The Relay Museum

ha: dhamidennaʔinan nolhekhime lalhi hammi toshaninalo khan.
konpharikhu akhannu then toshanimela hana semanikhu, “limedin kaura thomidikhini
rokha?”
semanikhi toshani akhannumela, “denanannu thomidikhini.”
remedhikhu akhannu toshanimela, “hamedikhinin nedanikhini dharakhime.”
semanikhi toshani akhannumela, “kaura mashar dharakhi?”
remedhikhu akhannu toshanimela, “mekharikha hamet thomidikhia dharakhimela.
liranikha hala khortime
nimamela. rushenikha minanime limaʔalikhalen.”
semanikhi toshani akhannumela, “kaura hankhanikha khathuro shuma
laʔalikhamela?”
remedhikhu akhannu toshanimela, “hamedikhanni shinalharikhia minanedanekhon
hamedimi
thomidikhanni dinaphadan.”

Behold: Let's change subjects to a short tale about a clever Dragon. They had
spoken to the dragon and a bird had told the dragon that he wonders if he had
existed.

And then it (the dragon) told the bird, "You know it had existed."

It (the bird) told the dragon, "It looks like he was hiding in the mountain."

It (the dragon) asked the bird, "Which mountain?"

It (the bird) wold th dragon, "It was difficult to believe it was living in that
mountain. It had shown great courage to them, they embarrassed us with how they
dressed."

It (the dragon) replied to the bird, "Did he want to fight because of how he
dressed?"

It (the bird) was replying to the dragon, "You believed that he (the bird) was
laughing at us but they believe you ilved over there."

Eic: we-yomuʔos mawəʔes taaiʔai dətaaugod. Nhəteirin aa taaiš itooiʔ, eic hlo
fəfeteirin taaiš,
“cafeifətis hodəšeʔodan.”
Behold: change paths-VOL.PRS.PROG | short tale.ACC | dragon-into |
3SG.SUBJ-clever- PRS-unk |
3PL.SUBJ-talk- PAST.PFV | aforementioned | dragon.ACC | bird NOM | and | thus |
4SG.SUBJ-then- talk-PAST.PFV |
dragon.ACC | 3SG.OBJ-wonder- PRS.PROG | unk-3SG.SUBJ- exist-unk- PAST.PFV
Behold: Let’s change subjects to a short tale about a clever Dragon.
They had spoken to the dragon and a bird had told the dragon that he wonders if
he had existed.
Eic hlo fəfeteirin tooiʔaeš, “bəceitis hodəšeʔodan.”
And | then | 4SG.SUBJ-then- talk-PAST.PFV | bird.ACC | 2SG-understand- PRS.PROG
| unk-3SG.SUBJ- exist-unk- PAST.PFV
And then it (the dragon) told the bird, “You know it had existed.”
Fəbeifeteirin taaiš, "dəʔooltoo rəpaeriifedaeš pinhaen
dəcičodaš."
4SG.NOM-back- then-talk- PAST.PFV | dragon.ACC | 3SG.SUBJ-see- that | 4PL.NOM
physical courage | mountain.ACC |
3SG.SUBJ-hide- PRS.IPFV
It (the bird) told the dragon, “It looks like he was hiding in the mountain.”
Dəcaebaicoin tooiʔaeš, “Gelpinhaš?”
3SG.SUBJ-3SG.OBJ- COND-ask | bird-REFL- ACC | which-mountain- NOM
It asked the bird, “Which mountain?”
Fəbeifeteirin taaiš, “Fəšeʔus aa pinhon, yeegəcon deigočod. Fəsaepaeriiifoč
nhətəcooʔčodef but-
šaʔub.”
4SG.NOM-back- then-talk- PAST.PFV | dragon.ACC | 4SG.NOM-exist- PRS.PROG |
aforementioned | mountain.ACC | believe-
PAST.PFV | 3SG.NOM-difficult- PASS-unk | 4SG.SUBJ-3PL.OBJ- courageous-PRS.IPFV |
3PL.SUBJ-1PL.OBJ- embarrass-unk-
unk-against | mode of dress-because of
It (the bird) told the dragon, “It was difficult to believe it was living in
that mountain. It had shown great
courage to them, they embarrassed us with how they dressed.”
Dəcaebaicoin tooiʔaeš, “Es nhəliʔeč šabutub dəʔ��ečteitočed?”
3SG.SUBJ-3SG.OBJ- back-ask | bird-REFL- ACC | Q | 3PL.SUBJ-fight- VOL-PRS.PFV |
because of dress | 3SG.SUBJ-unk- tasteful-
PRS.PFV.unk
It (the dragon) replied to the bird, “Did he want to fight because of how he
dressed?”
Dəbeifeteirin taaiš, “Geeagoč bərətooiʔtooč dətətiinaečed, yu nhəgeeagoč
bəšeʔtooč legon.
3SG.SUBJ-back- then-talk- PAST.IPFV dragon-ACC | believe-PRS.PFV |
2SG.SUBJ-4SG.SUBJ- bird-that- PRS.IPFV | 3SG.SUBJ-
1PL.OBJ-laugh- REFL-PRS.IPFV- unk | but | 3PL.SUBJ-believe- PRS.IPFV |
2SG.SUBJ-exist- that-PRS.IPFV | on there
It was replying to the dragon, “You believed that he (the bird) was laughing at
us but they believe you
lived over there.”

Verbs:
-o verbs – conjugated by removing the -o and adding the suffixes
konpharo (v.) to speak, talk; (konpharin)
shinalharo (v.) to laugh; (shinalharin)
mekharo (v.) to be difficult; (mekharin)
remedho (v.) to reply, answer; (remedhin)
-t verbs – conjugated by changing the -t to -d and adding the suffixes
thomit (v.) to live; (thomidin)
limet (v.) to ponder, wonder; (limedin)
hamet (v.) to think, suppose; (hamedin)
-n verbs – conjugated by adding the suffixes, the root does not change
dhamiden (v.) to change; (dhamidenin)
denan (v.) to know, understand; (denanin)
liran (v.) to show, present; (liranin)
nedan (v.) to hide; (nedanin)
seman (v.) to say, utter, tell; (semanin)
rushen (v.) to embarrass, shame; rushenin
Irregular:
harlan is formed by removing -an and adding the suffixes
harlan (v.) to be; (harlin)
Nouns:
masculine: - plural is formed by changing -i and adding the ending -eni. If the
root ends in -n the plural
marker will change to -emi.
dharakhi (n. masc) mountain; (dharakheni)
khorti (n. masc) courage, bravery (not countable)
toshani (n. masc) dragon; (toshanemi)
nolhekhi (n. masc) subject, topic; (nolhekheni)
hammi (n. masc) story, tale; (hammeni)
feminine: - plural is formed by adding -ne
akhannu (n. fem) bird; (akhannune)
neuter: - plural is formed the same way as feminine nouns; albeit most neuter
nouns are collective
nouns
alikha (n. neut) clothing (not countable)

Adjectives:
Adjective are placed before the noun they modify and match the gender of that
noun, but do not match
case and number
lalh (adj.) small, miniscule; (lalhi, -u, -a)
malh (adj.) large, massive; (malhi, -u, -a)
Adverbs:
Adverbs are placed directly after that which they modify.
khan (prep.) about
then (prep.) with
hana (conj.) and
kaura question particle
rokha (adv.) ever
mashar (adv.) what, which
dinapha (adv.) over there
Miscellaneous:
ha (interj.) lo, behold
-naʔ- (imperative) – added to the end of the root before the personal endings.

Lortho is an agglutinating language with minimal fusional aspects. Fusional
elements are present
mostly in verb conjugation; however, the root of the verb is unaffected
(irregular verbs are the
exception, explained below).. The syllable structure is (C)V(V)(C). It has three
genders: masculine,
feminine, and neuter. There are ten cases (listed here:
http://www.linguifex.com/wiki/Lortho#Grammatical_Case). The possessive is formed
using a prefix. All
other modifications of words (i.e. grammatical case, conjugation) will be via
suffixes. Entries in the
lexicon will include the following: 1st person singular conjugation for all
verbs; plural for all nouns; and
the gender options for all adjectives.