How to Speak Wenja : Sayla’s Scenes

Takkar : 

Pshh pshh, pash.  Tigri!
Lo, lo, look! Tiger!
Hey hey, look!  Tiger!
(Pash is a reduced form of pacha ‘see’, and psh is an even more truncated version of it.)

Sayla :

Apa!
Back!
Back!

Takkar : 

U dram!
IMPERATIVE run!
Run!
(Recall the u is the basic way to make a command in Wenja.  You don’t always hear it.)

….

Sayla : 

U sakwa.  Haym.
IMPERATIVE follow. This-to
Follow.  This way.
(Haym is literally “to this (way)”, consisting of the word hay ‘this’ plus the postposition -m ‘towards, during’, etc.)

Takkar : 

Urus.
Oros
Oros.
(In Wenja, there is no vowel “o”, which is why the Wenja say “Urus”)

Sayla : 

Ta Winja… na Urusbi.
You Wenja… not Oros-from
You’re Wenja…not from Oros.
(Sayla, on the other hand, is SUPER old school.  She channels an earlier stage of the language, where there was once an “o” vowel. This is by design.)

Takkar : 

Palhu sashwalim shalam.  Takkar hasam.
Many suns-for travel-I. Takkar be-I.
I have traveled many suns. I am Takkar.
(Takkar is being extremely formal here with the verb “hasa”. Normally speakers would say “Mu Takkar” or sim. Note, too, the use of -m after sashwal “sun” to indicate “during, for, over” [accusative of time])

Sayla : 

Sayla.

Takkar : 

Tigri chawhasu tiyi baya martis.
Tiger cave-in you-for danger death-of
You risk death in tiger cave.
(tiyi baya martis = literally, to you [there was] danger of death).

Sayla :

Tigri Udam daf.  Udam shaws dawsam.
Tiger Udam take. Udam ears need-I
The tiger took the Udam. I need Udam ears.
(Recall that there is no explicit way to mark plurals on nouns, so shaws can mean “ear” or “ears”)

(U Takkar Ullim wana…)
IMPERATIVE Takkar Ull-for hunt…
Not translated : May Takkar hunt down Ull…

Takkar :

Ku hayka gwashta?
QUESTION alone walk-you?
Do you walk alone?
(The sentence starter “ku” marks a question.)

Sayla : 

Miyi kawha.  Hatra.  Gwama.  U gwama!
Me-for shelter. Food. Come. IMPERATIVE come!
I have shelter. Food. Come. Come!
(To say ‘have’, you say ‘there is to me’.  So miyi kawha is literally “To me shelter.”)

Deep Wounds

Sayla : 

U … hada.
IMPERATIVE… eat.
Eat.

Kwar alya Winja?
Where other Wenja?
Where (are the) other Wenja?

Sayla : 

Ull, Udam shajan. Winja damsha hu-gwijara. 
Ull, Udam leader. Wenja home COMPLETIVE-destroy
Ull. Udam leader. He destroyed Wenja home.
(In addition to pronouncing words in an archaic fashion, Sayla consistently uses the “long form” of words, which most Wenja find pretentious. In fact, Sayla only uses short forms when angry — we’ll get to that next time)

Udam palhu Winja hu-gwana. 
Udam many Wenja COMPLETIVE-kill
The Udam killed many Wenja.
(note the singular verb indicates “all Udam” [vs. a select group])

Nu Winja haywa gwasha.  San damsha Urusu.
Now Wenja alone walk. Without home Oros-in
Now (all) Wenja walk alone. Without a home in Oros.
(We get the sense of  “all” Wenja from the use of a singular verb. Also, the normal postposition -su is reduced to -u after the word Urus — you can’t have two ss [what’s called a geminate] in Wenja)

Tigri dancha dubu.
Tiger bite deep
Tiger bite (is) deep.
(No verb ‘to be’ in Wenja.)

Takkar :

Sakwim.
Help-I
I help.

Sayla : 

Walta lawba akista. U miyi bar. 
Willow bark outisde. IMPERATIVE me-for bring
Green leaves outside. Bring to me.
(Walta lawba actually means “willow bark”. Supposedly it has medicinal properties)

(U walta lawba wayda. Ha tigri walna yaka.)
(IMPERATIVE willow bark find. In.order.to tiger wound heal
Find the green leaves. To heal the tiger wound.

On your return:

Takkar :

Sayla. Ti-walnayi.
Sayla. Your-wound-for
Sayla. For your wound.

Sayla : 

Shaja tanhi chlawta. Ku chlawata?
Today screams loud. QUESTION hear-you?
Today the screams are loud. Do you hear?
(For normal speakers “loud” and “you hear” would sound the same : chlawta. But since Sayla is fancy, she says chlawata, the long form.)

Takkar : 

Tanhi?
Screams?
Screams?
(Note you don’t *always* have to use ku to make a question.)

Sayla : 

Dubu … walnam hayska.  (screams)   Gwarshta.
Deep… wound-into push. Thank-you.
Push deep into the wound. Thank you.
(dubu is first to emphasize deep)

Takkar : 

Nu hayam Urus-kwa pacham.
Now go-I Oros-and see-I
Now I go and see Oros.
(The basic way to say “and” is with a postposed -kwa. So: shazda baka-kwa “Twig and berries”)

Sayla : 

Palhu baya tar.  wal… hars..  Udam.
Many dangers there: wolves… bears… Udam 
Many dangers there. Wolves… bears… Udam.
(Pronouncing wal as wull is another archaic pronunciation of Sayla’s.)

Salwa tiyi cha.  U alya Winja wayda, nu hay padas shwada
Safe you-for here. IMPERATIVE other Wenja find, and this place-of tell
It is safe for you in this cave. Find other Wenja, tell them of this place.
(First sentence is literally “[It is] safe for you here.” If you’re wondering why it’s padas “place-of” instead of the basic word pada “place”, -s means both “of” and “about”, just as we see in the English translation.)

Sayla:

Winja wantar pacha, Udam shanti hasa.
Wenja hunter saw, Udam near be-he
Wenja hunter saw Udam nearby.
(Literally, “Wenja hunter sees, an Udam nearby to be.”)

Gwamarsh ha waykarsh. Ma Winja chimashta.
Come-they so.that attack-they. But Wenja ready
They come to attack. But Wenja are ready.

Ull!

Ull:

May malshashar Winja mana. U laykwa!  Shuta marita!
Don’t softblood Wenja remain. IMPERATIVE leave! Or die-you!
Softblood Wenja can’t stay. Leave! Or you die!
(The word “softblood” is a compound of malsha “soft” and hasar “blood”. Note that Ull is speaking directly to Takkar here by saying marita [vs. maritan “y’all die”])

U say salway gwan!
IMPERATIVE them all kill!
Kill them all!
(This is curious — the Udam lord is using an super archaic salway for “them all”. In normal Wenja, the only pronoun that makes a difference between singular and plural is sa / say “he, she, it” / “them”)

Villager:

Palhu Udam!
Many Udam!
Lots of Udam!

Sayla: 

Palhu hasmas!  Nu Takkar masi-ha yawda!
Many be-we! Now Takkar us-with fight!
We are many! Now Takkar fights with us!
(Note once again Sayla is using the “high” or “prestigious” form of Wenja by saying masiha “with us”, vs. the more normal masha)

Ku Udam gwanta?
QUESTION Udam kill-you?
You kill Ull?
(Seems that the translation of Udam was switched to Ull in post-production.)

Takkar:

Udam mari. Ull ati gwayfa.
Udam die. Ull still lives.
Udam are dead.  Ull still lives.

Sayla:

Apa laywam haya. Shaja palhu Winja marirsh!
Back north-to go. Today many Wenja die-they!
He goes back to the north. Many Wenja died today!

Takkar:

Shaja palhu Udam mari. Winja bal tasha. Gwayfamas.
Today many Udam die. Wenja strong stand. Live-we.
Today many Udam die. Wenja stand strong. We survive.

Sayla:

Shaws Ulls dawsam. Sa nakwayda shanchi parshay, salwa Winja marwa.
Ear Ull-of need-I. He never stopping before, all Wenja dead.
I need Ull’s ear. He never stops until all Wenja are dead.
(Very difficult construction here in the second sentence.  Literally : “He, before ever stopping, all Wenja are dead”)

Takkar:

Machi mi-karti jinafa.
Soon my-blade meet-he.
Soon he’ll meet my blade.

Villager:

Winjayi. Winjayi.
Wenja-for. Wenja-for 
For the Wenja. For the Wenja.
(Normal Wenja language would say Winjay, but here it’s very formulaic, along the lines of “Long live the King” or “God bless America.”)

Sayla:

Winjayi.
Wenja-for.
For the Wenja.

Sayla:

Sa Udam palhu Winja hu-gwana.
That Udam many Wenja COMPLETIVE-kill
That Udam had killed many Wenja.

Cha, shaws tanhi tushi daha.
Here, ears screams quiet make.
Here, the ears make the screams quiet.
(Note the causative [the make to do something construction] is formed here with the helping verb daha ‘do, make’)

Akista, tanhi nakwayda shanchirsh.
Outside, screams never stop-they
Out there, the screams never stop.
(Because Sayla views the screams as actual creatures [i.e., as animate beings], we find a plural verb form shanchirsh.)

Aysh tanhi tushi shanchi, Takkar. Aysh Ull gwanta.
SUBJUNCTIVE screams quiet stop, Takkar. SUBJUNCTIVE Ull kill-you
You can stop the screams, Takkar. You can kill Ull.

Takkar:

Sa damshu wanam. 
Him home-in hunt-I
I hunt him in (his) home.
(The noun damsha + su regularly contracts to damshu)

Sayla:

Shrash! Gwanan sharu fadas si-damsha shlaka.
Yes! Killing rot fumes his-home protect
Yes! (But) deadly rot fumes protect his home.
(The adjective “deadly” literally means “killing”)

Ma, mu wayda kwati sharu fadas shanchi.
But, me finds-it how rot fumes to-stop.
But, I know how to stop the rot fumes.
(I love how you say “to know” in Wenja; literally, “It finds me how to stop rot fumes”)

Daru balya laywa-bi. U Udam dijam-su.
Wood leaf north-from. COMMAND Udam land-in.
Wood leaf from the north. (Go) in Udam land.
(Translated in the game as “yellow leaf”, this originally was “wood leaf”. Also note that in the translation it says “In Udam land” but she’s really saying COMMAND in Udam land, hence more like “Go in Udam land.”)

Takkar:

U ti-shawsi shwada, nasam.
COMMAND your-ears tell, return-home-I.
Tell your ears I come back.
(Best line of the game. Also note that the vowel -i appears after shaws since the following word begins with sh-. This is a regular process between all sibilants [s-, sh])