively. I also reworded the subject of this sentence into ‘My friends and I’ to further clarify the use of exclusive we.
⁵ Ɔtˤuːtˤɪv has a verb ixanɔɪðix ‘to consume by fire’, which seems to be used in this context to mean ‘to light, to ignite’. Rather than creating a new word with this meaning, I used the causative with tsaysen- ‘burn’ instead.
⁶ The proper noun was rendered into Ɔtˤuːtˤɪv as iːmariθuːfɪj. [θ] and [f] are not attested in Kanłän, thus the corresponding voiceless plosives were used instead, i.e., [t] and [p] respectively. There are no phonemic long vowels in Kanłän, so those in the Ɔtˤuːtˤɪv original were rendered as short vowels. Finally, the diphthong [ɪj] is not found in Kanłän; this was replaced by [i]. The resulting Kanłän nativization of the name iːmariθuːfɪj is ‘Imaritupi’.
⁷ Kanłän has no equivalent for the honorific -ɣɔɪhiθɔɪs. The honorific is furthermore related to age-based politeness system in the culture of Ɔtˤuːtˤɪv speakers. For the Kanłän translation, this Ɔtˤuːtˤɪv cultural notion is approximated using the word tłaheł- ‘love’, which is akin to Ancient Greek φιλία <philia>.
⁸ The narrator most likely does not use the word uːnɪsˤ ‘passenger’ in a literal sense, because the setting of the text does not seem to be in some mode of transport. Thus, I used the essive case to suggest non-literal meaning.
Grammar
none