| Language | Omeina |
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| Year | 2005 |
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| Translator | Michael Poxon |
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| Introduction | Omeina is an ergative, exclusively-suffixing language that uses declined auxiliaries rather than conjugated verbs. The standard auxiliary (defined only by its personal forms) is usually placed at the end of a noun phrase; other auxiliaries are movable. Word order is relatively unimportant. The auxiliary governing a transitive phrase is a different "verb" from that governing an intransitive one (e.g. dúna da "I come" vs bere daisen "I see him/her/it"). There is no morphological gender distinction or nominal plural marker in any case ending. |
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| Verse 1 | Omineki bai, du andarde aina. |
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| Verse 2 | Meninakin únero, anoise illa Sinara gúne laisen. |
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| Verse 3 | Omekse aila: "Kemaisel toro duku, o huretiko." Duku harike, bitumen laquinarde. |
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| Verse 4 | Nain' ome aila: "Kemaisen torokse tira oneta híliola. Kemaise ostekse, he batsin e negua du anden bema." |
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| Verse 5 | Tu duaito dúna ainua, berinarde tiren o ontoin anoise toron laisen. |
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| Verse 6 | Duaito ome ainua: "Gena bai omineki omen lanilo, kua helan dure duan." |
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| Verse 7 | Kema mene naksuinarde ominamean, he behela duihekse duan. |
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| Verse 8 | He duaitoise batsin an alen ainualise e du andaia, o lengi toroina tiren ailaisen. |
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| Verse 9 | He oste tiren Babel aina, gu an duaitoise naksu omeina du anden ainuanise. An alen duaitoise batsin ge anen e negua du anden ainuanise. |
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| Interlinear Translation 1 | speech-together / one / all / world + dative / Aux. 3ps |
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| Translation 2 | The going + durative / east + allative / people + ergative / plain / Sinar + locative / find / Aux.them [subj] + it [obj] |
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| Translation 3 | speak + reflexive / Aux.3pp : Let (Erg.Aux) us [subj] + them [obj] / make / bricks / and / hot-make-intensive. Brick / stone + translative Bitumen / the-sticking-together + Dat. |
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| Translation 4 | Then / speak / Aux.3pp: Let (Erg.Aux) us [subj] + them [obj] / build + reflexive / city, tower / in-it / higher-than / land-of-birds. Let (Erg.Aux) us / name + reflexive / so that / Neg.Aux / scattered / across / skin + Loc. / whole / world + Genitive |
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| Translation 5 | But / allfather / come / (Aux) he (exalted), the-seeing + Dative / city + Genitive / and / tower + Genitive / People + Ergative / build + relative suffix / (Erg.Aux) they [subj] + it [obj]. |
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| Translation 6 | allfather / say / (Aux) he (exalted) / : race of people + Essive / one / language-together speak + relative suffix / (Aux) they [subj] + it [obj] + "if...then" suffix / do / Can (Aux) they [subj] + it [obj] / everything / predictive future term |
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| Translation 7 | Let - us / go / the-confusion + Dative / speech + their + Genitive, so that / Can (Neg.Aux) they / understand + refl. /predictive f.t. |
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| Translation 8 | So / allfather + Erg / scatter / that / place+Gen (Erg.Aux) he (exalted) [subj] + them [obj] / across / all / world + Loc. / and / stop / the-building / city + Gen. / (Erg.Aux) they [subj] + it [obj] |
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| Translation 9 | So / name / city + Gen / Babel / (Aux) it / since / then / allfather + Erg. / confuse / language / all / world + Gen. / (Erg.Aux.) he (exalted) [subj] + it [obj] / That / place + Gen. / allfather + Erg. / scatter / race / manking + Gen. / across / skin + Loc. / all / world + Gen / (Erg.Aux) he (exalted) [subj] + it [obj]. |
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| English Paraphrase 1 | There was one speech common to the whole world |
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| Paraphrase 2 | While travelling Eastwards, people found a plain in the land of Shinar |
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| Paraphrase 3 | They said to themselves: Let us make bricks and fire them. The bricks served as stone and the bitumen as mortar |
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| Paraphrase 4 | Then they said: Let us build ourselves a city, and a tower higher than the heavens. Let us name ourselves so that we do not become scattered over the face of the Earth. |
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| Paraphrase 5 | But allfather came to see the city and the tower they had built. |
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| Paraphrase 6 | Allfather said: If one people with the same tongue can do that, they will be able to do anything. |
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| Paraphrase 7 | Let us go and confuse their speech so that they will never be able to understand each other |
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| Paraphrase 8 | So allfather scattered them from that place across the face of the Earth so that they stopped the building of that city |
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| Paraphrase 9 | Thus the name of that place is Babel, since it was there that allfather confused the speech of the people across the face of the whole world. |
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| Notes 1 | 1. bai ("one") follows its noun unlike other numeric terms.
2. The standard auxiliary used here is ai-. Omeina has no tenses, but ai- is used to refer to events (however they happen) in a "legendary past" which fits the subject matter here. |
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| Notes 2 | 1. The suffix -ina that turns verbs into abstract nouns is very common. When used with the dative case it translates the english infinitive: Mene berinarde "Go for the seeing = go to see".
2. The subject of a transitive verb takes the Ergative case, whose ending is -ise.
3. The ergative auxiliary is the base form of the standard auxiliary plus the ergative case ending: so Duna da = "I am going" Bere daisen = "I see him".
4. In a transitive construction, the auxiliary must always indicate both subject and object markers, even if the object already has a nominal form: Bere daiseni hartu = I see (it) the bear Bere daiseli hartu = I see (them) the bears although these are invariably shortened to daisen, daisel. |
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| Notes 3 | 1. -kse indicates reflexive action.
2. -ko indicates causation: huretiko "to make very hot".
3. -ke is the translative case, obsolete except in archaic forms, so can be used here.
4. Omeina has no equivalent for "bitumen" so I've used the english!
5. Laquinarde is an example of note 2,1. Laku "to stick together" -ina "abstractifier" -rde = form of the dative used after round vowels a,o,u. -lde is used after e and i. |
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| Notes 4 | 1. The Auleri (speakers of Omeina) have no concept of heaven, so I have used Híliola (lit. "Country of the skylark") meaning "somewhere high above".
2. Be- is the negative form of the standard auxiliary, so bema = "we are not, we do not".
3. Negu = "skin, bark" used here to translate the "face" of the Earth. |
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| Notes 5 | 1. The Auleri also have no term for the monotheistic God, so I have used a term borrowed from the Norse, "Allfather" = du-aito.
2. Omeina has, in both 3p singular and plural, an "exalted" conjugation, used when talking about "presences", sacred objects, etc. That has been used here for Allfather. So ainua rather than aina.
3. Omeina translates the relative article by -n on the relativising verb: toro-n "who built" |
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| Notes 6 | 1. -na is the Essive case = 'like': so Gena = ge + na "Like, as a race (of people)".
2. The suffix -lo translates an "if... then" construction: Bere danilo,... "If I see him, then..."
3. Omeina has no actual future tense. Duan (derived from Dúna "come") is a catch-all term for a hypothetical future, but only in a predictive context, not as an equivalent of "Intend to" or "Haven't yet done it" |
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| Notes 7 | 1. The genitive case is -en but this changes to -an after a final e, thus: elde "Evening" eldean "Of the evening" |
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| Notes 8 | 1. Similarly the locative case ending -a changes to -ja (written -ia) after an existing final -a: Ola "flower", olaia "On a flower" |
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| Submitted By | Michael Poxon |
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| Date Submitted | Wednesday, March 30, 2005 |
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| Date Edited | Wednesday, March 30, 2005 |
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| Date To Headline | Wednesday, March 30, 2005 |
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