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Some Translations of Pitak

I just got a nice comment from another conlanging blogger that has nudged me back into action! I was just working on translating random phrases I thought of or saw around the house this past weekend so I thought it would be fun to post some translations and explain more about how Pitak works (for now, at least).
I'm doing it in the same format Arne Duering posts to her blogs (check out his blogs for some interesting conlangs!), because I think its more interesting than posting sentences and then translated sentences, and helps you understand the mechanics of a conlang better. It can also help you make devastatingly accurate and, hopefully, helpful, criticism, so be kind. ;)

A pasu fe wiki so napaku sa
A= the
pasu= past (descriptive case)
fe= two (or few)
wiki= weeks (plural case)
so= were (is; past tense case)
na-= most
paku= packed (descriptive case)
sa= being (is; present tense case)
The past few weeks have been completely packed.

Mi waf i li tasu muvo, en papu pol lafa lu fano, i tok mu lis lu fana la sipuku so
Mi waf i li= my wife and I
tasu muvo= recently (descriptive case) moved (past tense case)
en papu pol= a boy (descriptive case) baby
lafa= were having (have, current tense case)
lu fano= we found/discovered (past tense case)
i tok= and then
mu lis= our home
lu fana= we were finding (present tense case)
la si-= it in/into (prefix)
puku= broken (descriptive case)
so= was (is; past tense)
My wife and I just moved, found out we were having a baby boy, and then found out our house had been broken into!

No lu sikimosonu so ke lu nekewo
No= but
lu= we
si-= in (prefix)
ki-= high up (prefix)
mosonu= emotional (descriptive case)
so= were (past tense case)
ke= that
ne-= no/not, negating prefix
kewo= care (past tense case)
But we were on such an emotional high that we didn't care.

I highly recommend this exercise to any and all conlangers; it can really help you to figure out how your conlang works (or how you think it works), and you can change things or add things in your conlang, once you better understand it.
It can also help you figure out how it might sound, as you sound out sentences. I thought I had a nice phonology at one point with Fauleethik, then I started sounding out sentences and I didn't like it very much at all. Doing this excercise will help you figure things out much more quickly than overthinking the parts of your conlang.
If you haven't put together a lexicon/dictionary of a bunch of words WHO CARES. If you've worked on your phonology or phonotactics, you know what a word should look like, more or less, and you can just make words up until you come up with the "real words" for your fake language. ;) Here's a secret, if you didn't already figure this out from looking at the translated words above: almost every word I wrote is merely the English word changed into sounds that are pronouncable in Pitak and then conjugated appropriately.
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Comments

Colm said…
I'm doing it in the same format Arne Duering posts to his blogs (check out his blogs for some interesting conlangs!)

Doesn't she say she is female in her profile?

BTW, what's why her having all those blogs with just one post?!

Good luck with your conlanging! :-)
May 25, 2008 at 1:42 PM
Matthew Shields said…
Oops! Thanks for the heads-up. Post corrected.
May 25, 2008 at 7:13 PM
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