amiu - "tracing mansions"
Feb. 5th, 2004 12:16 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pauraque_bkAt the request of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spican:
Núujóng éngRi
"tracing mansions"
X-SAMPA: [ n`u_(drop)UjoN eNr\`i_(drop) ]
Since the request wasn't specifically for an icon, I made the text a little bigger this time so that it's easier to see. The phrase comes from a poem by Anna Akhmatova, and is the title ofspican's web site. I tried to imitate the handwriting font Spica uses, so the style is a little different.
Núujóng "mansions"
The Lúen don't have mansions as such, so I derived a word from ngóu "house".
is a pictogram of a house. The picture suggests 
, "person" underneath a shelter. The second element is 
, the "great/large" derivation. This adds a suffix consisting of the first vowel, and then moves the first vowel back in the mouth and gives it low pitch (if it doesn't already have it).
The third element is the doubled bar, which indicates the plural. To form the plural, a suffix consisting of a nasal with the same point of articulation as the first consonant is added, and the first consonant is retroflexed (ie, it keeps the same manner of articulation, only the point of articulation is changed).
ngóu "house" > ngúujó "mansion" > Núujóng "mansions"
éngRi "writing" (noun)
This is a borrowing from Rrimar (the Rrimar and Amíu speakers are neighbors). Both the phonetic and the written forms are borrowed. Compare Rrimar
engrî "writing". There's also a native Amíu word (and character) for "writing", but the unusual sound and look of the foreign word seemed right for this translation, as it connotes something of the exotic and sublime.
(Not to stray too far from the topic, but if you're interested in the Rrimar script, it looks like this:
A:wo: mrro:yi: mira ryâwa yêring ingrî ungrâ.
"The sun shines like fur around all the little statues.")
Getting back to Amíu, Núujóng éngRi is a simple posessive noun phrase. Two juxtaposed nouns indicate a genitive-type meaning for the first, so we'd call this "great houses' writing", colloquially the outlines of great houses.
As always, I welcome any questions, or requests for translations. I'm having a ball doing the requests, and getting more work done on the language than I have in months. You've all been very inspiring. :)
Next up is "Schadenfreude" forcaesia390.
*
So, I heard this song on the radio that sounded very familiar -- "Mad World" by Gary Jules. The DJ mentioned it was a cover of a Tears For Fears song, which I then remembered, and figured the reason I didn't know it right away was that the original version is vapidly electronic, whereas the cover is really quite sweet and sad.
But -- am I crazy, or is there *another* song that sounds almost exactly like this? A loudish alt-rock song from the 90s that uses the same tune as the bit that goes "going nowhere, going nowhe-e-ere"? Somebody help me out here.
spican:Núujóng éngRi
"tracing mansions"
X-SAMPA: [ n`u_(drop)UjoN eNr\`i_(drop) ]
Since the request wasn't specifically for an icon, I made the text a little bigger this time so that it's easier to see. The phrase comes from a poem by Anna Akhmatova, and is the title of
spican's web site. I tried to imitate the handwriting font Spica uses, so the style is a little different.Núujóng "mansions"
The Lúen don't have mansions as such, so I derived a word from ngóu "house".
is a pictogram of a house. The picture suggests , "person" underneath a shelter. The second element is , the "great/large" derivation. This adds a suffix consisting of the first vowel, and then moves the first vowel back in the mouth and gives it low pitch (if it doesn't already have it).The third element is the doubled bar, which indicates the plural. To form the plural, a suffix consisting of a nasal with the same point of articulation as the first consonant is added, and the first consonant is retroflexed (ie, it keeps the same manner of articulation, only the point of articulation is changed).
ngóu "house" > ngúujó "mansion" > Núujóng "mansions"
éngRi "writing" (noun)
This is a borrowing from Rrimar (the Rrimar and Amíu speakers are neighbors). Both the phonetic and the written forms are borrowed. Compare Rrimar
engrî "writing". There's also a native Amíu word (and character) for "writing", but the unusual sound and look of the foreign word seemed right for this translation, as it connotes something of the exotic and sublime.(Not to stray too far from the topic, but if you're interested in the Rrimar script, it looks like this:
A:wo: mrro:yi: mira ryâwa yêring ingrî ungrâ.
"The sun shines like fur around all the little statues.")
Getting back to Amíu, Núujóng éngRi is a simple posessive noun phrase. Two juxtaposed nouns indicate a genitive-type meaning for the first, so we'd call this "great houses' writing", colloquially the outlines of great houses.
As always, I welcome any questions, or requests for translations. I'm having a ball doing the requests, and getting more work done on the language than I have in months. You've all been very inspiring. :)
Next up is "Schadenfreude" for
caesia390.*
So, I heard this song on the radio that sounded very familiar -- "Mad World" by Gary Jules. The DJ mentioned it was a cover of a Tears For Fears song, which I then remembered, and figured the reason I didn't know it right away was that the original version is vapidly electronic, whereas the cover is really quite sweet and sad.
But -- am I crazy, or is there *another* song that sounds almost exactly like this? A loudish alt-rock song from the 90s that uses the same tune as the bit that goes "going nowhere, going nowhe-e-ere"? Somebody help me out here.
