Lexitechnia

Φαῖνε

rule.1SG

ῥάδαν

land.ACC.SG

μάνδαθη

excellent.Γ

ὕννε?

not.1SG

Ὕντε

not.3PL

μάδῑ

woman.NOM.PL

ῥάδανα

country.INESS.SG

νεῦνευ?

1S~EMPHATIC

(The label ‘Γ’ on μάνδαθη indicates the gender called γαρη “earth” in Henaudute; it is used chiefly for inanimate objects and parts of things that aren’t considered parts of other things.)

I only had to make up a couple of words for this one:

• φαῖνε, infix point at φά·ινε. /pʰɑ́i.ne/ v. trans. To rule over; to govern. [Dele *pahi “lead (v.)”> *phahi (VV6) .]
• νένε, oblique form νεῦνευ /né.ne/, /néu.neu/.  pron. I myself; my own; first person singular emphatic pronoun. [Reduplication of νε “I”.]

This story I’ve been posting fragments of is a sort of Ardan Cinderella tale.  The speaker in this line is the first Hena king, Ἥνατε /hǽːnÉ‘.te/.  Since it might be a while before we get to any information about other characters, I’ll let you know the oppressed sister is called Θύσσαθα /tÊ°ús.sÉ‘.tÊ°É‘/, which means “homely”, and the cruel sister is Ῥήνθιχαρε /rʰǽːn.tÊ°i.kÊ°É‘.re/, which means “heartless”—for reasons generally explained by superstition, Hena names are almost always negative qualities; I haven’t decided whether the name Ἥνατε itself, literally ‘yellow’, was meant to be an example of this (connotations of jaundice, maybe).

I noticed as I was pulling this file out to work on that I had already translated about 21 lines of this story.  I don’t know what it is about Henaudute that lets me get so much created in it; I mentioned last time I touched this text that it was the longest bit of Henaudute I have—I think actually it’s the longest I have in any of my langs.  I seriously need to start the Henaudute texts page on FrathWiki.  (The texts page on the old website is still up, for those who want to check it out.)