Help needed for a senior thesis

[jojinu]

Hello there forum!

I'm writing a thesis on constructed languages and Dothraki and since I have some doubts I though to ask the experts! 

I'm a newbie, obviously, and while looking at the wiki page for season one's Dothraki dialogue, I found a sentence that I don't understand... I mean, I do understand it, but I don't know why there's a case instead of another.

The sentence is:

Affin shekh yola she jimma ma drivoe she titha / When sun rises from the west and sets in the east

I was wondering why jimma and titha are in their nominative case and not in their ablative/allative form; I know that there is she, which in this case convey the nominative, but why?

I know that this may be a stupid question, but I don't understand... maybe also because I'm one of the few Italians who has never studied Latin, my bad.

[Jasi]

Sorry to get you excited if you thought this was someone answering your question (I'm as new as you are).  But wouldn't east and west be lowercase (I'm unfamiliar with nominative versus ablative) because only the direction is specified, not the location?  I'm talking about the difference between a relative geographical direction versus a specific region/culture/ethnicity.

The wind blew from the east.

The man came from the East.

In those examples east is used a general direction, while East in English indicates that this man is from a specific location relative to the speaker's.  So... they would be nominative, wouldn't they?

I could just not know what I'm talking about.  I tend to stick my nose into conversations I have no business being in.

[jojinu]

I didn't think at this possibility and I lost myself in your post...do you think that they (east/west) should be uppercase or lowercase?

[Jasi]

I wouldn't be the one to ask for the Dothraki way, but in English they would be lowercase purely because of their connotation.  The speaker isn't pointing to east and west as specific locations or regions, but as a direction.

[jojinu]

Ok, I thought you mean the other way round
I don't know, but I think you may be right.

Let's wait for the Dothraki version now

[Jasi]

Yes.  Let's. 

... Want to play a game?

[jojinu]

Uh, by the way, I was reading about verb classes and there is one in which you have to use the genitive with a verb of movement, when the movement is beside another body... I know that neither yolat nor drivolat are verb of movement, but they are describing the sun movements in a metaphorical way... or not?

Uff, I'm blabbering, maybe I just need to rest (and die a little)

[Jasi]

You'd know more about it than I would. 

And I wanted to try and translate a riddle.  I've got most of the pieces, I think, to string together; I just need to hammer out the proper syntax.  I'm looking at the riddle, "No sooner spoken than broken.  What am I?"

These are the words I've compiled that I think I'd need:

(samva) broken
(vasterat) to converse, to speak with
(ajjin) now
(vos) (negator)
(fini) what (question word, when speaking of an inanimate object)
(me) it, he, she

And what I've got so far is:

Ajjin vaster, me samvaan.  Fini me?

Which to me sounds like, "Now speak, it is breaking.  What is it?"

[jojinu]

ahahaha no, I'm really blabbering 'cause I read genitive and I thought nominative, and that's why I write it XD oh god, I'm so so so sorry.

[Jasi]

You've got no reason to be sorry.  I came butting my nose into your topic. 

[jojinu]

I'm sorry for my mind and for you all that have to put up with me in this state XD

[Jasi]

Hey, if you've got somewhere you need to be, feel free to leave me to my own devices here.  I'm still trying to work out my riddle.  Would it be "Ajjin vaster, me samvaan.  Fini me?" or "Vaster ajjin, me samvaan.  Fini me?"  The latter sounds better in English ("Speak now, it is breaking.  What is it?"), but then it would be, "Vaster.  Ajjin me samvaan.  Fini me?" ("Speak.  Now it is breaking.  What is it?")  And that's if I have my Dothraki grammar right in the first place.

If it were the third option, vaster would no longer be acceptable (if it was to begin with).  Sooo...

Anha vasterak.  Ajjin me samvaan.  Fini me?

Does that work?  I'm talking out my ass here.

[Qvaak]

whoa. We have rapid discussion on a forum where the regular post frequency is more like once per week! Cool.

Dothraki seem to use ordinal directions mostly adverbially. I asked about this in http://www.dothraki.com/2012/04/valshe-vinesera/ about the line

Ma yer adothrae tith; ma yer heshtith; ma yer valshtith. “You ride east; you southeast; and you northeast.”

Me:

I would have expected the ordinal directions to be in allative. Are ablative and allative used for directions and how does allative differ from accusative then?

And David answered:

I suppose you could treat them as nouns, but they basically function as adverbs. Directions are tied to motion rather than location, initially, so the basic sense is, e.g. “eastly” or “northly”, etc. You could say something like Me dothra jimmoon, “He rode from the west”, but the basic functions are adverbial.

[Jasi]

Probably my fault, Qvaak.  I talk far too much. 

 

And there you go, jojinu!  There's your answer!

[jojinu]

Well ok then, thank you Qvaak

Now that's better, I finally saw the light XD

Can I bother you/the forum with some other doubts if I need to? ^^