Tamil
Here's a screenshot of one specific scene that I'm particularly proud of in terms of parsing the subtitled Tamil text. In this screenshot, the guy is saying to the woman, "When I come up here, you know what I wonder about?":
The Tamil text reads:
/iŋgeː meːleː ʋaɾɯmpoː d̪ɯ, n̪aː n ed̪e͡ipːatri joːsipːeːn t̪eɾijɯmaː/
here on come-go, I which-about will-think-I know-it?
Here's my gloss of that sentence:
/iŋgeː/ - here, noun
/meːleː/ - on, preposition
/ʋa/ - come, verb root
/poː/ - go, verb root
/ʋaɾɯmpoːd̪ɯ/ - I'm not too sure of this one; I know the two verb roots and from context I can piece together why both are used, but in actuality, I don't know what the functions of /ɾɯm/ or /d̪ɯ/ are.
/n̪aːn/ - I, 1st person singular nominative pronoun
/ed̪ɯ/ - which, interrogative pronoun
/e͡i/ - accusative marker
/patri/ - about, preposition
/ed̪e͡ipːatri/ - agglutination of /ed̪ɯ/, /e͡i/ and /patri/
/joːsi/ - think, verb root
/pː/ - future tense marker
/eːn/ - 1st person singular verb marker
/joːsipːeːn/ - agglutination of /joːsi/, /pː/ and /eːn/
/t̪eɾija/ - know, verb root
/um/ - 3rd person neuter/inanimate verb marker for future tense
/aː/ - interrogative suffix
/t̪eɾijɯmaː / - agglutination of /t̪eɾija/, /um/ and /aː/
For anyone interested in learning some Tamil, time for a little lesson. Actually, this is more of me explaining some of the above, particularly with the agglutinated words.
- In Tamil, there are grammar suffix addition rules
- The combining of a short vowel sound (which /ɯ/ counts as) and the accusative marker cause the short vowel to be dropped and the accusative marker to be suffixed on
- Certain combinations of one word being added to another cause the first letter of the second word to be geminated
- The combining of a word ending in a short vowel and a suffix beginning with a short vowel causes the first vowel to be dropped, like in the /a/ at the end of /t̪eɾija/
- The interrogative suffix can be tacked onto anything (except interrogative pronouns) to make it into a question
- Tamil verbs are essentially made up of verb root + tense marker + person marker
- Tamil verbs are divided into 6 (or 7?) verb classes and the main differences between then are the tense markers they use
- Tamil stative verbs (such as know) are formed using a dative-subject concept: the subject of the sentence is put in the dative form, though it can also be frequently dropped as is the case here, and the verb is conjugated for the 3rd person neuter (or inanimate) marker for future tense
- /pː / is the future tense marker for only some of the verb classes
- While the person markers for verbs are generally the same regardless of which tense, aspect or mood is being used, the 3rd person neuter (or inanimate) marker has one form for past and present and another for future tense
Wow, I might need to add to my Tamil short-term goals to review some grammar points. To be honest, I'm not 100% sure that the first 3 suffix addition rules (numbers 2, 3 and 4) are correct, or, rather, that I stated them correctly. There are obviously rules governing the agglutination used in the Tamil subtitled text. But, I'm not sure if the rules are quite what I stated or something else that produced the same effect. I also would like to review and cement in the different verb classes, particularly with respect to their different tense markers, and the different noun classes.