Starving

[Omzinesý]

English is the only language I know having a simple verb for starving.

During the war people were starving.

[Aevas]

Swedish can express this in two ways- of which one involves the verb svälta 'to starve'.

Under kriget svalt folk(et).
under war-DEF starve-PST people-PLUR.INDEF(/-DEF).
'During the war (the) people starved'

Under kriget dog folk(et) av svält.
under war-DEF die-PST people-PLUR.INDEF(/-DEF) of starvation
'During the war (the) people died of starvation'

I'd say that the former rather gives the impression of starving and hungering going on, while the latter puts emphasis on that people were dying off.

---

German has the word verhungern 'to starve' as well as vor Hunger sterben 'to die of starvation'

[xinda]

:roc:
在戰爭期間人們挨餓。
zài zhànzhēng qíjiān rénmen āi è
LOC war-struggle period-within person-PL suffer hunger

:roc:
在戰爭期間人們餓死。
zài zhànzhēng qíjiān rénmen è sǐ.
LOC war-struggle period-within person-PL hunger die


The first implies that they were hungry, but not necessarily dying as a result of lack of food. The second means that they starved to death. There is no actual word for starvation; it is merely an extreme level of hunger.

[Avo]

Durante la guerra la gente muore di fame
during the war the people die of hunger

or

Durante la guerra la gente soffre di fame
during the war the people suffer of hunger

Nothing special here.

In German you can use a wide range of words for starving.

Während des Kriegs-
during the.GEN war.GEN

-(ver)hungern* die Menschen
starve the people
*verhungern is more like starving to death, while hungern is more like suffering from hunger.

-leiden die Menschen an Hunger
suffer the people by hunger

-sterben die Menschen vor Hunger
die the people from hunger

[xijlwya]

In German you can use a wide range of words for starving.

Während des Kriegs-
during the.GEN war.GEN

-(ver)hungern* die Menschen
starve the people
*verhungern is more like starving to death, while hungern is more like suffering from hunger.

-leiden die Menschen an Hunger
suffer the people by hunger

-sterben die Menschen vor Hunger
die the people from hunger

I think that all these translation now carry a gnomic aspect which, IMHO, is not present in the English sentence.
I would translate those with:

Während des Krieges...

...ver-/ hungerten die Menschen.
...litten die Menschen an Hunger.
...starben die Menschen vor Hunger.

Actually I just applied the simple past (Präteritum) to the sentences. But before they sounded like "Generally, people starve in times of war." or something like that.

[Visinoid]

Durant la guerre, les gens mourraient de faim.


Mientras la guerra, la gente se moría de hambre.


Durante a guerra, a gente morria-se de fome.

Litt for the three langs: During the war, people were dying from hunger.

[Pirka]

In Russian, you could say:

Во время войны, люди голодали.

That would mean everyone was hungry but not always dying from it. Alternatively,

Во время войны, люди гибли от голода.

That would mean that many people were dying from starvation. I would equate this to the English contrast between "to starve" and "to starve to death".

[Nortaneous]

I don't have the dialects of Insular Kett where this would be easiest worked out yet, so I'll just use standard structures with the relevant grammatical bits (i.e. IE-style preverbs) from those dialects.

Hattáuan am, lékteran myakáuncera.
hattáu=an am, létak-er=an m-ya-káum-cera
war=TOP LOC, person-COLL=TOP PST-through-hunger-IPFV

[Creyeditor]

Ses sevetub o núturvos.
ses se-ve<tu>b o nu<tu>rv-os
INDEF.PL.S 3PL.S-be.hungry<AUG.ELA> during anger<AUG.ELA>-DEF.PL
During the battles, some were dying of hunger.

Finally, a sentence that is relatively short in Kobardon. Also, I will need another word for war at some point that I can apply the augmentative to, so that I can name the Great War in Kobardon. The word for starving in Kobardon is the augmentative-elative avetub derived from the verb meaning aveb to be hungry.

[YoungConlanger]

Russian
Во время войны люди голодали. [vǝ͜ ˈvrʲe.mʲə vʌj.ˈnɨ ˈlʲu.dʲɪ ɡə.ɫʌ.ˈda.lʲɪ]
Во врем-я войн-ы люд-и голода-ли.
in time-ACC war-GEN people-NOM starve-3PL.PST
"During (the) war people were hungry/starving."

Pehia
Ghojo ikekesajo thi daghio zhe kawsajajo idoj thi sejo. [ˈɣo.jo i.ce.ce.ˈsa.jo θi də.ˈɣi.o ʐɛ kəw.sə.ˈja.jo i.ˈdoj θi ˈsɛ.jo]
Gho-jo ik-ekesa-jo thi dagh-io zhe kawsaja-jo i-doj thi sejo.
human-PLUR PST.IMPF-be_hungry-PLUR in day-PLUR this battle-PLUR PST.IMPF-be in 3PL
"People were starving during the days when war was (raging)."

Edit: corrected a small mistake

[lsd]

pendant la guerre les gens étaient affamés
3SDL
7²Äz²°³‬²m´T°Sm´‬²À\RT°Sm´¿À
(no food given by land in war...)