| Torch: |
assárpal únnenútin iñmun, eneyá mist alítrilaul.
alau yú manillúha nudfaul sallóa móraun. must
éamaul eníto ainnon andaumaul
"fíto viselenta is" must céloelentmel "is, déta
fíto ni déto nudfau, andauma.
atil ni holaurichré éma, is alívifannra vilé
gimannaré neldo is andauma, dór ni holaurichré
émal."
fíto ainnon nilbastaul "vibalho sando flach ill illa
piernyé all oilla visaf.
nerta odíapal Utrechtússin auriñnyéhéna nerta
deité elderá faen." |
| Glossary/mini dictionary |
anayá - relative pronoun - who, singular or plural
(NB. inflects for ergative case like an NP)
andauméa - to ask
assarpál - used in conjunction with a finite form of
'assár' + a noun in the possessive case to mean,
'there is' or 'there was' ie. like German 'es gibt/es
gab)
atil - sub. conj. - when, if
auriñnyé - like, similar to (the noun it describes)
cited with the genetive ending 'héná.
balhía - to annoy
céloelentéa - to reply
dór - when
éaméa - to play
elderá - always
elentía - to speak, to speak to, to adress, to tell,
to talk to (NB. the direct object is the adressee not
the speech)
fannróa - to help
fíto - why, for what reason
flach - con. because
holaurichré - adverb denoting the inceptive aspect of
the verb.
mist - child
neldo - except
nerta...nerta - as/like...so, thus
nilbastía - to explain
núdfía - to do (nb. nudfía + subjunctive infinitive
= indirect causation. eg. ni nudfelse yurandír
móraun. - I shall make you (plural) run)
odía - to trade (odíapal Utrechtússin
auriñnyéhéna - like an Utrecht businness
transaction, an idiom for a very brief moment of time)
piernyé - clever, brainy
sallóa - to go
trilóa - to care for, to look after
únnen - woman
yú - preposition - in
vilé - but (vilé gimannaré - at all) |
| Grammar notes |
Nouns:
Case endings:
Core Cases:
Absolutive is unmarked.
Plural forms: (nouns ending in consonant):
plural = í
dual = ei
(ending in o or é):
plural = o + tí = otí, é + r = ér
dual = o + i = oi, é + ss = éss
Ergative is shown by a vowel shift as follows:
e > o
i > u
a > e
ae > ue
au > í
á - é
í - ú
é > ei
ó >oi
ú > ai
o > é
u > au
i) Vowels in prefixes do NOT mutate.
ii) No more than two fully seperate vowels mutate.
Note that two vowels nest to each other, even if they
do not constitute a dipthong, count only as one vowel.
Oblique cases:
(for nouns ending in consonants)
úr - dative singular
úrin - dative plural
ús - genetive singular
ússin - genetive plural
úta - possessive singular
útin - possessive plural
úha - allative singular
úhin - allative plural
ú(han)na - ablative singular
ú(han)nin - ablative plural
(for nouns ending in o or é)
r - dative singular
rin - dative plural
s - genetive singular
ssin - genetive plural
ta - possessive singular
tin - possessive plural
ha - allative singular
hin - allative plural
na - ablative singular
nin - ablative plural
SYNTAX:
Ergative NP / Absolutive NP / Verb
Adjective follows noun
Prepositions obviously preceed noun :)
Adverbs preceed verbs, or at the beginning of the
clause if they modify the whole of it.
Note that this word order is fairly flexible in
connection with pragmatics, however such matters are
not brought up by the text.
Indirect Questions:
Indirect questions use a clause beginning with 'détá.
All the other rules that appply to indirect commands
also apply to indirect questions. ie. déta does not
take any endings.
eg. He asked himself if it were possible to be
executed in a dream.
mala, déta ída aenyíl malatán iñmun móraun san
mauglía, avro andauel.
Note that it could of course be;
déta ída aenyíl malatán iñmun móraun san
mauglía, mala avro andauel.
ADJECTIVES
The only relevant information required here is that
the equative is formed with the particle 'illá
preceeding the adjective, and the particle 'oillá
following the standard of comparison.
PRONOUNS
Pronouns do not inflect; they have their own irregular
forms:
Erg. Abs. Gen. Dat. All. Abl.
1st Sing. ni ill illé tá táyis táyas
1st Pl. as adé añé yá ayís ayás
2nd Sing. is all allé sá sáyis sáyas
2nd Pl. tun tund té tach tachís tachás
3rd Sing. masculine mala ma mané man ma ma
3rd Sing. feminine alau mau maué mauá man man
3rd Sing. neuter alan ala mañé almá alaya alaya
3rd Pl. pár pell pellé pó póyís póyás
TO BE
assár - the verb 'to bé (sorry about the state of
this table - make sure you count along to check that
that form is the tense you thought it was)
Pres. Def. Pres. Imp. Pres. Plu. Past Def. Past Imp.
Past Plu. Fut. Def. Fut. Imp. Fut. Plu.
1st p. sing. a af sera iñ inaf serin té atel serté
1st p. pl. árin afin será iñwa ina seriñwa tell
até setel
2nd p. sing. án fán serán iñwá inná senwá
tellá inta setella
2nd p. pl. án fán serán iñwá inná señwá
tellán inta setellan
3rd p. sing. m. mun fan semun iñwan iñmun seman amun
úfan setun
3rd p. sing. f. unn faen sémunn iñwán inunn semaen
aún úfaen setúnn
3rd p. sing. n. mun faen semun iñwan iñmun seman
amun úfan setun
3rd p. pl. munn fann sémunn iñwaen inaen sémaen
ammé úfann sémmé
VERBAL SYSTEM
All the verbs cited in the text are regular verbs.
These end in éa (if the stem ends in a nasal
consonant), úa (if the stem ends in a glide), ía (if
the stem ends in a stop or fricative), óa (if the
stem ends in a liquid).
When inflections are added, these endings are removed.
The endings (NOTA MOLTO BENE!!!) correspond to the
Patient of the Verb. However it should be noted that
with the verb 'to bé, the NP is ergative while the
verb actually treats it as an absolutive argument.
In other intransitive constructions however, the verb
simply inflects to agree with the sole NP which takes
the absolutive.
INFLECTIONS:
present
1st person s. pl.
a á
2nd person - es
3rs personm au aun
f me men
n au aun
past·
1 al ál
2 el els
3 m aul auln
f mel meln
n aul auln
future·
1 asse ásse
2 else else
3 m aulse aulsen
f melse melsen
n aulse aulsen
Note that if a verb has a stem ending in a glide or
the fricative 'h' and it is in the unmarked absolutive
form, then it has to take an ending 'ó so that it
obeys the phonetic distrubution rules of Elenyo.
In addition to this, there is other information that
has to be transmitted.
Connected with the tense/aspect system are the
following;
alí - imperfective
elí - pluperfect (does not occur in text)
Voice
oice
san - passive
avro - reflexive
avré - reciprocal
Mood
Deontic Epistimic
Imperative do Indicative -·
Obligative dur Expectative mór·
Suggestive duran Speculative móran·
Permissive duraun Subjunctive móraun·
Note that these extra pieces of information are shown
in a very specific way.
If no special voice or mood information is given, then
"alí" or "elí" attach to the beginning of a verb.
If a voice particle is present, like "san" then "alí"
would attach to the front of that giving 'alísan'
which would PRECEED the verb
If a mood particle is present, then "alí" or "elí"
or "san" or "alísan" etc. would attach to the front
of the mood particle and the whole thing would FOLLOW
the verb ie. mood takes precedence over voice.
examples; alímauglía, san mauglía, mauglía moraun,
elíavro mauglía, mauglía alído, mauglía
elísanmór.
ADVERBS:
preceed the verb. No other information required for
the text.
DEMONSTRATIVES:
Demonstratives in elenyo take the following forms:
Visible Near Visible Far Invisible Near Invisible Far
Singular dæ dæ déto déta·
Plural dæn dæn déton détan·
·
Note no distinction is made between near and far under
the visible category (both near/far and
visible/invisible variables are measured from the
speaker).·
Note that when the demonstratives are used as
demonstrative pronouns, they do inflect for case,
including the ergative naturally :) |
