| Smooth translation: |
"Winter Remembering"
Winter is a hunting Kegharn, who steals those who are old, sickly, and young.
Winter is a stone, upon which nothing living can survive.
Winter is a merciless beak and sharp talons.
For this reason, we all remember you, the bounding boy who is spring, so you may
dance upon the earth.
Thus will the sun, your mother, look down at me,
And flowers will grow from your footsteps. |
| Translation of previous torch |
Winter is the wolf that snatches the old, the sick, and the youngest.
Winter is the rock upon which no living things can grow.
Winter is a bird's cruel beak and sharp talons.
For which reason we pray to you, the boy bounding along who is Spring, that you
may dance over the earth,
So that the Sun, who is your mother, watches/looks down upon me,
And flowers will spring up from your footsteps. |
| Interlinear |
Jhor'fivash t'ghishóth kegharn
EQ: N CONJ V >ADJ N
jhor' fivash te ghishóv -ith kegharn
"winter is a hunting Kegharn"
alunyu sshaghov n'om e'kath eshír kajir chi.
ADJ: #a V OBJ: PRO PL OBJ: ADJ ADJ ADJ
alun -yu sshaghov ne no -im egikath eshír kajir chi
"that steals those who are old, sickly, and young"
Jhor'fivash t'lokeili
EQ: N CONJ N
jhor' fivash te lokeili
"winter is a stone"
alunyu ssaelorvkec don'om lorith.
ADJ: #a V POT PRON OBJ: PRO PL V >ADJ
alun -yu ssaelorv -k- -ec do- ne no -im lorav -ith
"living things cannot grow on it (the stone/winter)"
Jhor'fivash t'kesaer koso t'fajhe moram.
EQ: N CONJ ADJ N CONJ ADJ N PL
jhor' fivash te kesaer koso te fajhe mora -im
"winter is a merciless (bird of prey's) beak and sharp claws (talons)"
Vep'alunyum sshalnírivniyaslejh'te
ADV ADJ: #a PL V R0 Ra DO: R1 HON
vep' alun -yu -im sshalníriv -ni -as -l- -ejh 'te
"for this reason, we all remember you (honorific),"
ne jhor'naróth chi'sarn t'tuyaea,
OBJ: EQ: V >ADJ N CONJ N
ne jhor' narov -ith chi'sarn te tuyaea
"the bounding boy is spring"
vea'che jha'mmavejh'te dovola'aea kea.
ADV OPT V R1 HON ADV N /ADV
vea' che' jha'mmav -ejh 'te do- vola' aea kea
"so that you may dance on the earth"
Vet'di ay sáyelev eró egik mlejh'teml palaiya n'i ket,
ADV FUT V N SUBJ: POS PRON HON POS N OBJ: PRON /ADV
vet' di'ay sáyelev eró egik ml- ejh 'te -ml palaiya ne en'i ket,
"thus will the sun, your mother, watch over/look down at me"
Ves'di ay layev emeirjhom vedá'mlejh'teml masedim kedá kes.
ADV FUT V N PL ADV POS PRON HON POS N PL /ADV /ADV
ves' di'ay layev emeirjho -im vedá' ml- ejh 'te -ml mased -im kedá kes
"and flowers will grow from your footsteps" |
| Glossary/mini dictionary |
aea [e@] "land", "earth", "grasslands", "here"
alun- [A'lun] modifies a previous word or phrase; see "Word Order" section of
grammar guide
-as [As] conjugation that includes everyone in the speaker's personal network
che' [tSe] optative marker
chi [tSi] "small", "young"
chi'sarn [tSi'sAr\n] "boy"
di'ay [di'Ai] future tense
do- [do] prefixes adverbs of dependent clauses
-ec [Ek] conjugation for third personal singular, for something without gender
egik ['EgIkAT] begins a phrase modifying the subject
-ejh [EZ] conjugation for someone in the |ajhel|; see "Persons" section of
grammar guide
emeirjho [E'mer\Zo] "flower"
en'i [En='i] ~"self", the center of the personal network
eró [E'r\o] "sun"
eshír [E'Sir\] "old", "wise"
fajhe ['fAZE] "sharp", "lithe"
fivash ['fIvAS] "winter"
ghishóv [xI'Sov] "to hunt"
-im [Im, m=] plural
-ith [IT] adjectivizer
jha'mmav [ZAm@_X'mAv] "to dance"
jhor' [Zor\] opening of an equivalence phrase; see also |te|
-k- [k] "unable"
kajir ['kAdZir\] "sickly"
kea [ke@] ends a phrase beginning with |vea'|
kedá [kE'dA] ends a phrase beginning with |vedá'|
kegharn [kE'xAr\n] a sentient predator species that often hunts Cresaeans
kesaer [kE'ser\] "sharp", "merciless", "dangerous"
kes [kEs] ends a phrase beginning with |ves'|
ket [kEt] ends a phrase beginning with |vet'|
koso ['koso] "beak", only of birds of prey
-l- [l] preceedes the object of the verb
layev [lA'jEv] "to grow"
lokeili [lo'keli] "stone"
lorav [lo'r\Av] "to live"
mased ['mAsEd] "step", "footstep"
ml-ml [ml...ml] possessive
mora ['mor\aA] "claw", of anything not Cresaean or Kegharn
narov [nA'r\ov] "to bound", playfully
ne [nE] marks the following word as the object
-ni [ni] conjugation for |en'i|
no [no] pronoun referring to last noun mentioned; normally does not refer to
people, but can without de-humanizing the subject
palaiya [pA'lAijA] "mother"
sáyelev ['sAjElEv] "to look down on", "to watch over"
ssaelorv [s@_X'selor\v] "to survive"
sshaghov [S@_XSA'xov] "to steal"
sshalníriv [S@_XSAln'nir\Iv] "to remember", specifically recalling the memory of
someone
sshalnír "the deliberate act of recalling a memory of someone"
te [tE] (1) "and" (2) closing of an equivalence phrase
'te [te] honorific, connoting politeness and respect
tuyaea [tu'je@] "spring"
vea' [ve@] "so that", "for that purpose"; see also |kea|
vedá' [vE'dA] "from"
vep' [vEp] "for that reason"
ves' [vEs] "simultaneously"; see also |kes|
vet' [vEt] "therefore"; see also |ket|
vola' ['volA] "where"
-yu [ju] numbered suffix that refers to the largest grammatical unit of the
current sentence, prior to the "alunyu" |
| Grammar notes |
CULTURE
Any speaker of Asha'ille is called an Asha'illen. The language was originally
spoken by the Cresaeans, a sentient feline-like species. The Cresaeans are
evolutionarily related to another sentient predator species, the Kegharn, who
historically have hunted the Cresaeans. The Kegharn speak a sister langauge of
Asha'ille, called Gharchove.
PERSONS
Note Understanding the Asha'illen model of the personal network is essential to
understanding Asha'ille.
Asha'ille has two separate categories of pronouns and their related
conjugations. The Cresaeans use one set for empaths like themselves (and
non-empathic individuals that they want to "elevate" to their status), and a
second one for everything else.
For the non-empaths, Asha'ille uses the familiar (to Indo-Europeans)
first/second/third-person system:
PERSON SINGULAR PLURAL
1st -i -aym
2nd -et -etim
3rd -ar, -a, -arim, -ahim,
-aer, -ec -aerim, -ecim
In addition to the first/second/third-person system, Asha'ille bases its
empathic-pronouns model on the idea of a network of personal contacts. Pronouns
and personal conjugations measure how far from the center of this network a
person is. Generally, the speaker is the center of the network and everyone else
is relative to him.
RING DESCRIPTION CONJUGATION
en'i center; the self -ni
ajhel beloveds -ejh
scadhel closest friends -adhe
chishél good friends -ishe
geithe acquaintances -eith
nimordh everyone else -ordh
There is also a sixth basic ring, the |aerdhil|, which is used for when the
person's closeness doesn't matter or the person is unspecified or hypothetical.
Its conjugation is
|-aerdhi|.
For a more detailed post of the Asha'illen persons system, see:
http://listserv.brown.edu/archives/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0303D&L=conlang&P=R23203
WORD ORDER
Asha'ille is a VSO language. Adjectives of exactly one word come before the word
they modify, otherwise they come after and are usually marked for which word
they modify. Note that the "adjective" category includes adverbs -- an
adverbializer is simply prefixed to the adjective. Subject and object(s) are
separated by |ne|. The |ne| is required before all objects, even if the subject
is only implicitly given.
For those who understand regular expressions, here is the structure of an
Asha'illen sentence:
adverb? verb (adjective? subject)? (ne adjective? object){0,2} (phrases)*
As shown above, any number of modifiying phrases may be included after the core
sentence structure. They must be marked for which word they modify.
WORD MODIFIES...
eg the verb
ik the subject
ath the object
ung the indirect object
Asha'ille doesn't often distinguish between direct and indirect objects. If only
one or the other is used in a sentence, context determines its relation to the
verb.
Otherwise, both are listed as "ne ne ". If the direct object is a thing and the
indirect is a person, the latter is often expressed on the verb.
Note that if you want to use any but |eg|, all the words before it in the list
must also be in the sentence. That is, to describe the object of the sentence,
you must either have phrases describing the verb and subject, or combine the
terms into one: |egikath|, usually shortened to |e'kath| when only the object
has a modifying phrase. |egikathung| is similarly shorted to |e'thung|.
To modify any other word in a sentence, its distance from the phrase is used as
the marker.
WORD MODIFIES...
alun# the word # words before
alunyu the phrase before, but within the same sentence
alunun the entire sentence before
TENSE AND ASPECT
Unmarked verbs are assumed to have the same tense as the most recent tensed
verb. If no tensing information is given, present tense is assumed. Future tense
is shown by either |di'ay| before the verb or the "incomplete suffix" |-d-|
between the verb and any conjugations.
INCOMPLETE SUFFIXES
Asha'ille has a set of "incomplete suffixes" that cannot end a word but instead
must be followed by at least one other suffix to form a grammatical word. The
tense suffixes are two such examples. Others include: |-j-| and |-k-|, "able"
and "unable", respectively; |-t-| "forced to happen against subject's will"; and
|-l-| preceeding the object of the verb.
NOUNS
Nouns are only marked for number: singular or plural. A plain noun is singular,
while one with |-im| suffixed is plural. Adjectives do not agree with nouns in
number.
Asha'illen nouns have no grammatical gender.
EQUIVALENCE
Asha'ille does not use a verb for copulas. Instead, an idiomatic expression
shows when two things are to be "equated". The structure of the construction is
|Jhor'A t'B|, "A is B" or "A = B". Serial nouns in the subject position of a
sentence have an implicit equivalence relation. |
