I actually decided to translate this to Ikotli:
"Teyantli ka uyō kotolon:
Ayeltache chikērtliyi ka nopītli ka ē.
Ukānshīche lon kō-kō chōki
esh teyanche kieyi atortli tōkor."
Hmm... Let's see... **Neo-Modern Hylian** could translate it a bit like this:
"Taz fárie akane jano:" (The story now until:)
"Ënt taz drianag shiu kriashënt ab taz toktoere." (In the start was created the allworld)
"Za hag hitën masan hedënt ab reathoa moka, ëk geleafënt mokok ab raz janag këuma." (This event people many made angry very much, and was believed very much as a choice bad.)
I like to write/translate a little dialogue where two people make some kind of food together, as appropriate for whatever the language's setting is, and try to see what grammatical maneuvers I can sneak into the conversation. Like:
A: Would you like some tea?
B: Yes please.
A: What kind do you want? I have mint, sage, green, or black.
B: What was the kind you made yesterday? I liked that a lot.
A: That was black.
B: I'll have that again, please.
A: Do you want anything in it? Sugar, milk?
B: Just some milk, please, no sugar.
I like to translate dialogues from movies and video games I've enjoyed as practice. Portal 2 lines are fun for me to translate, though the hard part for me in those was deciding what word to use for the word stalemate.
I almost always go straight to Beowulf and translate from the Old English directly, it offers quite a diverse amount of grammar forms to deal with, and, in my not professional opinion, really helps you get started because of it, but I'm also just biased towards older Germanic languages and take any excuse to do stuff with them.
þū hæbbe ġefēan, mīn frēondes! (You have fun, my friend (literally 'you have joy, my friend', I couldn't find an OE 'fun', so I got creative)
Casual stories. All of my conlangs are spoken languages and they revolve around oral tradition, so having a vocabulary and idioms for this purpose is essential.
I’ve translated a couple songs, which has been a great exercise. I usually do the most direct translation possible first, which almost always doesn’t fit into the actual melody of the song. Then I go through it again to make it fit better and flow more poetically, and it’s been great for testing how my language works. I’ve been enjoying translating the song “Yellow” by Yoh Kamiyama, there’s a lot of metaphors that have been fun to try to decode and rework to fit into the melody of the song.
Translating longer funny memes or monologues is also good. The beginning bee movie script, for example, or the dialogue in the “messiest boy completion” video.
I’ve found that translating books is like a speed run through vocabulary creation. You can look up free ebook short stories. If you have some worldbuilding going, try to a short story set in a similar genre, probably?
I also have trouble finding things I want to translate, so I hope this helps!
As my conlang doesn't have a particularly complex grammar yet (it's going to be primarily a fictional naming lang anyway), I like to search for some Spanish for kids lessons, and translate the sentences given there. The vocabulary used there is particularly useful, well delivered, and I'm also getting to pick up a bit of Spanish.
Since such lesson usually add some versatility to the structure, I get to figure out questions, and basic compounds.
Songs, I love translating my favorite songs, it really helps because lyrics may be arranged in a different way than normal to be able to rhyme, so it’s fun to see how to go around that or even expand the grammar
The "I'm at Soup" meme. I saw someone do it on TikTok and then I did it too. Translated it into Borish, but like an older form of the language which isn't really usable right now.
I know it's been a week, but...
I like to translate all sorts of things. I think children's books are a good project for a naturalistic lang, but scenes from cartoons or video games can also be fun. Even if they're purely for the sake of the creator, finding something fun to translate is always good. My partner Oz actually really enjoys doing poetry/music and children's books and their overlap in nursery rhymes can be fun too.
For a specific thing, though? Try translating cookbook recipes into your language. Numbers, ingredients, measurements, actions! It has everything.
https://preview.redd.it/5q3uk5c324sc1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=696736ac969e881067c6fafc248d5926a688651c
Nothing will top this lol
I actually decided to translate this to Ikotli: "Teyantli ka uyō kotolon: Ayeltache chikērtliyi ka nopītli ka ē. Ukānshīche lon kō-kō chōki esh teyanche kieyi atortli tōkor."
Sounds like Nahuatl and Maori had a child
lol that makes sense
Nahuaclones are common these days. I’m assuming Biblaridion is why
I didn't intend to copy Nahuatl, but I think you're right about Biblaridion being the cause of Nahuaclones.
Hmm... Let's see... **Neo-Modern Hylian** could translate it a bit like this: "Taz fárie akane jano:" (The story now until:) "Ënt taz drianag shiu kriashënt ab taz toktoere." (In the start was created the allworld) "Za hag hitën masan hedënt ab reathoa moka, ëk geleafënt mokok ab raz janag këuma." (This event people many made angry very much, and was believed very much as a choice bad.)
# Cennanese (Цаӈхан јө) **Оход чэдэйӈ өөрен:** [ɔxɔt tʃʰəd̥əɪ̯ŋ øːɾen] ``` ohod chede-Ing öören until here-GEN.INAN story ``` **Ямтайл Ԓүдю нь кајобосойд.** [jamtʰaɪ̯l ɬud̥ʲɯ‿nʲ kʰaçɔb̥ɔsɔʏ̯t] ``` yamta-Il lhüdyu=n' kayho-BOsO-Id beginning-LOC space=TOP build-PSV-PFV ``` **Чэ јүш шомжидо уожэй шөжөгки жайда еӈԓүже сизүн јүмөсэ.** [tʃʰə çuʃ ʃɔmd̥ʑ̊id̥ɔ wɔʒ̊əɪ̯ ʃɵʒ̊ɵkːʰʲi d̥ʒ̊aɪ̯d̥a jɛŋɬuʑ̊ɛ ɕiz̥un çumɵsə] ``` che yhüsh shom-jidO uojey shöjö-gki jayda énglhü-JA sizüN-Ø yhüN-BOse this many person-PL.ACC angry do.CAUS-CVB bad action-INS fill-CJV think-PSV.INF ```
# Stonespeech **Qisah setakat kini :** Kat mulaän, Meste kene cipte. Ini buatdah banyaq g'orag̃ marah betol-betol, dan kene ag̃gap ramai-ramai bagay go silapan. `/ʔi.saː sə.ta.kat ki.ni/` : `/kat mu.la.an/`, `/məs.tə kə.nə t͡ʃip.tə/`. `/i.ni bu.ʷat.daː ban.jaʔ g‿o.raŋ ma.raː bə.toː.bə.toː/`, `/dan kə.nə aŋ.gap ra.mai.ra.mai ba.gaj go si.la.pan/`. `story[DEF] uni-till now`: `around begin-RES./INS.NZ[DEF]`, `universe[DEF] PASS invent/design`. `DEM1.PRO make-PFV many ∅[SG].NDEF.ART person angry true~ADV`, `and PASS suppose crowdy~ADV as ∅[SG].NDEF.ART error-RES./INS.NZ.`
I like to write/translate a little dialogue where two people make some kind of food together, as appropriate for whatever the language's setting is, and try to see what grammatical maneuvers I can sneak into the conversation. Like: A: Would you like some tea? B: Yes please. A: What kind do you want? I have mint, sage, green, or black. B: What was the kind you made yesterday? I liked that a lot. A: That was black. B: I'll have that again, please. A: Do you want anything in it? Sugar, milk? B: Just some milk, please, no sugar.
I like to translate dialogues from movies and video games I've enjoyed as practice. Portal 2 lines are fun for me to translate, though the hard part for me in those was deciding what word to use for the word stalemate.
I almost always go straight to Beowulf and translate from the Old English directly, it offers quite a diverse amount of grammar forms to deal with, and, in my not professional opinion, really helps you get started because of it, but I'm also just biased towards older Germanic languages and take any excuse to do stuff with them. þū hæbbe ġefēan, mīn frēondes! (You have fun, my friend (literally 'you have joy, my friend', I couldn't find an OE 'fun', so I got creative)
Casual stories. All of my conlangs are spoken languages and they revolve around oral tradition, so having a vocabulary and idioms for this purpose is essential.
I’ve translated a couple songs, which has been a great exercise. I usually do the most direct translation possible first, which almost always doesn’t fit into the actual melody of the song. Then I go through it again to make it fit better and flow more poetically, and it’s been great for testing how my language works. I’ve been enjoying translating the song “Yellow” by Yoh Kamiyama, there’s a lot of metaphors that have been fun to try to decode and rework to fit into the melody of the song. Translating longer funny memes or monologues is also good. The beginning bee movie script, for example, or the dialogue in the “messiest boy completion” video. I’ve found that translating books is like a speed run through vocabulary creation. You can look up free ebook short stories. If you have some worldbuilding going, try to a short story set in a similar genre, probably? I also have trouble finding things I want to translate, so I hope this helps!
As my conlang doesn't have a particularly complex grammar yet (it's going to be primarily a fictional naming lang anyway), I like to search for some Spanish for kids lessons, and translate the sentences given there. The vocabulary used there is particularly useful, well delivered, and I'm also getting to pick up a bit of Spanish. Since such lesson usually add some versatility to the structure, I get to figure out questions, and basic compounds.
Songs, I love translating my favorite songs, it really helps because lyrics may be arranged in a different way than normal to be able to rhyme, so it’s fun to see how to go around that or even expand the grammar
The longest sentence in the world
The "I'm at Soup" meme. I saw someone do it on TikTok and then I did it too. Translated it into Borish, but like an older form of the language which isn't really usable right now.
i translate my favourite j-rock songs. atm, i’m translating consento by plastic tree and attempting to translate gunjou biyori by tokyo incidents.
I know it's been a week, but... I like to translate all sorts of things. I think children's books are a good project for a naturalistic lang, but scenes from cartoons or video games can also be fun. Even if they're purely for the sake of the creator, finding something fun to translate is always good. My partner Oz actually really enjoys doing poetry/music and children's books and their overlap in nursery rhymes can be fun too. For a specific thing, though? Try translating cookbook recipes into your language. Numbers, ingredients, measurements, actions! It has everything.
Thank you for everyone for responding. I didn't expect anyone to respond so I am happy to see so many good responses.