/r/conlangs Chat Network Relay Game - Learn a Lang Natlang Relay 7

#10German by Illuke
GermanEnglish

Die alten Gebäude verstecken Musik in die Blumen.
Ich gehe vorüber, als ob ich im Traum wäre.
Das bunte Feuer wirkt warm vor der Dämmerung.
Im Finsternis ist es schön durch Masken zu sehen.
Ist das der Schatz?
Die Leute ähneln wieder Märchenbüchern.
Lächelnd gehen in Nachdenken im Finsternis.
Die Soldaten rennen mit Geschwindigkeit darin.
Die Frucht der Gitarre schreit damit.
Die Kinder tragen unsichtbare Kleidung im Finsternis.
Ich bewege mich geschickt mit kleinen Fledermäusen.
Die Kleidung der Mädchen gehen mit dem Teig des Brotes.
Wie ein Netz;
Er kommt schraubend ein -- Verschwinden!

The old buildings hide music in flowers.
I am passing by as if in a dream.
Fire, the colorful one, is creating heat before the twilight.
In this darkness, it is beautiful to see through the masks.
Is this its treasure?
The people are again resembling fairy-tale books.
Go smiling in contemplation in this darkness.
The soldiers run with speed in it.
The fruit of the guitar cries with it.
These children are wearing invisible clothes in this darkness
I am moving adeptly among small bats
The girls' white clothes are moving with the bread's dough
Like a net;
It is spiraling in -- disapear!

Vocab

  • Alt -- old
  • Die Gebäude -- the Buildings
  • Verstecken -- to hide
  • Die Musik -- the music
  • in -- in (both location and movement)
  • Die Blumen -- the flowers
  • Voruber|gehen -- to pass by
  • Als ob -- as if
  • Ich -- I
  • Der Traum -- the dream
  • das Feuer -- the fire
  • Bunt -- colorful, bright
  • wirken -- to cause, to have an affect
  • warm -- warm
  • vor -- before (+D)
  • Dämmerung -- twilight
  • Das Finsternis -- the darkness
  • schön -- beautiful
  • durch -- through
  • die Masken -- the masks
  • sehen -- to see
  • das -- that
  • der Schatz -- the treasure
  • Die Leute -- the people
  • ähneln -- to resemble (+D)
  • wieder -- again
  • die Märchenbücher -- the fairy-tale books
  • Lächelnd -- smiling (adj)
  • gehen -- to go
  • das Nachdenken -- the contemplation
  • Die Soldaten -- the soldiers
  • rennen -- to run
  • mit -- with (+D)
  • die Geschwindigkeit -- speed
  • darin -- therein
  • Die Frucht -- the fruit
  • Die Gitarre -- the guitar
  • schreien -- to cry, to shout
  • damit -- therewith
  • Die Kinder -- the children
  • tragen -- to carry
  • unsichtbar -- invisible
  • die Kleidung -- the clothes
  • die Mädchen -- the girls
  • der Teig -- the dough
  • das Brot -- the bread
  • Wie -- like, how
  • das Netz -- the net
  • schraubend -- spiraling, twirling
  • lächelnd -- smiling
  • ein|kommen -- to come in
  • verschwinden -- to dissapear
  • die Fledermäuse -- the bats (animal)
  • Sich bewegen -- to move (oneself)
  • klein -- small
  • geschickt -- adeptly (adv)
  • sein -- to be

Grammar

Intro

German is a SVO language just like English, and adjectives precede their objects.

German syntax is different from English in that:

  • in subordinate clauses, the verb always comes last
  • Adverbs, adverb phrases, and places before the verb cause inversion of SV order. For example: "er(S) ist(V) hier" can be written "Hier ist(V) er(S)" but NOT "hier er(S) ist(V)"
  • The time, not preceding the verb, always directly follows it

Nouns--> case and gender

All German nouns are capitalized, all the time. German nouns all have an inbuilt gender -- either masculine (M), feminine (F), or neutral (N). While patterns exist, there is no phonological trait which identifies a noun's gender, and so in the above vocab all nouns are written with their gendered definite article. This article must match rules about case, gender, and number. Plural (P) articles are the same for all genders. German has four cases: Nominative, Accusative, Dative, Genitive. Below is a table of the article form for various combinations of gender and case.

NOMDATGen
Mderdemdes +s or +es
Fdiederder
Ndasdemdes +s or es
Pdieden +nder

An extremely curt explanation of case as used in this sample is as follows. -The nominative case is used with nouns in the subject place.

The Accusative case exists but does not cause any declination changes in this text, so we will ignore it.
The Dative case is used with nouns in the direct object place, as well with the objects of some verbs and prepositions (marked with +D in the vocab). It is also used to denote location.
Genitive is used to denote possession and can for our purposes be translated as placing "of" before the effected noun. the +s, +es, and +n denote suffixes which are placed on the affected noun itself, not the article. Examples:

  • Gen:
    • das Geld, the money --> des Geldes, of the money
  • Dat:
    • die Wand, the wall --> vor der Wand, before/in front of the wall, an der Wand, on the wall (location)

Seeing location words (e.g. "in") without the dative case denotes movement, NOT location

The contraction "im" is always used for "in dem".

The nominative plural forms for many of the nouns used in this text are irregular, so I have written all nouns found plural in the text as plural in the vocab.

Adjectives

Adjectives of course also declinate with gender, case, and number (cuz why the hell not), but I honestly think you need to pay attention to this here. You will find only the endings -e, -en here.

Pronouns

We must also note that german pronouns depend on gender and case, but NOT animation, so the pronouns (er -- M, sie -- F, es -- N, corresponding to he, she, it) do not care whether they are of a person or a thing. For example, "er" can be used for masculine people just like with masculine verbs.
However, in this example case does not inflect and pronouns, so this aspect can be ignored

Verbs--> conjugation

German verbs conjugate based on number and person. The infinitive form always has the ending -en (i.e. "machen", to make/do). No past or future tense verbs exist in this document, so we will ignore them.

The forms which appear in this text are:

3rd person plural present: machen --> machen
3rd person singular present: machen --> macht (infinitive ending "-en" replaced with "t")
Formal imperative: machen --> machen

This is the form regular verbs follow.

You will also find the following irregular verb conjugations:
ist: irregular 3rd person singular present of "sein" (is)
wäre: irregular 3rd person singular subjunctive of "sein" (translating as "would be" or "were")

There exists in German reflexive verbs which use the word "sich" (oneself). This of course changes with person and number.

sich --> oneself
mich --> myself

German also has separable prefix verbs, which when separate their prefix when not in infinitive form. These verbs are denoted in the vocab section with a "|" between the prefix and the root verb. The separated prefix generally comes at the end of the clause.

Good luck! Sorry if this is scattered.