The Relay Museum

Nakofu Uhekisudibaredalo

Putinusen bitilo ogofudahogilo ogosalalo aladefi selatu ogoputinusen ahatalo
nidisififi nakonu baredalo. Dopurusen baredalo. Kutusen uhekilo repubinade
ogoputinusen seboyanelo ogotanisolo ogolitanulo salade itu kukofi. Dugohusen
baredalo kusufinetu huyalunafi bigabofu, arakasusen businalo papayafi sikufi
adaneta. Putinusen kusufinelo satude uhekide sikunetu. Ulofusen tusa anatu
ogoburokasusen alalo ubenata netananitu.

How to Make Meat-cakes

To make the dough, mix ordinary wheat, oil, and salt, and add water as needed.
Put aside the dough. Cut up some cooked meat and mix it with onions, spices, and
a bit of salt. Knead the dough into walnut-sized balls, and then flatten them
into circles with your hands. Put balls of the meat on the circles. Fold them in
half and cook them all in an oven until golden.

Nakofu 	Uhekisudibaredalo
Nak-o-fu 	Uheki-sudi-bareda-lo
make-GER-TOP 	meat-sweet-dough-ACC
'How to Make Meat-cakes'

Putinusen 	bitilo 	ogofudahogilo 	ogosalalo 	aladefi 	selatu    ogoputinusen 	ahatalo
	nidisififi 	nakonu 	baredalo.
Put-in-us-en 	biti-lo 	ogo-fudahogi-lo 	ogo-sala-lo 	alade-fi 	sela-tu    ogo-put-in-us-en
	ahata-lo 	nid-is-i-fi-fi 	nak-o-nu 	bareda-lo.
put-3DAT-SUBJ-2P 	wheat-ACC 	AND-oil-ACC 	AND-salt-ACC 	everyday-SIM 	self-DAT   
AND-put-3DAT-SUBJ-2P 	water-ACC 	need-PASS-3PNOM-SIM-SIM 	make-GER-BEN 	dough-ACC.
'To make the dough, mix ordinary wheat, oil, and salt, and add water as needed.'

Dopurusen 	baredalo. 	Kutusen 	uhekilo 	repubinade  ogoputinusen 	seboyanelo 	ogotanisolo
	ogolitanulo 	salade 	itu 	kukofi.
Dopur-us-en 	bareda-lo. 	Kut-us-en 	uheki-lo 	repub-i-na-de  ogo-put-in-us-en
	seboya-ne-lo 	ogo-taniso-lo 	ogo-litanu-lo 	sala-de 	i-tu 	kuk-o-fi.
remove-SUBJ-2P 	dough-ACC. 	cut-SUBJ-2P 	meat-ACC 	cooked-3PNOM-NOM-GEN 
AND-put-3DAT-SUBJ-2P 	onion-PL-ACC 	AND-spice-ACC 	AND-little-ACC 	salt-GEN 	3P-DAT
	cook-GER-SIM.
'Put aside the dough. Cut up some cooked meat and mix it with onions, spices, and a
bit of salt.'

Dugohusen 	baredalo 	kusufinetu 	huyalunafi 	bigabofu,
Dugoh-us-en 	bareda-lo 	kusufi-ne-tu 	huyaluna-fi 	bigab-o-fu,
knead-SUBJ-2P 	dough-ACC 	ball-PL-DAT 	walnut-SIM 	big-GER-TOP,
'Knead the dough into walnut-sized balls,'

arakasusen 	businalo 	papayafi 	sikufi 	adaneta.
ara-kas-us-en 	b-us-in-a-lo 	papaya-fi 	siku-fi 	ada-ne-ta.
THEN-cause-SUBJ-2P 	BE-SUBJ-3P-PLNOM-ACC 	paper-SIM 	circle-SIM 	hand-PL-INST.
'and then flatten them into circles with your hands.'

Putinusen 	kusufinelo 	satude 	uhekide 	sikunetu.
Put-in-us-en 	kusufi-ne-lo 	sat-u-de 	uheki-de 	siku-ne-tu.
put-3DAT-SUBJ-2P 	ball-PL-ACC 	THAT-2DAT-GEN** 	meat-GEN 	circle-PL-DAT.
'Put balls of the meat on the circles.'

Ulofusen 	tusa 	anatu 	ogoburokasusen 	alalo 	ubenata 	netananitu.
Ulof-us-en 	tu-sa 	ana-tu 	ogo-burokas-us-en 	ala-lo 	ubena-ta 	netanani-tu.
fold-SUBJ-2P 	two-ABL** 	one-DAT** 	AND-cook-SUBJ-2P 	all-ACC 	oven-INST 	gold-DAT.
'Fold them in half and cook them all in an oven until golden.'

ada 	hand
ahata 	water
ala 	all, everything
alade 	"everyday"; in the similative ("aladefi") it means "ordinary"
ana 	one; see note under "ulof" for idiomatic usage
bareda 	dough; bread (in compounds)
biga(b) 	large, great
biti 	wheat
burokas 	to cook, heat, burn
dopur 	to remove, displace, put aside
dugoh 	to knead, shape, form
fudahogi 	(cooking) oil
huyaluna 	walnut
kas 	to cause
kuk 	to cook; see note under "put" for idiomatic usage
kusufi 	sphere, ball, any 3-dimensional round shape
kut 	to cut
litanu 	"a little bit"
nak 	to make
netanani 	gold
nid 	to need
papaya 	paper; flat (in the similative "papayafi")
put 	to put, place; when followed by "selatu" or "kukofi" it means "mix
together"
repu(b) 	cooked, ripe, mature
sala 	salt
seboya 	onion
sela 	"self"; see note under "put" for idiomatic usage
siky 	circle
sudi(b) 	sweet, good-tasting
taniso 	spice, flavoring
tu 	two; see note under "ulof" for idiomatic usage
ubena 	oven
uheki 	meat
ulof 	to fold; when followed by "tusa anatu" means "fold in half"

Grammatical Forms
Cases
PL 	plural
NOM 	nominative
ACC 	accusative
GEN 	genitive
SIM 	similative (the manner in which an action is taken; similar to English
"like")
DAT 	dative (where something is moved to or what something is turned into)
ABL 	ablative (opposite of dative; where things come from)
BEN 	benefactive (for whom or what an action occurs, for whose benefit)
TOP 	topic (what is the general topic or focus of the statement; similar to
English "as for" or "with respect to")
INST 	instrumental (what is used to perform the action)
Verb endings
1/2/3P 	1st/2nd/3rd person subject
SUBJ 	subjunctive (indicates that the clause is not an assertion but a
possibility; also used in commands)
PASS 	passive
1/2/3DAT 	dative endings (see note)
NOM 	nominalized (see note)
GER 	gerund (the action associated with the verb (eg "destruction" from
"destroy," "skiing" from "ski"); also similar to English -ness on adjectives)
Other
AND 	"and" (conjunction)
THEN 	"and then," "next" (conjunction)
THAT 	"this", "that", or "that over there" depending on the following dative
ending (see note)
BE 	"to be" (the copula)
1/2/3P 	1st/2nd/3rd person pronouns (I;you;he/she/it)
General grammatical notes

Inagalasi is a highly agglutinative language (as you can probably tell) with a
very rich case system (17 cases). Word order is strictly verb-initial and
usually VSO, and modifiers usually follow heads. Adjectives and verbs are not
distinguished (well they slightly are but it doesn't matter for this little
text); in fact, the only syntactic categories are nouns and verbs.

Verbs (and some special nouns for different reasons) that imply motion usually
carry an ending that marks the person of the dative (ie whether the movement is
towards me, towards you, or towards neither of us). These dative endings are
used even when there is no corresponding noun in the dative case.

There is a rather large set of nouns in Inagalasi that are called "determiners";
these mostly correspond to determiners or quantifiers in English. The noun they
modify always follows them and is in the genitive, while the determiner itself
takes the case of the full phrase. For example, in a sentence like "I ate two
apples", "two" would be a determiner in the accusative and "apples" would follow
it in the genitive.

Lastly, the most confusing and complicated aspect of Inagalasi is the
nominalization of verbs. First, to turn a clause into a noun-like form as in
"the fact that you fly", you take the verb for "you fly" ("falayen") and drop
the final consonant ("falaye"). This is indicated in the interlinear by adding
"NOM" to the ending the consonant was a part of (compare "falay-en" "fly-2P" and
"falay-e" "fly-2PNOM"). Case endings are then added to show the role of the
clause in the sentence (eg "I believe (the fact) that you fly" "Karey-an
falay-e-lo" "beleive-1P fly-2PNOM-ACC").

Alternatively, a case ending can be added to such a nominalized clause to make a
nominal actor, such as "the way in which you fly" or "the person for whom you
fly" ("falay-e-fi" "fly-2PNOM-SIM" and "falay-e-nu" "fly-2PNOM-BEN")
respectively). The case ending added corresponds to the role of the "actor" in
the nominalized clause: if "the way in which you fly" is "(like) a bird", then
"you fly like a bird", with "bird" in the similative case. A second case ending
is then added to show the role of the nominal actor in the sentence as a whole
(as in "I eat in the way in which you fly" "Et-an falay-e-fi-fi" "eat-1P
fly-2PNOM-SIM-SIM").

OK, I know that's confusing, but try to make some sense of it; hopefully the
exact details won't be too hard when you just have to understand what the text
is saying.