Translating Fairest

My goal is to one day finish translating the entire book of 'Fairest' into Ayorthian. Unfortunately, I won't be able to share that with you, since that would be a bit illegal! But I will share with you the first part of my translation, only recently completed, just to show you how it looks all put together.

It's taken me a good long while to be able to translate even just this much. I've never tried to develop a language like this before, so there is a lot of trial and error. I'm still not 100% sure on the grammar. I'm sure it looks very wonky and silly to someone who develops conlangs all the time, but! This is what I've managed to do.

            Abensa obro elire icheni. Amma olo inliri uu illi illi ehe. Ende abensa ii abenlira elire icheni.

            Ordo abensa ivli ene. Eslire eche omiro ee ostso esmare abensa. Ewe Amonta ewe Uhmthuru Ullu abensa umaxu ili ewe ormo anza. Ee iri Isthui unuru ili, ucharu Olloroliro.

One thing I have to continually fight is the word order. After spending so much time with Korean, I tend to want to make all the sentences end with the verb, or, if not a verb, then something that looks very much like one, which is where all the 'icheni' and 'ehe' come from. I explain it to myself as simply being part of an isolating language that needs markers to show time and tense, but it really isn't necessary!

Abensa obro elire icheni.
    I                    born        song       -ing-was.

'Elire' is song, that all-important word in Ayorthian. It forms a part of many other words in Ayorthian. Usually wherever you see '-lir-' in the middle of a word, that word is based on the idea of a song. The word for 'person/people' is 'eslire' which essentially means 'singers' or 'those who sing'.

'Icheni' is a special word. It signifies continued action that occurred in the past (and is now stopped). It is formed of two words - 'ene' which means continuing action (that is still happening), and the prefix 'ich-' which here means 'ended', but can also mean back, down, before, etc. The word for yesterday is 'ichiri' which is comprised of 'ich-' (before) and 'iri' (day).

Since Aza, the main character who is speaking here, was singing as a baby, icheni is used to show that she 'was singing.'

Amma olo inliri uu illi illi ehe.
                most                  babies                 cry.

'Amma olo' means most.

'Inliri' means baby. It is comprised of the prefix 'in-' which, like its counterpart 'ich-' means many things: here it signifies 'rising' or 'up', though it can also mean next and front. This word also contains the base of the word 'song' - therefore the word for baby literally means  'rising song'.

'uu' is a marker indicating something is plural.

'Illi illi' means 'crying' (as babies would, not as 'cry aloud').

'Ehe' here is partly my inability to leave the ends of sentences alone, but also serves a purpose, signifying that this is a statement of fact, or at least, is a view that is generally held to be true. Sentences like "the sky is blue" would end with 'ehe'.

Ende abensa ii abenlira elire icheni.

        but             I            an           aria          song    -ing-did.

'ii' means a or an.

'Abenlira' is a fun word. An aria is defined as: "a long accompanied song for a solo voice." I took the idea of solo as self, and the word for song and meshed them together: abenlira, literally meaning 'self-song.'

And again with 'elire icheni' signifying that she sang it in the past (and has since stopped!).

Ordo abensa ivli ene.
    Or                I             believe -do.

Here we finally see the present tense 'ene' after seeing icheni so often. Ene means something currently happening, so Aza's belief in the story of her being born singing is still held. A handy almost-chart I made to keep track of these tenses runs like this:

Eslire elire ene --People are singing right now

Eslire elire icheni -- People were singing, but have stopped

Eslire elire ehe -- People [can] sing/ People are singers

There is a fourth tense marker, ili, that marks a single event that does not have duration, but we'll see that in a moment.

Eslire eche omiro ee ostso esmare abensa.

  People     aren't             say       the         truth          to              me.

There are two verbs for existence: esse means to exist, is. Eche means isn't, does not exist. So 'there isn't anyone' becomes 'eslire eche'.

Omiro means say, tell. There is a similar word in Ella Enchanted: ockommo, defined in the glossary for Ella as 'speak (as a language)'. Because of this specific definition, I've left ockommo alone, and used omiro here.

'ee ostso' - the truth. It's my own thought that Ayorthians might say 'the truth' but 'lie' is always plural; so I kept the article 'ee' in the sentence.

Ewe Amonta ewe Uhmthuru Ullu
    At        Amonta         at       Featherbed        Inn
abensa umaxu ili ewe ormo anza.
        I               abandon-was          at         month-age.

Ewe is said "eh-weh" not "ewe" like a sheep. This plays into how vowels are pronounced in Ayorthian - the vowel 'i' is said 'ee' while 'e' is always said 'eh'.

Uhmthuru Ullu was something I made up on the spot. I've since played around with breaking it into separate words, and I think 'uhmthu' might be bed, while 'uru' is feather.

Here we see ili, marking a single, one-time, non-continuing event that has occurred in the past. Aza was abandoned once and for all at the Inn, therefore, ili is used; I haven't entirely fleshed out how it is different from ehe. Ehe is used in fact-statements that are generally held to be true, as with 'babies cry', and I think ili is better used as a marker meaning a single event that happened in the past.

Ee iri Isthui unuru ili, ucharu Olloroliro.

  the  day  January         12th-was,             year  [of]  Thunder-Songs.

Here I got a bit sidetracked. I needed a month name (January) and I needed numbers (12), and I needed to decide whether I was going to make ordinal numbers (cardinal numbers are the plain numbers - one, two, forty - while ordinal numbers are the counters first, hundredth, twelfth).

For month names, I wondered if they would simply, as do many, number the months (we do this, though our numbers are off, as we see with September, October, November; Korean also uses this method 일월, 이월, 삼월); or if they would have actual names meaning things. I decided on the latter, inspired by the Korean agricultural calendar that divides the seasons into 24 sections, all named for what is happening in the weather at that time of year. This is where I really got sidetracked, coming up with a vaguely agriculturally-inspired calendar where each month is made up of two word descriptors.

January - bitter chill

February - deepening snows

March - early melts

April - first warmth

May - waxing green

June - warm heats

July - waxing gold

August - early gathering

September - fullness

October - first chill

November - deepening nights

December - long cold

I have not finished making the names for the months, but January's - Isthui - is made of the words usthu, bitter, and ilui, chill.

After that, I decided not to do ordinal numbers; or at least, not to do them just now. I am rather fond of the numbers though, making them a bit of a sing-song to recite them:

ese - one

ixi - two

uhu - three

eve - four

iniri - five

uru - six

elwe - seven

ighi - eight

uviru - nine

ette - ten

ilgi - eleven

unuru - twelve

(Remembering that 'e' is always pronounced 'eh', and 'i' is 'ee'.)

Uhu is actually given to us in Fairest, in the song about the Three Tree (uhu ullovu).

I had already come up with the other time words, for month, season, year, etc., basing them on musical terms. I figured that if any place would conceive of time as a flowing, moving thing, it would be the Ayorthians, and that words marking time would be based in music. Ucharu means 'a long song, sung by many'. Other time words are:

iri - day, today, based on 'aria'

iniri - tomorrow

ichiri - yesterday

arda - week, from 'rondo', meaning a central theme repeated several times

ormo - month, from 'harmony', meaning 2-3 tones played together with a melody

onso - season, from 'sonata', which I read somewhere had something to do with 4 pieces

ucharu - year

Then came a really fun word: Olloroliro. Thunder is such a lovely rolling sound, so I wanted the word for it to match. Olloro by itself means thunder. -lir- again, is the base word for 'song' which attaches and takes the word vowel from olloro to form the compound word 'ollorliro' to mean 'Thunder Songs.'

And there you have it! All the way through the first full paragraph of Fairest, translated into Ayorthian!

I will keep working on this book and inventing more and more of the language, but I think this will be all you can see of actual direct translation of the book. Thank you for reading!