Rifts-Ganuo languages

[vramho]

FINALLY a pavala board exists on any usf site

voices in proto-rifts-ganuo:
- reflexive is very unusual for the language, is expressed either lexically or analytically (different word, or standalone reflexive pronoun used instead)
- antipassive voice is used in sentences with no semantic subject, like the weather clauses (it rains, it snows, it (is foggy) (would be "it fogs"), etc)
- antipassive is also used in the normal form for antipassives to give prominence to the agent
- passive voice is used, but only in sentences where subject or object are persons 1/2 (I was bit by her, rough possible gloss: [I-bit-was by she])
- maybe some weird shit, like a pejorative antipassive? (would imply the patient is pejorative)

pronouns:
- pretty unusual, usually their function is covered by verb prefix
- very emphatic when used, but less so in reflexive sentences (like, rough gloss: [I myself I-meat-cook\] would be a relatively normal sentence)

[vramho]

there are these three sentences in the conlang syntax tests for comparative adverbs, or like, adverbs of degree, or whatever they're called, and i have NO idea how languages that are not english or spanish handle these, and english and spanish handle them basically the exact same way.

so when i try to think of how i could translate them into rifts-ganuo, which has a much more limited set of adverbs than english, and intentionally lacks comparatives between nouns, i am completely lost as extrapolating from n=1 to all the possible methods that languages could use is basically impossible. AND i have no idea what to look up on google scholar to find information about how other languages do this. maybe i should see if one of the grammars i've downloaded talks about this

[kalassak]

which. sentences

[vramho]

35. We should eat more slowly.
36. You have come too soon.
37. You must write more neatly.

[kalassak]

slower
neater

idk about the other one tho

[vramho]

yeah (colloquial, anyway) english provides the morphological and analytic methods applied to the adverb but i'm sure there are many other methods out there that i'll have to find somehow

[rabbit]

Japanese basically does the same thing... "more slowly", "more neatly". I'm not really sure about "too soon" and am asking my dad about that, but one translation is... "too soon", the other is like a special verb that gets appended to adjectives. The verb basically means "too much". It's called sugiru (すぎる／過ぎる) if you want to look it up

[rabbit]

Update I asked my dad and he said he would phrase the second one as

*YOU come.GRD 'be excessive'

idk how i would naturally translate that into english... "your coming overwhelms"?

you could also use this for things that are too expensive, etc. like "this price overwhelms"

[vramho]

watafa it interpreted

Code: Select all

[I myself I-meat-cook]

as just [i\] (without the backslash)

[vramho]

Update I asked my dad and he said he would phrase the second one as

*YOU come.GRD 'be excessive'

idk how i would naturally translate that into english... "your coming overwhelms"?

i never asked when you posted this but what does the "GRD" abbreviation stand for... graded?

[rabbit]

Idk why I didn’t explain it well, also I looked back at my text messages and found a different translation

来るのが早すぎますよ

来る to come
の turns it into a noun
が “topic” particle
早(い) early / soon / fast
すぎます to be excessive (polite)
よ emphasis particle