Author Topic: Sentences  (Read 5791 times)

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Jenny

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Sentences
« on: June 04, 2013, 04:58:48 am »
Now with the summer holidays, I've got enough time to focus completely on Dothraki.
So today I made some example sentences, and tried to translate them, and I'd really appreciate if someone took a look and corrected me  :)

  • I kill the man.
    Anha addrivak mahrazhes.
  • I am eating.
    Anha adakhat.
  • You introduced me.
    Yer asshi anna.
  • My head hurts.
    Nhare anni annitiha.
  • The dragon is eating them.
    Zhavvorsa adakha mora.
  • Why did you kill him?
    Kirekhdirgi yer addriv mae?
  • She is a great rider.
    Me sajak vezhveni.
  • Your horse stinks like a dirty pig.
    Hrazef yeri achra ven qifo sorfi.
  • Bring me my wife's horse!
    Fichi hrazef chiorikemi anni anhasaan!
  • Three children died last night.
    Sen yalli drivi jalan oskikhi.
  • We will attack at dawn.
    Kisha alajaki vi aenaan. (Kinda..  ::))
« Last Edit: June 04, 2013, 05:27:20 am by Jenny »

Qvaak

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Re: Sentences
« Reply #1 on: June 04, 2013, 01:37:53 pm »
Happy to oblige.
A good set of sentences. Not everything is going right yet, but such is the nature of this quest.

Quote
I kill the man.
Anha addrivak mahrazhes.
Yep.

Quote
I am eating.
Anha adakhat.
Adakhak.

Quote
You introduced me.
Yer asshi anna.
Asshilat is one of those deceptive words where the suffix is not /-lat/, but actually just /-at/. You can see this on the wiki's vocabulary page, where a past singular of the verb is offerend as a support declination. Past singular is what's needed here, so you could just copy: asshil, but of course this affects the whole declension paradigm, and for example you will introduce me would be Yer vasshili anna. We got asshilat practically without any context, so I'm not too certain about the correct usage either. To introduce would naturally be a ditransitive verb: x introduces y to z. It could (and on the other hand might not) be a bigger problem in dothraki than in English to drop the to whom part away.

Quote
My head hurts.
Nhare anni annitiha.
Annitha. Nhare is an inalienable posession, so anha should be in ablative: anhoon. But on these kind of sentences Dothraki usually leave the inalienable possession implied, so where English would say "My head x," Dothraki would usually say just "head x," as long as there's no reasonable chance for misinterpretation about whose head is in question. Annithat is a causative of nithat. If you have a verb with the first consonant a geminate (doubled), you have a good reason to suspect the word is a causative verb; if you have a verb starting with an a followed by a geminate, you can be almost certain it's a causative. Causatives pretty much always need an object to which to cause an effect (and should thus have a vtr. marker on the wiki's vocabulary page - if you use the downloadable dictionary, this distiction is not marked). From http://www.dothraki.com/2012/10/ughhh/ we learn that in this sentence the causative is actually a good word choice. Where English say "My head hurts.", Dothraki would actually most likely say "Head hurts me": Nhare annitha anna.

Quote
The dragon is eating them.
Zhavvorsa adakha mora.
Sounds legit.

Quote
Why did you kill him?
Kirekhdirgi yer addriv mae?
Relative conjunction won't do. I'm not even too certain, how to use that correctly, but I think it's for sentences like "I know why dogs bark." Here you'll need a question word, so kifindirgi.

Quote
She is a great rider.
Me sajak vezhveni.
I see no reason for the /-i/ suffix. Vezhven is an adjective modifying a singular noun in nominative case. Also in English there's a rather strong sense that the she is very good at riding. I think in Dothraki the sentence is more about general greateness and less about skill. Dunno.

Quote
Your horse stinks like a dirty pig.
Hrazef yeri achra ven qifo sorfi.
I'm still a bit at loss about when Dothraki use the full ven x ven y structure and when they don't, but here I'm quite sure they don't, so the sentence is in that regard right. Again, sorf is an adjective modifying a singular noun in nominative case and does not take any /-i/ suffix. As qifo does not mark plural, qifo sorfi would be a legitimate noun phrase and would mean "dirty pigs".

Quote
Bring me my wife's horse!
Fichi hrazef chiorikemi anni anhasaan!
Allative of anha in anhaan.

Quote
Three children died last night.
Sen yalli drivi jalan oskikhi.
Jalan oskikhi sounds legit enough. Is it taken from somewhere? If it's just a try, I think ajjalan oskikhi might be more likely. Sen yalli works, but it's worth a notice that as far as the vocab is correct, yalli is animate despite the diminutive-ish ending, and thus plural is yallisi. It's optional to skip the plural ending of an animate noun when the number word already indicates the plurality, so here both sen yalli and sen yallisi should be good. I take drivi is misconjugation of drivat. Drivat probably won't work too well, you'd do better with drivolat, and either way, now the plurality is again aknowledged, so drivosh.

Quote
We will attack at dawn.
Kisha alajaki vi aenaan.
Yep. Sounds like "We will fight through the morning." to me. We have gorat for to charge, and that might be a better approxomation for to attack. AFAIK we don't know the animacy of aena, so it might be animate and have an allative aenasaan, but your aenaan is much more likely, as inanimate nouns are much more common and morning isn't strictly an animate concept.

I hope that helps.
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Havazhyol

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Re: Sentences
« Reply #2 on: June 04, 2013, 10:23:36 pm »
You've been qvaaked. ^^

Your implication on grammar keeps impressing me (and helps a lot, btw).
I'm back !!

Jenny

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Re: Sentences
« Reply #3 on: June 06, 2013, 03:55:08 am »