An Index to Alasdair Gray's translation of Dante

The late Alasdair Gray posted a translation into colloquial English of Dante's Divine Comedy into English, but it's hard to read on Blogspot because Blogspot's indexing is per-month and in reverse order.  I have prepared a more sensible index and posted it here.


Title page

Translator's Introduction

Hell:  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34

Purgatory: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

Paradise: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

Regularized Inglish: rules

Consonants:

PIPE: p, pp

BOB: b, bb

TUT: t, tt

DEED: d, dd

KICK: k, -ck, c(A), cc(A)

KICK+WIN: qu, *cqu, also compositionally

GIG: g(A), gg(A), gu(I), gi- usually, *g(I) sometimes

THOTH: th

FIFE: f, ff

VALVE: v, vv

SIS: s, ss, c(I), *sc(I),  ps-

ZOOS: z, zz, -s plural and possessive, x initial, *s

SHUSH: sh, occasional unstressed: s(u), ss(u), se(V), sse(V), si(V), ssi(V)

ZHIVAGO: g(I) sometimes, s(u) unstressed, si(V) unstressed

CHURCH: ch, tch, occasional unstressed: t(u)

JUDGE: j, dg(I), *g(I) usually, *d(I) sometimes

YOYO: y(V)

HAHA: h

WHITE: wh

MIME: m, mm

NUN: n, nn, *gn-

siNG: -ng, ng(C)

siNG+GIG: ng(A)

siNG+JUDGE: ng(I)

siNG+KICK: nk

LOLL: l, ll

ROAR: r, rr, *wr-

KICK+SIS: x, cc(I), also compositionally

Vowels:

KIT: i short, y short

DRESS: e short

TRAP/BATH: a short

TRAP+/r/: -ar(V)

LOT/CLOTH: o short

STRUT: u short

FOOT: oo short

NURSE: -er, erC, -ir, irC, -ur, -urC, -urr, -yr, -yr(C)

FLEECE: e long, ea, ee, -ie-

FACE: a long, ai, ay, ei, ey, ae* sometimes, *aigh, *eigh

PALM/BATH: aa, *a, *-ah

THOUGHT: au, aw

GOAT: o long, oa, oe, *-eau

GOOSE (with or without /j/): eu, ew, u long, ue, ui

GOOSE (without /j/): oo long, 

PRICE: i long, -ie, y long, -ye

PRICE+/r/: ir(V), yr(V), *iar, *ier, *ior

CHOICE: oi, oy

MOUTH: ou, ow, *ough

MOUTH+/r/: our, owr, ower

NEAR: ear, eer, er(V), ier, er(V), yr(V)

SQUARE: air, ayr, eir, eir, ar(V), er(V), err, *aer

START: -ar, ar(C)

NORTH: -or,  or(C),

FORCE: -oar, *-our sometimes, ourC

CURE (with or without /j/): eur, ewr, ewer, uer, ur(V)

CURE (without /j/), oor

Reduced vowels:

lettER; Vr, -our, -re, -ure

commA: V, -ou(s)

happY: -ie, -y, *-ey

Notes:

Notations: * means “unproductive spelling”;
parenthesized letters give context;
C, V, I, A mean “any consonant letter”, “any vowel letter”,
“i, y, or e”, and “a, o, or u” respectively.

Silent consonants: -(e)t in French borrowings sometimes,
*gh, h sometimes, t in unstressed  -stle, -sten.

Long vs. short single vowels: a vowel in the last syllable is long
if there is a silent -e; a following double consonant marks a short vowel.
most other vowels are short but many are long.

Minimal respelling: Words are respelled only if their
pronunciation is not valid by the rules,
but if a word is respelled, more than one
change may be made, as dubble for double.
Words are not respelled merely to make them
fit more common patterns or to disambiguate homonyms.
The creation of new homonyms is avoided.

Unmarked distinctions: /ks/ vs. /gz/, commA vs. chickEn,
/θ/ vs. /ð/, /j/ vs. no /j/ before GOOSE or CURE
(except when spelled oo),
vowel digraphs vs. separate syllables
(create does not rhyme with street, nor mishap with bishop)

Blog posts:  intro, theory, wordlists.

Blake's "Infant Joy" and "Infant Sorrow"

Here's a small selection from Blake's collection (originally two collections) of verses, Songs of Innocence & of Experience Shewing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul. Of course, contrary does not mean contradictory. The most famous of the contrastive poems are "Tyger! Tyger!" and "The Lamb", but the ones I think that best show the contrast are "Infant Joy" and "Infant Sorrow, thus:

"Infant Joy"	"Infant Sorrow"
‘I have no name:	My mother groan'd! my father wept.
I am but two days old.’	Into the dangerous world I leapt:
What shall I call thee?	Helpless, naked, piping loud:
‘I happy am,	Like a fiend hid in a cloud.
Joy is my name.’
Sweet joy befall thee!
Pretty joy!	Struggling in my father’s hands,
Sweet joy, but two days old.	Striving against my swadling bands,
Sweet joy I call thee:	Bound and weary I thought best
Thou dost smile,	To sulk upon my mother’s breast.
I sing the while,
Sweet joy befall thee!