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My Hàësdáïga translation for an XKCD comic strip

Original comics

The text on the right is the title text.

Gloss

(Lemmy parsed these dotted gloss as links, smh)

Ponytail: ! this-prize-nom.mt.sg Nobel-gen.mt.sg you-dat.wo.sg we_exclusive-nom.plaward-ind.prs.prf

Hairy: ! that-nom.sg be-ind.prs.cnt rock-nom.ea.sg

Ponytail: . yes but if you-nom.wo.sg look-sub.prs.prf other-angle-abl.mt.sg,

Text:

. NASA start-ind.prs.prf award new-prize-acc.mt.sg people-dat.ea.plwho-nom.pl say-ind.prs.prf world-computer-net-dat.mt.sg infind life.acc.wo.sg fire-star-gen.fi.sg number-picture-dat.fi.pl

Title text:

. fire-star-gen.fi.sg life-acc.wo.sg find-gen.ea.sg to_purpose,make-sub.prs.prf picture-machine-acc.mt.sg and it-acc.mt.sg send-sub.prs.prffire-star-dat.fi.sg . that-when-dat after search_for-sub.prs.prfdog-acc.ea.pl and plant-acc.wo.pl picture-dat.fi.pl in

Translation note:

  • NASA is an organization so its name isn't translated if not necessary.
  • "Mars" whose translation is literally "Fire star", is a calque from Chinese
  • "Photo" is literally "digital picture". Normally, this distinction is not important, but in this case it is to emphasize it is not a drawing. "Digital" is also a calque.

Pronunciation

Note for tones:

  • level tone (a): /˧˧/
  • rising tone (á): /˧˥/
  • falling tone (à): /˥˩/

/ki.dúɲ.ga.so nu.bel.ko lúk.da rèχ.sə˧˥ χaːs.wú.ʔa//las wí.tar goŋ.si//daː gai̯.ʔa χaːswúz səŋ.dúɲ.ga.no lìmdí də baŋ.sì zaː tanaːŋ.dè.leː χan.ner.moχ.do jos dák.zə siː.vəl.men.na raː.té.reŋ.keva.lu.ɣós.meŋ.de jos//raː.té.reŋ.ke siː.vəl.men.na dák.ki jaɲ daʊ̯.ʔu ɣós.meŋ.χó.no nòːrtèn.no siː.pu raːtéːreŋ.de//la.hip.də mús.neχ dá cu wuːp.ni nòːr daːn.rá.na ɣós.meŋ.dé jos/

Grammar

Some notable features:

  • 5 genders, named after the five phases in wǔxíng.
  • Sentence punctuation is at the beginning.
  • A glyph structure similar to Korean: built from individual letters.
  • Agglutinative and has vowels, consonants, and tones as inflection unit.
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