Wasabi - Babel Text Profile	Advanced
Site Wasabi Language Wasabi Year 2002 Translator Mari Bandoma, Deise Benítez, Allison Buckley, Pablo Cabrera, Marc Callado, Patrick Chan, Charles Chang, Sarah Choi, Lizzy Ghedi-Ehrlich, Julie Gutiérrez, Norma Guzmán, Helen Khlystova, Jason Lin, Tom Nosewicz, Miriam Ochoa, David J. Peterson, Chris Ramiro, Michael Rivera, Adam Simpson, Amy Soong Introduction Wasabi isn't a language, in the proper sense. It's the result of a class at UC Berkeley whose purpose was to simulate what the very first stages of a pidgin might look like. I created a list of about 300 words with simple English glosses and without any kind of grammar, and my class's job was to speak and communicate using only those words I created. In the retranslation section, I'll give the simple glosses. The romanization should be intuitive. Verse 1 Yasa ukali saya anu alima nala. Verse 2 Si lamu amasu sami ala si siya numa niki isana kunayu si Shinar, aki wima isu. Verse 3 Yasa alima anu si ika, "Wani kana nusika puma samapu aki si kusasi." Puma yumu nusika puma, alasa ukali yumu liwika. Verse 4 Aki alima: "Niki! Wani pila amasu wima kunayu wa pika kunayu, ikala nali, wani ana wani amasu sami, unu lusa yumu wani unu liwika si yasa ukali." Verse 5 Sika si nali niki ukali yata amasu wima kunayu wa pika kunayu malika sika pila. Verse 6 Sika si nali alima: "Yata! Anu liwika kunayu yasa wa anu alima nala, ya aki pila wa unu yumu numa. Verse 7 Niki! Wani niki si ukali, wani sunati nala, si yumu aki unu kisa ika sami alima. Verse 8 Sika si nali unu liwika aki si yasa ukali, aki numa unatu si amasu wima kunayu. Verse 9 Si ya yumu aki tasi ana Babel, yumu isu sika si nali sunati nala si yasa ukali, si isu sika si nali unu liwika aki si yasa ukali. Interlinear Translation 1 All earth hold one speak tongue. Translation 2 At time many person go at sun stop come smooth place at Shinar, they live there. Translation 3 All speak one at other, "We cut red stone put they at fire." Stone reason red stone, soft earth reason to tie together. Translation 4 They speak: "Come! We start many live place with tall place, feel sky, we name we many person, no obtain reason we no to tie together at all earth." Translation 5 Man at sky come earth see many live place with tall place son man start. Translation 6 Man at sky speak: "Look! One tie-together place all with one speak tongue, this they begin with no reason stop. Translation 7 Come! We come at earth, we twist tongue, at reason they no know other person speak. Translation 8 Man at sky no tie together they at all earth, they stop work at many live place. Translation 9 At this reason they give name Babel, reason there man at sky twist tongue at all earth, at there man at sky no tie together they at all earth. English Paraphrase 1 All the earth had one language. Paraphrase 2 Once when many people were traveling west they came upon a plain at Shinar. Paraphrase 3 They all said to each other, "Let's cut bricks and put them in the fire." (They used) stones for bricks, (and) mud for mortar. Paraphrase 4 They said, "Come! Let's begin a city with a tall tower that touches the sky, (so that) we'll name ourselves (for) many people, and there won't be a reason that we'll be scattered all over the earth." Paraphrase 5 The Lord came (down) to earth to see the city with the tall tower that the sons of man had begun. Paraphrase 6 And the Lord said: "Look! One nation all with one language, and this they've begun with no reason to stop. Paraphrase 7 Come! Let's come down to earth, so that we can confuse their language, so that they won't be able to understand each other's speech. Paraphrase 8 The Lord, then, scattered them all over the earth, and they stopped work on the city. Paraphrase 9 For this reason, they gave (it) the name Babel, for (it was) there that the Lord confused the language of all the earth, (and it was) from there (that) the Lord scattered them over all the earth. Notes 1 The word meaning "to hold" was quickly extended to mean "to have", in the sense of possession. Also, the combination "speak tongue" was what was decided upon to render the idea of "language". Notes 2 Kind of a tangled translation. The idea is that both there was once that people were traveling west, and it was while they were doing that that they found the plain. The idea for west was rendered with "sun" + "stop", indicating where the sun sets. "Plain" was "smooth" + "place". Notes 3 Operating under the idea of what a brick is in our time, they used "red stone" for brick, since prototypical bricks are red now, even though they weren't in the time of the Babel text. It became a unit, though, so that even if they were to come across a yellow brick, they'd say, "tanita nusika puma" (yellow red stone). The word which meant "reason" came to handle all causal ideas. "Soft earth" is a compound meaning "mud", and they took the verb "to tie together" and zero-derived a noun from it to create the idea of mortar, or glue, or sticky stuff. Notes 4 Since there was no word for "build", they just used "to start", the idea of building being understood. The compound "many live place" was adopted for "city". The word "kunayu" can also be translated as "building", though, so it could be understood as "a place with many homes". Again, I glossed "kunayu" as "place", but it's also "building", so "tall building" would be a better gloss. Also, the word "unu", "no", was used in a binary fashion, so that it can be added to the front of any idea to indicate the opposite. So, "unu liwika", which would be glossed as "to not tie together" should be translated as the *opposite* of tying together, which is scattering things, and so "unu liwika" should be glossed as a compound, and not two separate units. Notes 5 "Sika si nali" is a compound for "the Lord", of course. There is no plural marking and no genitive in Wasabi, so "malika sika" could be "the son of a man", or "the sons of a man", or "the son of the man", or "a son of the man", etc. From context its understood. Notes 6 They used "tie together" plus "place" to render the idea of "nation", as a place that's bound together for one reason or another. The rest is self-explanatory. Notes 7 The idea of "to confuse" was rendered with "to twist", which was pretty intuitive. The verb for "to know" was extended early on to be used for "to understand". Notes 8 Here is the "to not tie together" construction again. Also, the preposition "at" became the general preposition which was used for pretty much anything, in this case "on" (though that use was a metaphor to begin with). Notes 9 Here, the general preposition takes on the shape of "for" and "of" (a rare usage; they felt uncomfortable using simply juxtaposition in this case). Also, the object is understood in the first phrase. Submitted By David J. Peterson Date Submitted Monday, November 18, 2002 Updated By David J. Peterson Date Edited Saturday, February 14, 2004 Description Of Update Added a site url. Date To Headline Saturday, February 14, 2004 < Vularatum  Wasabi  Wasaqalu >
Conlang Profiles at Langmaker.com CC-BY 4.0: 1996 — 2022 .

FAQ - About Us - Contact Us - Features -