Comments by Tamas Ferencz

These are the 10 posts of 121 by Tamas Ferencz.

  • Phenomenological Concept

    The full phrase would be Ita ea illume sanome. (or tanome)

  • Must/should in Quenya

    Tom,

    if I understand your question correctly: yes, the particular infinitive is the one to use when you want to attach an object suffix, or a possessive suffix + object suffix combo to the infinitive. If not, then you use the simple infinitive. These two attested examples by Tolkien illustrate it nicely:

    lá caritas, navin, alasaila ná Not to-do-it, I think, is unwise. la navin caritalyas mára I don't think doing-your-it [is] good.

    Aldaleon,

    that may be, but this kind of construction is not unheard of in IRL languages, e.g. in Hungarian we have something very similar.

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  • Must/should in Quenya

    Tom,

    Isn't the "someone" of "To compel someone" a direct object, i.e. an accusative object?

    In English, yes. In Quenya however, mauya- "compel" (among other verbs I listed in my citation in my first comment) belongs to a group of words that are conjugated impersonally, meaning they have no subject in the sentence. But mauya- has two objects: the person who is compelled is the indirect object (so it is put in dative), and what that person is compelled to do is the direct object - and this in Quenya (just like in English) is expressed by an infinitive. So an example:

    Mauya nin lemya marre.

    [It] compels me to stay at home. = I must stay at home.

    [Missing subject] / indirect object in Dative / direct object expresses as infinitive / adverb.

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  • Must/should in Quenya

    Please allow me to quote the two sections concerning these types of formations from Atanquesta:

    Verbs: Impersonal

Whenever an English sentence contains a predicate (which usually contains a verb or copula), it will have a subject (sometimes only implied, as in imperative sentences like Come!). There are situations though where this subject is a very generic one, usually the pronoun it, like in these examples: It’s raining again. It seems to me that we are in agreement.
In Atanquesta the language deals with this sort of situations by allowing certain verbs to appear in a subjectless, so called impersonal conjugation. This means that the verb has no subjects, either standalone or as a pronominal suffix, so it will appear in the sentence in its bare tense form without pronominal suffixes; if the verb has a beneficiary/recipient, it will be in dative case. Here are some examples:
kelya- “to rain” Kelya. “It rains; it’s raining.”
niku- “to be cold, to freeze” Nique. “It is cold. It freezes.”
nem- “seem, appear” Neme nin raumo túla. “It seems to me [that] a storm is coming.”
óla- “dream” ólane sen sa wilwarin nése. “He dreamt [lit. it dreamt to him] that he was a butterfly.”
mauya- “compel, oppress” Mauya men tuve analta lunte. “We must [lit. it compels us to] find a bigger boat.”
or- “to warn, urge, feel an urge/wish/desire” This is a special one as this verb has two possible aorist forms with slightly different meanings, ora  and ore. Ora nin lasselanta nauva vanima si loas. “Something tells me/I have a feeling [lit. it warns me] that autumn will be beautiful this year.” Ore nin kape alassenen. “I would like to/it feels like/I need to leap with joy.”
ek- “may, have a chance or opportunity”; eke men tyale enar? “can we/may we play tomorrow?” Neme nin Anar kaluva enar; ekuva tyen moia i lotarwasse. “Looks like the sun will shine tomorrow; you will have a chance to work in the garden.”

 Verbs: Auxiliary Phrases: May, Can, Know, Must etc.

Just like English, Atanquesta has a number of verbs that are used as auxiliaries, i.e. verbs that are coupled with infinitives to express intent, chance, possibility, need etc. Think of I must eat, you can dance, I dare not go, etc. We have the following in Atanquesta:
ek-, or-, and mauya- were discussed in the previous section Verbs:Impersonal
pol- “can, be able to (physically)” polin teke “I can write” (because I am healthy and nothing physical prevents me)
ista- “can, know (how to)” istan teke “I can write” (I know how to write because I have learnt it)
lerta- “can, be free to, be allowed to” lertan teke “I can write” (I am free to do it, no one has permitted or prevented me)
mer- “want, wish, hope” merin teke “I want to write, I wish to write”

If you want to follow the verb with an object pronominal suffix, you’ll need to use the particular infinitive: lertan tekitas “I can write it”, merin hentaitat “I want to read them”.
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  • A Quenya word for "why"

    man is "who" so manan would be your best choice.

  • Gloss “sarno” by Ardalambion (Helge Fauskanger)

    If you look at this link: eldamo.org the word comes from a root meaning "saw", so the intended meaning was most likely the piece of furniture, especially wooden. Whether later in the development of the language its meaning would expand similarly to "table", that's a matter for speculation I think.

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  • Gloss “ambë” by Eldamo Import

    Your question has got me thinking and I have started a discussion on it over on G+ - I will post whatever conclusion we come to here, but of course you are also welcome to follow it there: plus.google.com

  • Phrase “A person's child is a person's purpose” by Tamas Ferencz

    Sure, knock yourself out, it's not copyrighted :)

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  • Gloss “effírië” by Ardalambion (Helge Fauskanger)

    Most probably. Quite a literal translation of Latin ex+spirare -> expire.

  • Allative of between

    Well you could paraphrase it a bit and say "to the place between the idea and reality etc." (i nómenna imbe...).

    There is no attested allative form of any of the prepositions glossed as "between" however, I could imagine something like *imbena "to between" modelled on ambena "nearer to".

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