Ring A: 4/18: Jovian

A way against the sadness of winter

On a certain december morning, opposite a bus stop, we can see this scene.

A boy, who is obviously on the way to school, stands near the fence of a garden, having on his shoulder a fat, red tomcat. The beast skill- fully holds his balance while the boy attempts to shake him off of himself. Now we see how he panics more and more, because he knows that the bus has to arrive really very soon. But nothing troubles the cat. One time, he places a paw on the fence, but apparently finds that too cold, so he pulls it back onto the school backpack. Just when he has made himself comfortable, the bus comes.

After this, the cat's day at last became really interesting.

A obe conner tristidza yh hiornun
[@ no:b 'kAnn@r triS'ti:dz y 'hirn@]

Ni mane yh Degimber, oeva ni sixone victur, bouve seoginde ja xaena.
[ni va:n y de'gimb@r  Ajv ni zi'So:n 'viCt@r  bowv sE'gind j@ 'Sajn]

U puobe, peoprire in vija ad xola, tsa pud saebe nyh hordu, acce
pionge ed ruore u cader seize su in uomer.
[@ pu@b  pE'pri:r im mi: a tSo:l  tsa pu dzajb ny hArd  ak
piNg e dru@r @ 'ka:d@r sejz su in 'u@m@r]

Ja beixa teine sud eiglibrun aziftei, dun ih puobe cona aedare en de sic.
[j@ veS tejn su de'gli:br@ n@'zifte  dun i pu@b ko:n E'da:r en d@ ziC]

Nun se ueze ud a paenga crisce in ei, nan xi ud ih victur deive ambire
aege ni xunda mox.
[nun s y@z u d@ bENg kriSk in ej  nan Si u di 'viCt@r dejv @m'bi:r
ajg ni Sund mAS]

Sed ih cader nau se discioda omione.
[se di 'ka:d@r no s@ diS'ki@d A'mi@n]

Nuec prowe an tapfa in saebe, sed peoprire iomme id nime frize,
nan redrahe en in dindraera xolaere.
[nyC pro:v @n dapf in dzajb  sep pE'pri:r im i ni:m fri:z
nan re'dra:X en in din'drajr SA'lajr]

Ipfe con se hae facte counde, abeine ih victur.
[ipf kAn s@ he vaXt kund  @'bejn i 'viCt@r]


Tun, ih dsé yh cader potreme trandsiva manore intressande.
[tun  i dze: y 'ka:d@r pA'tre:m tr@n'dsi:v m@'no:r intres'sand]

The whole grammar is online at http://www.cinga.ch/langmaking/jovian.htm,
but I doubt you will need any of it beyond what I've collected here.  I
will leave the very non-trivial phonological rules away, since you don't
need them for the translation.  A phonetic transcription is given above.


Noun Phrases
------------

In Modern Jovian, nouns only inflect for number, not for case. Only
pronouns still have case inflections. For that reason, it is important
that each noun phrase be marked with at least an article or a
preposition, lest it be interpreted by default as a nominative before
the verb or an accusative after the verb.

The 3rd person personal pronoun is, ja, id "he, she, it" doubles as the
definite article e.g. ja feima "the woman" (literally: "she woman"). The
indefinite article is u, a, un. Both are very irregular, thus their
inflected forms are given here:


     u/a/un "(indefinite article)" (< unus)
     Singular                       Plural
     m.        f.        n.         m.        f.        n.
NOM  u [@]     a [@]     un [@n]    ni [ni]   nae [ne]  na [n@]
ACC  un [@n]   an [@n]   un [@n]    nus [n@s] nas [n@s] na [n@]
OBL  ni [ni]   ni [ni]   ni [ni]    nih [ni]  nih [ni]  nih [ni]
GEN  nyh [ny]  nyh [ny]  nyh [ny]   on [An]   on [An]   on [An] 


     ih/ja/id "(third personal pronoun; definite article)" (< is/ea/id)
     Singular                      Plural
     m.        f.        n.        m.        f.        n.
NOM  ih [i]    ja [ja]   id [i]    i [i]     jae [je]  ja [ja]
ACC  en [en]   en [en]   id [i]    eos [Es]  eas [Es]  ja [ja]
OBL  ei [ej]   ei [ej]   ei [ej]   ih [i]    ih [i]    ih [i]
GEN  yh [y]    yh [y]    yh [y]    jon [jAn] jon [jAn] jon [jAn]                                


The oblique case combines the roles of the Latin dative and ablative 
cases.

Another pronoun you need to know is the reflexive pronoun:

       se "(reflexive personal pronoun)" (< se)

ACC    se [se] or [s@] 
OBL    sic [siC]


A peculiarity of Jovian noun phrases is the so-called MAN construction,
which stands for modifier-article-head. An adjective or adjective-like 
pronoun can be moved BEFORE the noun phrase's article or preposition, 
where it loses all inflection. Observe:

  a feima beola --> beole a feima "a pretty woman"
  in coelun cruelun --> cruele in coelun "in (the) blue sky"

The unmarked adjective form in -e is also used in predicative statements
and the likes.  

With most pronouns, the MAN construction is actually mandatory:

  oene ni obe "by every means"
  nuole u omme "not a single man, no man"
  mi yh mare "of my mother"

Due to this fixed order, possessive pronouns and articles form a number
of contractions:

  suwe mis (= mi eas) manes "take my hands"


Verbs
-----

Jovian verbs always inflect for person and number.

The regular verb endings are the following:

1sg: -o          1pl: -ame, -ime, -in
2sg: -as, -es    2pl: -aese, -ise, -is
3sg: -a, -e      3pl: -an, -en, -un

The i-thematic conjugation also afflicts an i-umlaut to the stem 
vowel if it is stressed:

  ozire "to hate"   oeze "hates"

Jovian has one inflected verb tense: the imperfect. It is formed 
regularly for most verbs, by appending a regularly inflected -vare 
verb ending to the verb root:

  candare "to sing"  candavare "to have been singing"
  cando "I sing"     candavo "I was singing" 
  ...                  ...

However, the perfect tense is much more commonly used.  It is formed
just as in the other Romance languages, by combining a finite form
of the verb haere "to have" with the past participle.


Adverbs
-------

Adjectives can be converted into adverbs by replacing the ending with
-ei [e].

acce conj. < ATQUE
ad prep. < AD
aege adj. < ALIQUIS (only in MAN constructions)
aedare v. < AGITARE
ambire, abeino, abinde v. < ADVENIRE
aziftu adj. < ADEPTUS
beixa n.f. < BESTIA
bire, deivo, deifte v. < DEBERE
bouver, blude v. < DEVOLVERE (Drift!)
cader n.m. "male cat" < Ger. Kater
con adv. < QUANDO
conare v. < CONARI
conner prep. < CONTRA
coundu adj. < COMODUS
criscer, crede v. < CRESCERE
de prep. < DE
Degimber < DECEMBER
devire, deifte v. < DEBERE
dindraera n.f. < PERA ITINERARIA
disciodare v. < DIS- + QUIETUS
dsé n.m. < DIES
dun conj. < DUM
ed conj. < ET
eiglibrun n.n. < AEQUILIBRIUM
faeher, facte v. < FACERE
frizu adj. < FRIGIDUS
haere v.irr. < HABERE
hiornun n.n. < (TEMPUS) HIBERNUM
hordu n.m. < HORTUS
in prep. < IN
intressare v. < INTEREST
iommire, iommeinde
ipfe adj. & adv. < IPSE
mane n.n. < MANE
manore adv. < MAGNOPERE
mox adv. < MOX
nan conj. < NAM
nau [no] adv. < NON
nime adv. < NIMIS
nuec adv. < UNA VICE
nun adv. < NUNC, Ger. nun
obe n.f. < OPS
oeva prep. < OBVIAM
omione adv. < OMNINO
paenga n.f. < Gr. PANIKOS
peoprire adv. "apparently, from the looks of it" < PER + PARERE
pionge adj. < PINGUIS
potreme adv. < POSTREMO
prower, pronte v. < PROMERE
pud prep. < APUD
puobe n.m. < PUBES, PUER, Ger. Bub?
redraher, redracte v. < RETRAHERE
ruoru adj. < RUBER
saebe n.f. < SAEPES
sed conj. < SED
seoger, xude v. < SEQUI
sezire v. < SEDERE
sixone n.f. < SISTIO
su adj. < SUUS
tapfa n.f. "paw" < Ger. Tatze, Fr. patte? 
tenire v. < TENERE
transdire v. "go over; fall to (an heir); turn into, become" < TRANSIRE
tristidza n.f. < TRISTITIA
tsare v. < STARE
tun adv. < TUM
ud conj. "that" < UT
uezire v. < VIDERE
uomer, uombri n.m. < UMERUS
victur n.m. "bus" < VECTOR
vija n.f. < VIA
xaena n.f. < SCAENA
xire v. < SCIRE
xola n.f. < SCHOLA
xolaere adj. < SCHOLARIS
xunda n.v. < PARS MINUTA SECUNDA