< 5: Tyl Sjok by Henrik Theiling Elenyo by James O'Connell 17: Iltârer by Tom Tadfor Little >

Translated by: James O'Connell
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."
Smooth translation: Missing
Translation of previous torch Missing
Interlinear Missing
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 :)