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Lesson 49: Comparisons, Part 1

Vocabulary

don

comb

lili

to be wet

máanan

to be salty (flavor)

meénan

to be sweet (flavor)

ruhob

to be deep

rúsho

to be bitter (flavor)

shud

to be poor

thed

to be far

yem

to be sour (flavor)

yun

orange (the fruit)

Vocabulary Recap: Degree Markers

–háalish

Suffix (verb): to an extraordinary degree

–hul

Suffix (verb): to an extreme degree

–hal

Suffix (verb): to an unusual degree

–Ø

Suffix (verb): to a neutral degree; no statement about degree

–hil

Suffix (verb): to a minor degree

–hel

to a trivial degree

Implicit Comparison

The culture embodied in Láadan does not foster competition to the same degree that those inherent in man-languages do. Consequently, comparatives do not come as easily in Láadan as they do in most man-languages. One way we can effect comparison is to imply a comparison.

To do this, we state that the two or more things being compared share a quality, but each to a different degree. So, we would use the same verb for each, each time with a different degree marker. The difference in the degree markers will imply which is more intensely VERBed than the other—voilà, instant comparison. Of course, we could use the same degree marker for two or more of them; we would then be stating that they are equally VERB.

Examples

In these examples, I will present a fairly literal transposition from Láadan followed by a more natural English translation.

Bíi melirihal babí zhe melirihul mahina wa.
 

The birds are quite colorful like the flowers are very colorful.
   

The birds, like the flowers, are very colorful. (The birds are almost as colorful as the flowers.)

Please notice that the comparisons here are not explicit. The speaker states that the birds and the flowers are both highly colorful. We are able to infer that the flowers are more so from the fact that they are presented as colorful to an “extreme degree” (melirihul) whereas the birds are presented as colorful only to an “unusual degree” (melirihal).

Bíi mehíthi yu, i mehíthihul mahina, izh mehíthihel mi wa.
 

The fruit are high, and the flowers are very high, but the leaves are scarcely high.
   

The flowers are higher than the fruit, but they are both much higher than the leaves.

Notice also that the implied form is quite flexible. We can use it to compare two or more things in the same sentence. And the implied comparison comes with (from, actually) an explicit statement about actual degrees of VERBing—that some things are not very VERB at all (like the leaves)—and that some are just ordinarily or highly VERB (like the fruit or the flowers).

Exercises

Translate the following into English, both literally and in the colloquial English comparative.

1  

Bíi aba yun, i mehabahul mahina wa.

2  

Bíi meénan hom, izh meénanehul thu wa.

3  

Bíi balinehel wehehá; balineháalish shinehothul letha wa.

4  

Bíi éthe idon, izh éthehul don wa.

5  

Bíidu shohal dosh, íizha shohel dim bethu we.

6  

Bíi bishibeháalish yul, i bishib lali; bishibehel rohoro wáa.

Form implicit comparisons from the supplied verb and nouns (to the degrees indicated); translate into English, literally & colloquially.

7  

léli, hob (minor), ódon hi (unusual)

8  

rahíya, belid (neutral), ábed (unusual), bo (extraordinary)

9  

dazh, od (extreme), thom (extraordinary)

10  

íthi, sháad with bodi (unusual), benem with betheha (minor)

11  

bú, Mázhareth (unusual), hothul betha (extraordinary)

12  

bol, thosh sháaleya ril (trivial), thosh sháaleya bim eril (extreme)

Translate the following into Láadan.

13  

[lovingly] Your (beloved) eyes are bluer (unusual) than the sky (neutral).

14  

The horse is faster (unusual) than the pig (trivial); the bird is faster (extreme) yet.

15  

The water was still (neutral), but the air was utterly (extraordinary) still.

16  

The fish was not so (unusual) orange as leaves in autumn (extraordinary).

17  

The desert is much (extreme) farther than the ocean is (neutral).

18  

A tooth (neutral) is much less hard than metal (extreme).
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Answers

1  

The orange is fragrant, and the flowers are extremely fragrant.

The flowers are much more fragrant than the orange.

2  

Nectar is sweet (neutral), but honey is extremely sweet.

Honey is much sweeter than nectar.

3  

The storekeeper is not very (trivially) old; my great grandmother is extraordinarily old.

My great grandmother is ever so much older than the storekeeper.

4  

The brush is clean, but the comb is extremely clean.

The comb is much cleaner than the brush.

5  

[poetic/dream] The burden is unusually heavy, although its container is trivially heavy.

[poetic/dream] The burden is much heavier than its container.

6  

The wind was extraordinarily sudden; the rain was sudden; the storm was trivially sudden.

The wind came up much more suddenly than the rain; the storm was hardly sudden at all.
 

7  

Bíi lélihil hob; lélihal ódon hi wa.

Butter is a little yellow; this cheese is quite yellow.

This cheese is yellower than butter.

8  

Bíi rahíya belid, rahíyahal ábed, izh rahíyaháalish bo wa.

The house is large, the farm is quite large, but the mountain is extraordinarily large.

The farm is larger than the house, but the mountain is far larger than either.

9  

Bíi wil dazhehul od, i dazheháalish thom wa.

Would that the fabric were extremely soft and the pillow were extraordinarily soft.

I wish the cloth were almost as soft as the pillow.

10  

Bíi íthihal sháad with bodiháa; íthihil benem with bethehasháa wa.

The woman who is going to the mountain is unusually tall; the woman who is staying home is slightly tall (minor).

The woman who is going to the mountain is taller than the woman who is staying home.

11  

Bíi búhal Mázhareth; búháalish hothul betha wáa.

Margaret is pretty strange; her grandmother is extraordinarily odd.

Margaret is much less odd than (or: nowhere nearly so odd as) her grandmother.

12  

Bíi bolehel thosh sháaleya ril; bolehul thosh sháaleya bim eril wa.

The sky today is trivially cloudy; four days ago the sky was extremely cloudy.

The sky today is not nearly so cloudy as it was four days ago.
 

13  

Bíili meléyihal oyi natha; leyi thosh wa.

14  

Bíi ralóolohal omid; ralóolohel muda; ralóolohul babí wa.

15  

Bíi eril wam ili, izh wameháalish shum wa.

16  

Bíi eril layunehal thili; melayuneháalish mi wemoneya wa.

17  

Bíi thedehul shée, i thed mela wáa.

18  

Bíi radazh dash; radazhehul badazh wáa.
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