A Happy Song (alt: A Song of Hope and Joy)

 Just to prove that I'm not just sadposting and still have some linguistics content, here's a project I've been working on. And by working on, I mean put together in a couple hours this evening, instead of leaving it for next week like I originally planned to. 

So once I finish "Fishing for Birds" my next project is an EP called "Scandals from the Karaoke Booth" which is a bunch of covers. I did the first one/the opener a long time ago, a cover of Sparklehorse's "Chaos of the Galaxy/Happy Man." Which tells you a lot about what this project is like. Most people cover just Happy Man because it's a rocking song. But while it can be played alone, thematically it works best in conjunction with Chaos of the Galaxy. I took this a step further by focusing almost entirely on Chaos of the Galaxy with just hints of Happy Man, making it a cover but very much my own interpretation of it. 

That's not the point though. The next song I've been working on is "Lagu Bahagia" by Sisir Tanah. Now, I can sing this just fine in Indonesian but that doesn't fit the spirit of the album. So I decided to do my own translation of it. This blogpost is about the theory behind that (and will probably make it to reddit at some point). 

 

On tubers and how to translate them

 I've been playing a lot of xenoblade recently and have many thoughts about it, as can be seen on my reddit profile. As much as I like it, there's something extremely immersion breaking for me: taro is referred to as potatoes.

If I remember correctly, spongy spuds are first introduced around when the party's food gets stolen. At the very least I saw a bag full of them at some point in Maktha Wildwood and I recognized them right away as taro. Which was cool because taro is not a commonly seen plant, especially for westerners. It's only later on we get to the problematic part. See, Zeon's ascension quest is about growing crops, specifically "spongy spuds" for his colony. The name spongy spud itself is fine, it's a fictional world after all. However, they are also referred to as potatoes, taters and other less ambiguous names. This is despite both the tubers and the plants are clearly modeled after taro. Even the advice to harvest after the leaves start wilting is a taro trait (though potatoes do have similar advice. I wonder if cassava does as well, it might be a general root crop thing). So that was pretty frusterating.

Now, localizing taro as potato isn't necessarily a bad thing. After all, most English speakers aren't going to be that familiar with taro. But it does become a lot worse when you're localizing something that has images along with the text, since even if you don't know what taro is it is pretty obvious that those aren't potatoes. It reminds me of the "jelly donut-onigiri" controversy from the Pokemon anime way back when. The idea of turning onigiri into jelly donuts to make it more relevant to the audience isn't a bad thing. Doing that when it is clearly referencing an image which is not a jelly donut is an issue. (Funnily enough, onigiri does play a minor role in Xenoblade 3 and its name is not translated). 

Anyway, I actually went to the Japanese version of the game to see what the original text called them. Spud, potato, tater, etc all seem to be used as translations for the same word imo "tuber". So while the original text doesn't seem to explicitly label it as taro (as far as I could tell), it doesn't explicitly call it potato either. Localizing this to a bunch of words for more variety is reasonable enough but again, the translators should've looked at what it was referring to before making some of these translations. 

You know what the worst part is? I seem to be the only person to notice this and care enough to complain! At least, I haven't encountered anyone else yet who was like "yep, that's clearly taro."

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In other farming related video game news Harvestella looks pretty awesome but I hope it doesn't neglect farming too much. And someone needs to make a farming sim that caters towards caters towards my desire for complex agronomy and agricultural markets while still maintaining the sort of whimsy often found in these games (that is, I want more realism but don't want to play John Deere Combine Simulator 2022: Deluxe Edition). Maybe I'll rant about that some day.

A children's fable in Knt

Link to a story I wrote here https://www.reddit.com/r/conlangs/comments/i1wnpk/create_a_short_story_or_tale_that_native_speakers/g00q585/

Also all the info pasted below for reference

Knǝnʔtǝǝʔ

Ksaad sʔcteʔ so jɨ̃dlɨ̃d. So hɛɛs schuu hrëëy phũl nköm so. ʔɨ̈ʔ swleew phũl dchɛs thɛ̃ɛ̃n giik nɔk hwyrëëy. Dǝd mjälɨ̃d jɛt sbããk hwɨ̈j so. Syhrëëy süw ʔic so hpuup scɔʔ. Hwɨ̈j so hrëëy clör so skĩ thɛ̃ɛ̃n sǝsklïïk mhäyrëëy.

[ksäːd̥̚ sᵊʔcteʔ soɲɨ̰ɗlɨ̰d̥̚ soɦɛːs scʰuː hɾe̤ːj pʰṵl̥ nko̤m̥ so ʔɨ̤ʔ suleːw pʰṵl̥ dcʰɛs tʰɛ̰ːn̥ ŋiːk̚ nɔk̚ hwiɾe̤ːj ɗǝd̥̚ mᵊɲä̤lɨ̰d̥̚ ɲɛt̚ sɓä̤ːk̚ hwɨ̤ɲ̥ so siɦɾe̤ːj sṳw ʔic̚ sohpuːp̚ scɔʔ hwɨ̤ɲ̥ so hɾe̤ːj clo̤r̥ so skḭʔ tʰɛ̰ːn̥ sǝskli̤ːk̚ mɦä̤jɾe̤ːj]

Ksaad sʔ-   cteʔ      so=j<ɨ̃d>lɨ̃d.    So hɛɛs s-   chuu   hrëëy  phũl nköm   so.
Exist COUNT-possum    3s=<REL>lazy.   3S want CAUS-afraid frog   COM  friend 3s
ʔɨ̈ʔ  sw-   leew  phũl dchɛs thɛ̃ɛ̃n giik nɔk h<w> <y>   rëëy. 
TEMP COUNT-night COM  fog   3p    wait LOC <LOC><CAPT>frog. 
Dǝd m-    j<ä> lɨ̃d  jɛt s-   bããk hwɨ̈j so.
But AGEN-<AGEN>lazy NEG CAUS-hide tail 3s
Sy-   hrëëy süw          ʔic  so=h<p>uup     scɔʔ. 
COUNT-frog  feel.watched thus 3s=<INCH>watch bush. 
Hwɨ̈j so hrëëy clör so skĩ thɛ̃ɛ̃n s~   s-   klïïk m-   h<ä>  <y>   rëëy.
tail 3s frog  see  3s and 3p    PLUR~CAUS-die   AGEN-<AGEN><CAPT>frog

"There was a lazy possum. He wanted to scare frogs together with his friends. One foggy night they waited by the road. But the lazy one didn't hide his tail. A frog felt like he was being followed so he started watching the bushes. The frogs saw him and killed all the frog-catchers."

This tale works on a couple levels. On the one hand, it's about being careful and says that if you aren't careful, your laziness will hurt you and your friends. But it is also a reminder of the wars of resistance they fought against the Kikxotians, hidden in animal language so that it is easier to pass off as just being an old story. There's a similar story, often told by the ktek ("tribespeople") in which a ryiid ("parakeet") sees the possum's tail and warns the frogs. This is used to further explain why the people of the interior don't like the coastal dwellers.

That last story but in TbKt

So I had fun writing the last story so I'm gonna translate it again, but in TbKt. Not that it's very sensible to the Kikxotian mind, but hey maybe it's the sort of story they publish in anthologies of tribal tales to make fun of their poor, ignorant neighbors. Also, this translation should hopefully have better flow and more flowery language (sort of), since this lang is way more fleshed.

Ūstu khosaowaxphīc-owphīc wōluf? Ūíonuc khoowaxphīc. Oshbīmiz, faoqcīl íopul. Smofizōchōp ūsimf-isumf. Īsaxumōfsā wōluf. Ugmasūkuc ofaxqīl. Īn wōluf amlōí līwūl ūstu. Usarsíuy īw naxiyka phruyāzō wōbothat. Thāxakh aksōtnāg, fīs khopīkūg īn wōluf. Īn wōluf khoāpkāg agis baxifwa ūstu. 
Most important things to note here? I tried to not bring up subjects unless the subject changed from the last sentence. So in TbKt narrative forms the subject is implied until changed. This also means that the patient focus and agent focus often switch while trying to maintain the same subject. I can't remember anything else of note right now.  It's been a while since I did this though I'm just now publishing it.  Probably could be cleaned up though but whatever.  I'm still learning this language too!

Some sentences of the Be'oi

Just to shake things up a bit here's some samples of the mountain people's language. I'm calling them the Be'oi, from their word for mankind or people. Technically they call themselves Be'oi kau Qqoi "The people on the cliffside" but no one calls that because it's long. I've been going through a swadesh list to fill out their vocabulary, which already makes me remember how much I hate creating a lexicon. That's why TbKt gets so much attention. The vocabulary practically writes itself thanks to its derivational system. I'm just providing sentences and translations, you, my dear readers, get to try to figure the structure of the language (though some of the translations are way loose).

Cirre'i e happia ijji u'e ngõnã- The bird could be eating a flower.

Hã sa uxxale fu fũxã ikkanã?- Have I ever been squeezed by a snake?

Hã sa uxxale ri fũxã ikkanã- Once a snake squeezed me.

Hã e ssevĩ litto rusu- I was going to go fishing.

Hã e ibollo u'e hufe rrixa- I was digging for worms.

Hã ãnã iyea õrẽĩ mĩ'ãũ mẽmẽ posai- I was tired and unfortunately fell asleep.

Uxxale rajji- A snake arrived.

Hã i hhi uwẽ gebba-  Maybe it smelled me.

Hã i hhi voa ngõnã- It tried to eat me.

U''ai go hã pũ ngãvõ ã ẽrõĩ- The chieftain heard us fighting.

Ba go hhi icõ ẽmẽtõ- After some time, he killed it.

Uxxale ku mẽwĩẽ; hã e hhi mẽmẽ obie- The snake died but I started to fear snakes.

yeah, I haven't made any conjunctions.  Or figured out story telling.  And a bunch of other things. I don't know if I used the right aspects and moods. But I got something out.  Enjoy!

(I think I'm gonna post this story without translation on facebook for the lulz).

Universal Declaration of Human Rights: Toúījāb Kīkxot

Here's a translation for the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human rights. The first set of translators notes have to do with the translation itself, the second set more with the theory behind why I did things. Btw, check out this site

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1:
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.

Toúījāb Kīkxot:
Khōhim úīkmo¹ vit akhxōm qal cōroj² dumlūzō ūmpa lipha tāsah ī cāyap³ vit fnoxi⁴. Cānu mamaxīrosasā⁵ mocīph⁶ ī ahrōsh ⁷ ūmpa ziūsiwk⁸ olúīg-alúag zāraz dūchhawāx.
IPA:
[ˈk'oːʔɪm wiːkŋɔ ʕɪt ək'ʃoːm q'əl tsoːrɔdz dʊmluːtʃoː uːmpə lɪp'ə tɑːsəʔ iː tsɑːjəp ʕɪt ħnɔʃɪ. Tsɑːnʊ məməʃiːrɔsəsɑː mɔtsiːp' iː əʔroːs' uːmpə tʃjuːsɪɹk ɔlwiːg-əlwəg tʃɑːrətʃ duːts'əɹɑːʃ]
Translators notes

1 The word literally means "human, person, mankind", but has a connotation of "civilized people" (that is, only their civilization). Using "úīkmo" instead of "vīggo" (human, tribe, people, mankind, barbarian etc) reflects their values that they are superior and have greater rights compared to everyone else.

2 Úīkmo Kīkxot find the idea of people being born "free" strange. Instead the phrase "enter the world" is used. Means the same thing, but fits their sensibility better, since the verb born usually has reference to a mother, but there is none here.

3 Literally means "entitlement". Úīkmo Kīkxot don't have the same views as us regarding rights. People can feel that they deserve something, but those are based on merit, wealth and caste, not ideals.

4 Means the same, equal or even balanced. While this construction is perfectly acceptable, xenophobic Úīkmo Kīkxot would probably interpret this to mean that each person's rights (entitlements) are equal or in accordance with their individual dignity (honor, standing) and not that all people have the same rights and dignity.

5 The habitual/frequentive/gnomic aspect is used to emphasize that people are always given the following things. Takes a locative applicative suffix to show that the subject is the recipient, not the patient. While no agent is specified, the ditransitive is still used and people can understand from context that the following nouns are patients, not agents.

6 Literally means "mind, place of thoughts" but can mean reason too

7 Literally means "doing righteous acts" but like many verbal nouns, has a more abstract meaning of "knowing what is right" or conscience

8 Means "must" but uses the imperative prefix to soften it to "should". This shows that pragmatically the imperative prefix makes orders more polite and in the case of an imperative verb, still makes it more polite


A) The IPA represents the standard dialect as I have it so far. But I may add more assimilations/sadhi effects/liaison and the like so don't take it as the final say.

B) So I was looking at different translations of the UDHR while I was doing this (having already decided that I didn't want to use the word for birth (see the note above)) and it ends up that Sundanese seems to use a similar phrasing: "Sakumna jalma gubrag ka alam dunya...". My Sundanese is pretty shabby and my dictionary is still in Ethiopia, but gubrag ka alam dunya means "[something] to the natural world" and I'm pretty sure gubrag means "enter". So I'm not the only person to come up with this sort of way for translating it.

C) You may get the feeling that this culture is a culture of lawyers.  Well, it really is. Their religion's big schism is over the interpretation of a religious holiday. Lawyering and loopholes is built into their national being. Just look at their views on slavery. And a translation of a document like this would definitely be written by lawyers. So that's why there's lots of weasel words and ambiguous phrasings that they can take advantage of. "Oh yes, we treat all civilized people in balance with their deserved honor. In fact, we are the most humane civilization around."

D) Caste is a big deal for the Úīkmo Kīkxot. Of course they would write the translation to fit that, rather than trying to change their culture.

E) In retrospect, I think that the verb mamaxīrosasā should probably be mamaxīrosaī (which in turn would be probably pronounced something like [məmʃiːrɔsiː] but I haven't figured out all the assimilation stuff yet) since I've really shifted to having the benefactive also be a recipient marker and the locative being more only for physical locations. Especially since it benefits the person getting reason. So I may eventually change this up.

F) Verbal nouns probably make up one of the most ambigious, least consistent, hardest to translate and most fun form for TbKt. I really haven't done enough with them, showing all the different paths that things can take for it.

G) I thought for a long time on how to express "should". I already had an imperative, and in normal speech probably only the imperative would be used, I think, but in something more formal like this there had to be something seperate. So it made some interesting effects on the pragmatics of commands, which is cool.

H) I always love when one of my reduplications gets used. I had so much fun thinking them up and figuring out how they'd be use. It was actually one of the big things, in my opinion, that help TbKt move away from its Indonesian and Arabic roots.

I) In retrospect, it might be best that olúig takes the instrumental suffix, which would empahsize that the manner is a (compound noun) and the subject is using that noun to do the verb. Also, I'm not sure if the adjective agreement is necessary here since it could be a compound noun.

J) Conjunctions in TbKt (the one concession I give to logic!) would make for an interesting article. But I think I want to get some profiles and work on other languages up first. But maybe not, because the patient is marked already...it's all confusing. Maybe a preposition should be added.

As for the literal translation, it would be something like "All civilized beings which enter the world are independent and they have honor and entitlements which are equal. They are given a mind and sense of good doing and should treat each other in a brotherly manner."

I should do a gloss but I'm real lazy so this is good for now.

Adventures in Indonesian translation pt 1

What I perceived as a very poor translation on Facebook has lead me to start submitting translations for Google again (it's interface is more userfriendly than facebook's. Also, it lets me do Indonesian to English, which they might need more than english to indonesian. But I like to do both) and I've been submitting translations for English from Indonesian.

For those that don't know, the way this works is I am given a phrase or sentence (with no context) and then asked to give a translation. Not having context can make it pretty hard, and man do I get some funny things. What follows is some funny ones I've got, or ones that provide good translation notes.

• "Hidup bebas di dalam air laut dan tawar."
• I can't tell if this is some sort of saying or word of wisdom or if it is information about a fish. Is it an advertisement offering a way to free yourself from the perils of water? I eventually decided it was probably about a fish.
• "Berita tertangkapnya tuyul tersebut membuat banyak orang penasaran."
• Tuyul, a small spirit of the familiar sort. Where does Google get these to translate? Tuyul can't even be translated into english without a translator's footnote, imo. Penasaran is an interesting word too. Here (and most other places) it is being used like an adjective, even though the wordform itself is a noun. I translated as curious (since that's how I almost always see it being used, and makes sense in this case), but my dictionary says that it literally means "angered" or "anxious to find out something". I guess the second one could mean curious, but why not just say that? Tertangkapnya is also an interesting word being a nominalization. I have an article about -nya nominalizations somewhere, I should probably read it again sometime.
• "Einstein dengan teori relativitas khusus dan umumnya."
• This, as far as I can tell, is a fragment in English and Indonesian. It's easy to translate (you probably don't need to know indonesian to translate it), but it NEEDS MORE CONTEXT
• "Begitu mereka terjerumus, adalah masalah besar di kemudian hari."
• Terjerumus appears to be a new word for me. I think in this case it is definitely being used like "to fall into sin". Also, this appears to be a case where "adalah" means"ada-lah" not "is".
• "Saya membeli kertas, pena, dan tinta."
• This is the one where I realized I was translating most things into the past tense. Probably accurate, but context is really important for translations and even more so for Indonesian, where tense is so context based.
• "Bonus dihitung dan diberikan secara harian."
•  I realized I've been doing a similar sort of thing with things that could be singular or plural. I think in this case it is plural. Honestly, I've gotten pretty bad at marking plurals in english sometimes, it just doesn't seem important anymore.
• "Saya raba seluruh bagian tubuh yang sensitif"
• This is the second translation that I think it pulled from a porn site. I'm translating these as unerotically as possible. "I groped all the sensitive body parts".
• "Apa sih penyebab tubuh kita bisa merasakan gatal?"
• I don't get many translations that use particles like "sih". Kind of hard to translate, but not too bad overall, though I did a pretty liberal translation on this one.
• "Cara menghilangkan jerawat yang aman adalah secara tradisional."
• I'm looking at this one and seeing reasonable translations. First I thought it would be "a safe and traditional way to remove acne", but then I noticed the adalah. The best translation would probably be "A safe way to remove acne is traditionally" and play on the fact that English does allow (I think) adverbs in the predicate like that.
• "Tak pernah secuilpun kudengar kabar tentang dirinya."
• Who even uses language like this? I guess I should try to preserve the formality of it. Trying to decide if I change the word order or preserve it for poetic sake.
• "Kamu wonderwoman, yang membuatku ngerasa jadi superman"
• I don't want the context on this one. Hopefully it's a song or a poem.

Other random translation note. -nya and dia are really difficult because I never know if to translate them to he or she, or if a straight singular they is best. I NEED CONTEXT TO TRANSLATE. Google's advice? "If you feel you need more context (like gender or formality), go ahead and translate as best you can". This is why Google Translate (and all machine translations) suck. Machines can't understand the context and pragmatics of a statement.

Well that's enough for tonight. Translation is a really fun exercise.