Reciprocal Translation Challenge: Translate Each Other's Conlangs

[vegfarandi]

I propose a new relay game, wherein we translate a short sentence (should be relatively simple and basic to accommodate grammars of varying levels of completeness) from another's conlang. Maybe for the first few rounds we work with the same sample sentence.

In the process, hopefully we point out missing pieces of grammatical description, new vocabulary that's needed etc.

Since I'm starting off, I'll start by translating something into Zompist's Old Skourene which I've been rereading recently. Sections I found currently untranslatable based on existing grammar and lexicon are in brackets.

The sample I chose is from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Ḍaigi mandimadoḷ aṭaḍi ḷa-uanni(?) [in dignity and rights]. Bauiṭşim dilad ebudera, nsul-aḍediri.
be.born-DES-3p person-PL-all free and-be.same(?) []. inherit-3p.INAN-3p reason consciousness, therefore-act.as.brother.to-3p-RECIPR

I'd be surprised if I got all of the verb conjugations correct, and as you can see, I could not find a noun meaning equality, nor a verb meaning "be the same" so I pretended the connector nen- could be a verb meaning that. However, I also couldn't figure out how to do a delimitive "as far as diginity and rights" nor could I find the nouns dignity and rights. For "be endowed with" I used baṭş- "inherit" and "act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood" happens to be a simple verb. How did I do?

In the meantime, would someone like to take a crack at Duriac?

Duriac Grammar | Lexicon

[Znex]

Oh, you mean use each other's conlangs to translate some sentence? That sounds like fun!

Here's my hasty attempt in Duriac (with heavy paraphrasing) down below:

Budizatabza bânyuz gelim busûdêg gisabut madêt ibagîlmbyê. Yindîd yikû ibaîlmbyê, mubeś bidug yuz biŋgiḫeza źindîd gâbarrabaźdêt.
b-udiz-atab-za b-enyuz g-elim b-u-sû-dêg gisabut madêt i-b-g-îl-mbyê | y-ndîd y-kû i-b-y-îl-mbyê | mubeś b-dug yuz b-ŋgiḫe-za ź-ndîd gâ-b-arra-b-a-ź-dêt
S2PL-person-all-DAT S2PL-equal I2-power S2PL-POSS-NOM-do anything PF-S2PL-I2-MDL-give | A2PL-good A2PL-head PF-S2PL-A2PL-MDL-give | so S1PL-brother as S1PL-other-DAT I4PL-good HORT-S2PL-HAB-S2PL-APPL-I4PL-do
To all people equally?, power to do anything is given. Good heads are given, so as brothers, to each other? good they should do.

A lot of formal language as used in the UDHR is missing understandably, but also words for freedom/free choice and rights, and thought and decision.

I'll post what I have of my conlang in a few days, but feel free to look over and see how I did. I'm interested to see what different choices you'd make!

[vegfarandi]

Oh, you mean use each other's conlangs to translate some sentence? That sounds like fun!

Here's my hasty attempt in Duriac (with heavy paraphrasing) down below:

Budizatabza bânyuz gelim busûdêg gisabut madêt ibagîlmbyê. Yindîd yikû ibaîlmbyê, mubeś bidug yuz biŋgiḫeza źindîd gâbarrabaźdêt.
b-udiz-atab-za b-enyuz g-elim b-u-sû-dêg gisabut madêt i-b-g-îl-mbyê | y-ndîd y-kû i-b-y-îl-mbyê | mubeś b-dug yuz b-ŋgiḫe-za ź-ndîd gâ-b-arra-b-a-ź-dêt
S2PL-person-all-DAT S2PL-equal I2-power S2PL-POSS-NOM-do anything PF-S2PL-I2-MDL-give | A2PL-good A2PL-head PF-S2PL-A2PL-MDL-give | so S1PL-brother as S1PL-other-DAT I4PL-good HORT-S2PL-HAB-S2PL-APPL-I4PL-do
To all people equally?, power to do anything is given. Good heads are given, so as brothers, to each other? good they should do.

A lot of formal language as used in the UDHR is missing understandably, but also words for freedom/free choice and rights, and thought and decision.

I'll post what I have of my conlang in a few days, but feel free to look over and see how I did. I'm interested to see what different choices you'd make!

Thanks Znex! This is so awesome, sorry it's taken me a while to review. I applaud your effort to rephrase with the limited vocab.

So for the first part, I'd word it thus:

budizatabza enyuzamma gisabut gadêt sagdêge zugelim gibambyêut
b-udiz-atab-za enyuzamma gisabut gadêt s-a-g-dêg-e z-u-g-elim g-i-b-a-mbyê-ut
to all people with equal power to do something that there is (= anything) is given.

Suffixing the indefinite determiner -atab 'all' was not supposed to be a thing but I like it so much I've incorporated into the grammar.
As far as adverbs from adjectives, I hadn't writtend this down explicitly, but the instrumental clitic is used for this, so enyuzamma from enyuz 'equal' for the adverb there.
Gisabut gadêt, not *madêt – the two must agree.
The "to do anything" part of the "freedom to do anything" part must come before the phrasal head, the nominalized/infinitive verb. Also, since "freedom to do anything" qualifies power as a possessive, it must be in the ergative, which stands in as a genetive for inanimates. Gelim 'power' must also be marked for posession. So that whole thing "power to do anything" becomes gisabut gadêt sagdêge zugelim.
Lastly, the main verb should be passive, not reflexive, rendering it gibambyêut.

For the second part, I'd word it:

yandîd ikû îmbyê mubeś bidug yuz źindîd gâbarralaźdêt
y-a-ndîd y-i-kû i-y-mbyê mubeś b-i-dug yuz ź-i-ndîd gâ-b-arra-l-a-ź-dêt
good heads are given, therefore as brothers they are to do good to each other.

There's an attributive index with -a- as opposed to -i- in adjectives, so yandîd, not *yindîd, and yi > i, so ikû not *yikû.
Keeping the verb middle voice, it should simply be îmbyê (iy > î).
"Each other" is simply the reflexive index l, so no need for biŋgiḫeza.
As for the main verb, all that needs to change is that the second index -b- should instead become the reflexive/reciprocal -l-, and do is -dêg, not -dêt, sogâbarralaźdêg.

Overall, super impressive work for coming to a new language and I'm over the moon excited that you went ahead and did this. It feels like the language is just a little bit more alive now!

Where's your language, would love to return the favor!

[Moose-tache]

I love this challenge! Znex, can't wait until we have a chance to translate into your conlang.

[Pedant]

I love this challenge! Znex, can't wait until we have a chance to translate into your conlang.

Agreed!

[vegfarandi]

I still love the idea of this – anyone have ideas about how to make this happen?

[Moose-tache]

We've done conlang relays before, and on at least one occasion there were ZBB-related languages involved (Arêndron, maybe?). The problem with all of these schemes is getting a strong commitment. It takes time to study a conlang, and the most fluent speaker, the language's creator, can't help you too much because they were probably involved in the same translation challenge.

For what it's worth, I have spent plenty of time studying other people's conlangs, so I would love to do something like this. It just needs an organizer and some very motivated participants.

[cedh]

I'd love to participate in an inverse translation relay if there's enough interest!

One thing to note though is that the languages must be documented fairly well for this to work, including a detailed syntax section. (Of my own conlangs, probably only Ronc Tyu has reached this level so far. Buruya Nzaysa may be close in theory, but needs a lot more commented example sentences.)

Also, here's a summary of the first inverse relay on Conlang-L, held in 2007.