So far, this is the oldest I've ever been.

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Imralu
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So far, this is the oldest I've ever been.

Post by Imralu »

More than ten years ago, I was given a t-shirt for my birthday that says this sentence and it doesn't always easily translate into other languages, so I thought it'd be a good translation challenge.

:eng: So far, this is the oldest I've ever been.
Glossing Abbreviations: COMP = comparative, C = complementiser, ACS / ICS = accessible / inaccessible, GDV = gerundive, SPEC / NSPC = specific / non-specific, AG = agent, E = entity (person, animal, thing)
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Reyzadren
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Re: So far, this is the oldest I've ever been.

Post by Reyzadren »

:con: griuskant (without the conscript)

zhe az ist shiolis nastuark zhed cauvan aesk vazh kiuzhon.
/'ʒə az 'ist 'ʃiɔlis 'nastuark ʒəd 'tʃauvan 'esk vaʒ 'kiuʒɔn/
this is most number.many year.old REL reach-V-PASS 1SG attribution until-EB-PASS
Last edited by Reyzadren on 30 Mar 2020 03:48, edited 1 time in total.
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Dormouse559
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Re: So far, this is the oldest I've ever been.

Post by Dormouse559 »

:con: Silvish

Avvoù d' ichi, jou sû plû ajé que nonque.
[ʔɑˈvu ˈdi.ɕi | ʑu.syˈplyː ʔəˈʑe kəˈnɔ̃ŋ.kə]
until of here | 1S.NOM be.1S SUP old than ever
So far, this is the oldest I've ever been.

I decided to render "this is the oldest I've ever been" as "I'm older than ever".
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Frislander
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Re: So far, this is the oldest I've ever been.

Post by Frislander »

:con: Asta

maya pu mu‘yu‘yawə ‘u pa‘ mə‘un ‘imityax‘ə ‘əra.
maya pu m-VCC-u‘ya-wə ‘u pa‘ mə-‘-un ‘i-m-ityax-‘ə ‘-əra
DECL thus 1s-PROG-old-PROG CONTR NEG 1s-IV-be_similar 3erg-1s-precede-NOM V-DIST
So far, this is the oldest I've ever been.

Notes: this is actually very hard to translate idiomatically into Asta, seeing how the language lacks dedicated comparatives, among other things. I ended up translating is as something like "So in this way I am old now and am not like how I was before", though even that's taking some liberties.
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Imralu
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Re: So far, this is the oldest I've ever been.

Post by Imralu »

:con: Ngolu / Iliaqu

Ezo hue moho nu lo ti vaua nia.
[ezó ʍé mohó nú ló tí vawá ɲâ]
I'm older now than I've ever been before.
(Even more literally: I'm older now, having always been less.)

Code: Select all

ezo   hue   moho  nu          lo   ti   vaua    nia
PRES  COMP  old   NOM.1S.ICS  ADV  PRF  always  NEG.COMP
[VP____________]  [NOM.....]  [ADV.....................]
                                   [VP_________________]
Or maybe ...

Nja nnu hueva moho jaie uxi va uhu tiezo.
[n̩ʒá nːá ʍevá mohó ʒajêw‿ʃí vâ‿whú t͡sezó]
This (person by me) is the oldest me of all time until now.

Code: Select all

n- ja              n- nu          hueva  moho  ja            -ie
VB-NOM.3S.DEF.ACS  VB-NOM.1S.ICS  SUP    old   NOM.3S.DEF.ACS-DEM.1
[VP_________________________________________]  [NOM...............]
   [NOM.....................................]                [VP__]
                   [VP______________________]
                      [NOM..................]
                                  [VP_______]

uxi              va   uhu   tiezo
GEN.3S.DEF.INAN  all  time  past.to.present
[GEN......................................]
                 [VP______________________]
The first way kind of seems punchier for a t-shirt, but it's less presentative, carries less of the this (which you see before you) -ness of the original, and maybe the more convoluted syntax of the second sentence would come across as funny, since the whole humour behind it is that you read it and then go "Oh, well ... durr! We're all at our oldest at every moment we're alive! That shirt is always true at every moment, whoever wears it. Damn, that's kind of depressing." and slightly more convoluted syntax might be funnier in delaying that moment? Dunno.

I guess I could get the presentativeness in the first translation by coining the word nuue which is essentially "this me here by me" or "I who am this one by me", but damn, I don't want to add the "this, that, yonder" forms to all of my nominals in the dictionary because that would be a lot of work, plus the verbalised forms of all of those, and having a predominantly isolating language brings the benefit of being able to include or reference in the dictionary every individual word form that may be encountered, but I think I'm turning the contractions of demonstrative verbals into yet another dimension for nominal inflection and have thus quadrupled the number of nominal forms. Fuck! I mean cool! But also, fuck! But cool, because, like, nuua "I who am by you (yet inaccessible to you)" and naio "I who am yonder, with him/her/them (yet accessible to you)" and other silly forms open up a whole lot of possibilities for idiomatic turns of phrase that could be fun. They're already possible with the non-contracted forms I guess though.
Dormouse559 wrote: 31 Dec 2018 08:21I decided to render "this is the oldest I've ever been" as "I'm older than ever".
Frislander wrote: 02 Jan 2019 22:53Notes: this is actually very hard to translate idiomatically into Asta, seeing how the language lacks dedicated comparatives, among other things. I ended up translating is as something like "So in this way I am old now and am not like how I was before", though even that's taking some liberties.
Yeah, I struggled with it too. The original English sentence is kind of syntactically odd and very typically English - and even though it's a pretty simple concept, it's not one that's often expressed.
Glossing Abbreviations: COMP = comparative, C = complementiser, ACS / ICS = accessible / inaccessible, GDV = gerundive, SPEC / NSPC = specific / non-specific, AG = agent, E = entity (person, animal, thing)
________
MY MUSIC | MY PLANTS
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