Ring B: 9/22: Jovian

Christian Thalmann

[ Jovian | Smooth English | Grammar | Vocabulary ]

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Jovian

Pije un pare seine se para ad se conuenger. Ahun seoginde en preige:

"Sume graedsose de nustade colbraele: Oud maene cun noe preinei.
Sume graedsose d'ei sole: Noe da bone un caelun.
Sume graedsose d'ei inge: Nos sine astinire ei vija yh ruena.
Sume graedsose d'ei meisse: Noe da ferblidade.
Sume graedsose d'ei luna: In noc, noe da bone un caelun.
Sume graedsose d'ei auga: Sin ei, game morire.
Sume graedsose d'ei vindu: Proefte pordune un caelun ih naeves.
Sume graedsose d'ih alburs: Noe dan umbra.
Sume graedsose de uerdude: Noe da forduna.
Sume graedsose de nustade: Cordame ud noe i jerrer un cinde.

Pregame ud vame un dinner.
Coevin aher ammur noe deirne.
Ih omme ahe ammur ei feima.
Ja feima ahe ammur ei omme.
Cordame noe jerrer forduna.
Hoe so ud mandsé. Amen."

Smooth Translation

An old religious couple prepare to unite with each other. They make the following prayer: [1]

"We are thankful [2] for bodily beauty [3]: May it always stay with us.
We are thankful for the sun: It gives us good weather.
We are thankful for the fire: It allows us to avoid the path of ruin.
We are thankful for the harvest: It gives us fertility.
We are thankful for the moon: At night it gives us good weather.
We are thankful for the water: Without it, we would die.
We are thankful for wind: It provides ships with suitable weather.
We are thankful for trees: They give us shade.
We are thankful for virtue: It gives us luck.
We are thankful for beauty: We hope it will bring us a child. [4]

We pray to go on a journey.
We start to make love to each other.
The man makes love to the woman [5].
The girl makes love to the man.
We hope to bring luck unto ourselves.
Today as well as tomorrow. Amen."

[1]	Was: "They build hope." irr. changed it because it didn't make a sensible transition to the direct speech, and the source language appeared to consider "hope" and "pray" to be closely related concepts.
[2]	Was: "We are lords of ...", which made absolutely no sense. Creative license to the rescue!
[3]	Was: "beautiful breasts". Since the prayer is spoken by a mixed couple,
[4]	Was: "We hope it will bring that thin person into our possession." WTF?
[5]	Was: "girl". Since the two participants both appear to be old, though, irr. went for a more age-neutral word.

Grammar

Noun Phrases

In Modern Jovian, nouns only inflect for number, not for case. Only pronouns still have case inflections. For that reason, it is important that each noun phrase be marked with at least an article or a preposition, lest it be interpreted by default as a nominative before the verb or an accusative after the verb. It is not uncommon to omit the article if a preposition is already present.

Jovian is SVO in general, but personal pronouns often get moved around a bit to ease the flow of the sentence.

The 3rd person personal pronoun is, ja, id "he, she, it" doubles as the definite article e.g. ja feima "the woman" (literally: "she woman"). The indefinite article is u, a, un. Both are very irregular, thus their inflected forms are given in the vocabulary.

A peculiarity of Jovian noun phrases is the fronting of modifiers. Modifiers are usually placed after their head nouns. However, an adjective or adjective-like pronoun can be moved BEFORE the noun phrase's first word (an article or preposition), where it loses all inflection. Observe:

  a feima beola or beole a feima "a pretty woman"

With most pronouns, this construction is actually mandatory:

  oene ni obe "by every means"
  nuole u omme "not a single man, no man"
  mi yh mare "of my mother"

There are four noun cases: nominative, accusative, oblique, and genitive. The oblique case combines the roles of the Latin dative and ablative cases.

Plural endings for the nouns include -s, -es, -i (masculine), -ae (feminine), -a (neuter), -ei (e-thematic).

Verbs

Jovian verbs always inflect for person and number. Therefore, it is often not necessary to provide a nominative pronoun for the subject; this is only done for clarification or emphasis.

The regular verb endings are the following:

1sg:	-o	1pl:	-ame, -ime, -in
2sg:	-as, -es	2pl:	-aese, -ise, -is
3sg:	-a, -e	3pl:	-an, -en, -un

Caution: The i-thematic conjugation also afflicts an i-umlaut to the stem vowel if it is stressed. This can make it somewhat non-trivial to relate a given verb form to the wordlist.

ozire	"to hate"
	oezo	"I hate"

Most verb modulations are built with the help of auxiliaries, e.g.:

  gare + infinitive: conditional mood
     ga venire "(he, she) would come"

Idioms

No idiomatic expressions in this text should require a particular explanation.

Vocabulary

ad	prep.	to, at; in order to
aher, actu	v.irr.	do; behave, act as; play (tune, instrument)
albur	n.m.	tree
amen	intj.	amen
ammur, -s	n.m.	love (romantic)
astinire	v.	stay away from, abstain, avoid
auga	n.f.	water; fig: schnaps, essence
bonu	adj.	good
caelun	n.n.	sky; weather
cinde	n.n.	child, infant
coever, coeftu	v.	begin, set out, start
colbraele	adj.	corporal, bodily, physical
cordare	v.	hope
cun	prep.	with, together with
conuenger, -uentu	v.	unite, put together, link, join
dare	v.	give
de, d'	prep.	of, from, down from; about
deirne	adv.	each other, reciprocally
dinner, dindra	n.n.	journey, path, travel, voyage
en	singular m./f. accusative form of the definite article
ei	singular oblique form of the definite article
ere, sidu	v.irr.	be
feima	n.f.	woman; female
feirblidade	n.f.	fertility
forduna	n.f.	good luck, fortune
gare	v.irr.	would (conditional auxiliary)
graedsosu	adj.	grateful, thankful
hoe	adv.	today
i	3rd person singular form of ire
ih	singular m. nominative or plural oblique form of the
	definite article
in	prep.	in, on; at
inge	n.m.	fire
ire	v.i.	will (future tense auxiliary)
ja	a form of the definite article
jerrer, jestu	v.	carry, bring, bring about; wear
luna	n.f.	moon
mandsé	adv.	tomorrow
manire, mandsu	v.	remain, stay (overnight), last
meisse	n.f.	harvest
morire, mordu	v.	die
naeve	n.f.	ship, vessel
ni	singular oblique form of the indefinite article
noc, noctes	n.f.	night
noe	pron.	1st person plural pronoun, oblique
nustade	n.f.	grace, beauty, prettiness
omme	n.m.	man, male
oud	adv.	may..., oh that... (optative particle)
pare	n.n.	pair, couple
parare	v.	prepare; plan
piju	adj.	pious, religious, faithful
pordunu	adj.	favorable, convenient, good
pregare	v.	pray
preige	n.f.	prayer
preine	adj.	eternal, enduring, durable; timeless; perennial
proeftire, provisu	v.	provide
ruena	n.f.	ruin, destruction; failure, bankrupcy
se	pron.	3rd person reflexive pronoun, accusative
seine	adj.	old, aged
seoginde	adj.	following, next up, upcoming
sin	prep.	without
siner, sidu	v.	let, leave (alone), allow ... to
so ud	conj.	like, (in the same way) as
sole	n.m.	sun
sume	1st person plural of ere
ud	conj.	that (subordinate clause); than
uerdude	n.f.	virtue
umbra	n.f.	shadow, shade
un	singular n. nominative or accusative form of the indefinite article
vare, vasu	v.irr.	go; walk
vija	n.f.	way, road
vindu	n.m.	wind
yh	singular genitive form of the definite article