In the discussion, I use the following conventions:
aa, w = long a, long u
R = as in American rather
th as in myth
dh as in weather
Falandril sentences follow Object-Verb-Subject order. This first sentence, however, presents a special case of a predicate nominative. Literally translated into Falandril, this sentence would read:
"[(dignity and rights)-ly] [free and equal] [they are born] [all human beings]."
Starting from "human beings ": Nominal roots in Falandril take the form VCV. The root for "human" is akM . The plural, "human beings" is takmu .
For the modifyer "all", we use an adjectival form of the pronoun "they", which itself is constructed as a nominal form of the 3rd person plural verbal ending R . In general, to form a nominative from a verbal (CVC) root, one adds i. But since this "verbal root" consists of a single vowel, a compensatory consonant (in this case, r ) is added, making Rri = "they". Now we have a nominal (CVC) root, from which the adjectival form is derived by the standard nominal-adjectival paradigm: Rri + th = Rrith = "they-like" = "all [of them]".
Thus, the subject of this first sentence "all human beings " is translated in Falandril as Rrith takmu .
The word "dignity" derives from the verbal root tsaam , meaning "to stand". "Dignity" is literally "that which is stood up", and is formed using the verbal-nominative passive paradigm, tsaam + aat = tsaamaat = "dignity". Similarly, "right" is derived from the verbal root ber , meaning "to permit". A "right" is "that which is permitted", following the verbal-nominative passive paradigm, ber + aat = beraat . The plural, "rights" is formed the usual way: dberaatu = "rights".
The phrase "in dignity and rights" is constructed by the nominative-adjectival paradigm. dha + dberaatu = dhadberaatu = "in/concerning/about rights", and dha + tsaamaat = dhatsaamaat = "in/concerning/about dignity".
The conjuction sw is used for "and", and appears before and after the two words to be conjoined. So, the phrase "in dignity and rights" is translated: sw dhaberaatu dhatsamaat sw, with the noun of highest number usually coming first in a conjunctive phrase.
The adjective "free" is derived from the verbal root kor = "to move". korkor = "to move freely/to move indeed" is formed by reduplication of the verbal root, and the adjective "free" derives from the verbal-adjectival paradigm korkor + ith = korkorith = "having the quality of moving freely" = "free".
Similarly, the adjective "equal" is derived from the verbal root spaal = "to create". The reflexive particle sa is added to the root to make saspaal = "to create oneself/to create in like kind", and the paradigm yields saspaalith = "having the quality of being self-created/created in like kind" = "equal".
To express the passive verb "to be born", we start with the verbal root sws = "beget". The third-person plural of sws is swzR = "they beget/they begot". The verbal-nominative (i.e. passive) paradigm provides i + swzR = iswzR = "[they are] begotten".
So now we can construct the first sentence of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Keeping in mind that all modifyers in Falandril precede the word or phrase being modified, that Falandril follows object [or predicate nominative] + verb + object form, and that adjecent conjunctions sw + sw elide into sws:
sw dhadberaatu dhatsamaat sws korkorith saspaalith sw iswzR Rrith takmu.
"[(dignity and rights)-ly] [free and equal] [they are born] [all human beings]."
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."
The noun "reason" is derived from the verbal root maan = "to think". Although it is technically the adjectival gerund form, maan + aath = maanaath = "thinking" is used as a noun to mean "reason" (Such violations of the paradigm are common in colloquial Falandril).
The noun "conscience" is derived from the same verbal root, maan = "to think". In this case, conscience is literally "that which is thought", and follows the verbal-nominative paradigm: i + maan = imaan = "conscience".
The phrase "with reason and conscience" requires that the nouns be cast into adjectives, by the standard paradigm: sw thamaanath thhimaan sw = "with/by means of [both] reason and conscience".
The passive verb "[they] are endowed" follows the standard paradigms from the verbal root daar = "to give". The third-person plural is daaraar = "they give", and the passive participle is idaaraar = "they are given" = "[they] are endowed".
"In a spirit of brotherhood" boils down to a single word in Falandril. We start with the nominative root avR = "brother/sibling". The plural is davru = "brothers". Applying the nominal-adjectival paradigm, dha + davaru = dhadavaru = "like brothers/siblings" = "in the spirit of brotherhood".
The verb "to act" in English has no exact parallel in Falandril. The most apt verb is kaar = "to live". To express the concept of "should", Falandril uses reduplication of the verb. Thus karaar = "they live" is augemented to kaar karaar = "they indeed live/they should live" = "they should act".
Finally, the troublesome phrase "towards one another". Recall that the Falandril third person plural pronoun is Rri = "they", formed from the verbal ending R. From the pronoun, we derived the adjectival Rridh = "they-like" = "[all of] them". Falandril takes advantage here of the symmetry of the nominal-adjectival paradigm, abstractly, to construct the phrase dhaRri Rridh = "like them + they-like" = "towards one another".
So, the second sentence reads:
sw thamaanaath thimaan sw idaaraar, dhadavru dhaRri Rridh kaar karaar.
"With/by means of [both] reason and conscience [they are] endowed, like brothers/siblings like-them they-like they should indeed live"
"They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in the spirit of brotherhood."
© 2005, Adam S. Trotter