| Site | Sheli  |
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| Translation Image | 
If image fails to load, try this link. |
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| Language | Sheli |
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| Year | 2005 |
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| Translator | David J. Peterson |
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| Introduction | Sheli is my attempt at a tone language. It's been fun so far. The babel text below is entirely in X-SAMPA. To mark tone, I've used the number convention, where 1 is super-low and 5 is super-high. Everything else will be explained in the notes. |
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| Verse 1 | J\en33 j\un44 jas14 lys14, son44 gen33 c_hEn33 vol55 dow14 tef55 g@m33 t_his33 bin44 Gut55 f@n55. |
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| Verse 2 | c_hOm55 tEn33 an44 led55 vMn14 nows14 gul33, c_hon33 tEn33 pin55 gen44 dat33 Cii55naa33 c_hEn55, t_hu11 tEn33 k_hup33 maf33 J\in33. |
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| Verse 3 | son44 kod55 tEn33 p_h2:41 t_jan14, "as55! pa11 nel33 nas33 nen33 lo11 cad33 ta11 k_hef55 nen33 lo11 p_h@n33." t_hu11 tEn33 pEn55 cad33 je14 GeC55 so11 zol55 je14 cum33. |
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| Verse 4 | son44 kod55 tEn33 p_h2:41 t_jan14, "as55! pa11 nel33 fol33 nen33 lo11 zen44 so11 bam55 vaj14 gIJ44 p_hjas14 c_ha:w41, t_hu11 nel55 xo:w14 le55Cam44, oj\11j\M:s14 lo11 nen33 an44 j\ef33 gajs14 dat33 pUJ55 mMn14." |
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| Verse 5 | ta11 ven44 fwa14 zek33 ce:w41 ta33su11 tEn44 J\el55 zen44 so11 bam55 J\ok55 fol33. |
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| Verse 6 | ta11 ven44 fwa14 zek33 g@m55, "p_hot55! dow14 gen33 c_hEn33 so11 dow14 tef55 g@m33 t_his33 son44 J\am55 tEn33, ta33ta11 tEn33 k_hup33 an55 kEm55! ta33ta11 tEn33 kaC33 an55 soN44ken55 tEn33 wa14 an55. |
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| Verse 7 | as55! ko11 ce:w41 ta11 fij\33 tEn33 g@m55, ta33su11 lo11 son44 v@n44 J\ok33 os33 kaC33 J\el33 t_jas14 c_h@m44. |
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| Verse 8 | t_hu11 lo11 tEn33 an44 j\ef33 gajs14 ven44 fwa14 zek33 dat33 pUJ55 mMn14, t_hu11 tEn33 zap33 fol33 zen44. |
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| Verse 9 | t_hu11 lo11 tEn33 an44 j\ef33 gajs14 ven44 fwa14 zek33 dat33 pUJ55 mMn14, t_hu11 tEn33 zap33 fol33 zen44. |
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| Interlinear Translation 1 | (behind many CLASSIFIER.42 year-GENITIVE, all CL.5 land-GEN. use one CL.63 language-GEN. with paucity CL.50 word-GEN.) |
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| Translation 2 | (then[past, emphatic] they[animate] AUXILIARY CL.69 travel-GEN. go-GEN. west, then[past, demonstrative] they[ani.] find plain LOCATIVE "Shinar" land, and they[ani.] start reside-GEN. there[distal].) |
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| Translation 3 | (each CL.2 they[ani., gen.] say-to they[ani., reflexive], "hey! to us[inclusive, gen., reflex.] make we[incl.] PREDICATE brick and-then bake we[incl.] PRED. them[inan.]." consequently they[ani.] use brick as stone and clay as mortar.) |
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| Translation 4 | (each CL.2 they[ani., gen.] say-to they[ani., reflex.], "hey! to us[incl., gen., reflex.] build we[incl.] PRED. city and tower sky touch it[inani., reflex., gen.] top, and we[incl., refl.] win glory, lest PRED. we[incl.] AUX. CL.74 drop-GEN. LOC. world-GEN. animal-back.") |
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| Translation 5 | (and wolf CL.10 animal-head-GEN. say, "look! one CL.5 nation-GEN. and-also one CL.63 language with all CL.14 they[ani., gen.], and-now they[ani.] start do-GEN. this[emphatic]! now they[ani.] be-able-to do everything they[ani.] think do-GEN.) |
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| Translation 6 | (and wolf CL.10 animal-head-GEN. say, "look! one CL.5 nation-GEN. and-also one CL.63 language with all CL.14 they[ani., gen.], and-now they[ani.] start do-GEN. this[emphatic]! now they[ani.] be-able-to do everything they[ani.] think do-GEN.) |
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| Translation 7 | (hey! I descend and confuse they[ani., gen.] language, so-that INVERSE each CL.11 person not be-able-to understand-GEN. they[ani., gen.] friend.") |
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| Translation 8 | (and-so INV. they[ani.] AUX. CL.74 drop-GEN. wolf CL.10 animal-head-GEN. LOC. world-GEN. animal-back, and-so they[ani.] stop build-GEN. city.) |
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| Translation 9 | (and-so they-[ani.] name it[inani., obv.] "Babel", because wolf CL.10 animal-head-GEN. confuse whole Earth-GEN. CL.21 language there[known, demonstrative], and-also INV. they[ani.] AUX. CL.74 drop-GEN. wolf CL.10 animal-head-GEN. from there[known, dem.] LOC. world-GEN. animal-back.) |
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| English Paraphrase 1 | Many years ago, the whole land had one language with a small number of words. |
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| Paraphrase 2 | It was at the time they were traveling westward that they found a plain that lie in Shinar-land, so they took up residence there. |
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| Paraphrase 3 | And they said to each other, "Come! It's on us to make bricks and bake them." And they used bricks as stones and clay as mortar. |
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| Paraphrase 4 | And they said to each other, "Come! For us we'll build a city and a tower (whose) top will touch the sky, and we'll win glory for ourselves, lest we get scattered upon the earth's face. |
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| Paraphrase 5 | I've given YHWH the name "Wolfhead". The WH was the inspiration. |
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| Paraphrase 6 | And Wolfhead said, "Behold! One nation, and one language with them all, and now they've started to do this! Now they'll be able to do everything they plan to do. |
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| Paraphrase 7 | And Wolfhead said, "Behold! One nation, and one language with them all, and now they've started to do this! Now they'll be able to do everything they plan to do. |
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| Paraphrase 8 | Come! I'll go down and confuse their language, so that each person will not be able to understand their friend. |
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| Paraphrase 9 | Therefore, they called it "Babel", because Wolfhead confused all the Earth's language there, and Wolfhead also scattered them from there all across the face of the Earth. |
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| Notes 1 | Sheli makes an animacy distinction with respect to its arguments. In the case of this sentence, since "all the land" is standing for "the people of the land", it's seen as more animate than "one language". Therefore, "all the land" is focused, and, since it's also the subject of the sentence, the inverse particle is not necessary. |
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| Notes 2 | Emphatic demonstratives are used to introduced focused arguments. The first phrase features a serial verb construction. In a serial verb construction, the second verb is always put into the genitive. The last verb pair is another example of a serial construction--not of an auxiliary plus a main verb. |
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| Notes 3 | The first instance of "we" is in the reflexive here because the reflexive can act as an emphatic form. It's in the genitive because pronouns that are the object of prepositions are always put into the genitive. The word order of this sentence is VSO because there's a fronted prepositional phrase. |
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| Notes 4 | In the final clause of the last sentence, the inverse marker /lo11/ acts almost like the "get" passive in English. The "drop" verb means "to scatter" when combined with classifier 74, which classifies actions which occur multiple times in rapid (generally) succession. The world is idealized as a giant whale, so what the face of the earth is is the back of a whale, thus the word for an animal back is used. |
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| Notes 5 | I've given YHWH the name "Wolfhead". The WH was the inspiration. |
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| Notes 6 | Notice the difference between "each" and "all" is primarily (or entirely) a difference of classifier. That is, when an "each" interpretation is desired, the second generic classifier is used; when an "all" interpretation is desired, a group or plural classifier is used. |
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| Notes 7 | I decided to interpret this in a particular way, for whatever reason. The direct translation could imply that enemies could still understand each other, lending a bit of irony to the confusion of the Earth's one language. In this sentence, the inverse particle /lo11/ is used because the order should be OVS. However, the pronoun must be preceded by its antecedent, so the inverse polarity is used. |
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| Notes 8 | Inverse marker's in action again. |
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| Notes 9 | The place demonstratives in Sheli are divided into locations which are known and unknown. Of course, using a demonstrative here for a place that's known might be stretching it a bit, but I'll pretend. Additionally, the word for "come" doubles as the preposition "from". |
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| Submitted By | David J. Peterson |
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| Date Submitted | Tuesday, July 19, 2005 |
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| Date Edited | Tuesday, July 19, 2005 |
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| Date To Headline | Tuesday, July 19, 2005 |
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