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Ring B: 16/20: merechi |
Amanda Babcock Furrow | ||
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| << Vozgian | Darynese >> |
Kepvó ëàmliö artdatéfia'c ki'àrtdatëp'fa íllühart àlacli nànö lahú ésöp'n Màlero. Lyíndi kabàlëki clinétiri, àmë íllünö àlacli týrali t'ànësisöp'n. Kíela négë t'ésöp'n höcàn delúpë na-të'dísöp'n lüpànprë dèlchëpë màtari, lielúnët. Màlero à lielú'c të'lóp'ë rív, vàrnic hríki fúi tedenípi. Tírrdë líri höfàmëcash négë të'pémëp'n, të íllü t'apatvërdahév'ë, ni tírrdë'c ka'të'hócisav'ë. Lítac gëléata'c böltànli të'lacíticë'hë tëcàpiadi, à vàrnic à narishidànö négë t'èln'ë. Córübö négë ladisópianö à vàrnicümdi narishidàli, kepné të'sàmap'ë böltànli, të të'týraisöp'ë lítac à vàrn lièlfornëdi të'lapàsav'n. |
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We will tell this tale to you about a young man whose name is Malero. In a recent winter, the young man's head was full of happiness. His home was a tower of stone located among fields of dead earth, near the sea. Malero watched the sea always, waiting for a ship like white ice. A large bird sat on his shoulder, and the man tried to chase it away, but could not reach the bird. When he finally grasped the animal in his hand, he saw the ship of his teacher. Despite fear of taking his place aboard the ship with his teacher, he hailed him with a wave of his hand, and was happy when the ship began to move toward the shore. |
Orthography |
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The mërèchi love diacritics. The diacritics are mostly meaningless (they encode vowel pronunciation as well as stress, but stress is not usually important and vowel pronunciation is rarely other than standard). If you cannot read them, the interlinear is presented diacritic-free, and the vocabulary includes diacritic-free versions of all the words.
The apostrophe is written by convention to indicate where certain prefixes and suffixes have been attached to a word. It is not pronounced. Apostrophes in the text can be helpful in finding prefixes and suffixes, although not all prefixes and suffixes are set off by apostrophes; however, you can be sure that an apostrophe never occurs inside a word root.
All the vowels in the text presented have the standard values:
a, à /A/
e, è /E/
ë, é /e/
o, ò /O/
ö, ó /o/
i, í /i/
ü, ú /u/
Additionally, y in some contexts (and ý always) is /i/.
Consonants also have IPA values except:
c /k/
ch /x/ or /tS/
sh /S/
y /j/ between vowels, /i/ next to consonants
Grammar |
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The grammar defaults to English-like unless otherwise specified. The
major differences are that mërèchi features postpositional phrases
(just like prepositional only backwards), and that adjectives (and all
other modifiers except the article) follow the noun. Adjectives do not
agree in case, number or postpositions with the noun. Word order is
usually SOV.
Verbs take an optional negative prefix, an optional tense prefix,
optional derivational prefixes and suffixes (such as the causative,
passive, inceptive, abilitative, and equative), a mandatory aspect suffix,
and a mandatory pronoun/agreement suffix. If no tense or mood prefix
appears, the verb is in present tense.
Example:
ka'ki'tinidep'a
ka- ki- tinide -p -a
NEG FT remember IMP 1P.SG
"I will not remember"
Tense prefixes:
ki-, k- future
te-, t- past
Aspect suffixes:
-p, -n imperfective
-v, -e perfective
Pronouns can appear as verb suffixes, in which case they agree with
or are the subject of the verb, or they can appear elsewhere as
independent words with a case or postpositional suffix. If the
sentence appears to have no subject, the subject is the pronoun on
the verb. Otherwise, the subject will be the noun without a case suffix
or postposition, and will agree with the pronoun on the verb.
Derivational affixes are used heavily in verb formation. Affixes are
accretive; they build upon those already attached to the word.
Examples using the abilitative suffix -sa, the inceptive prefix la-,
and the attemptive suffix -hé (-he):
hàla (hala) to do I do it
hàlasa (halasa) to be able to do I can do it
halahé (halahe) to try to do I try to do it
lahàla (lahala) to begin to do
lahalahé (lahalahe) to try to begin to do
Some suffixes move the stress in a word (the causative and attemptive
suffixes steal the stress, for example; the passive participle -fi
also moves the stress, but to the previous syllable), which causes
different vowels to become accented.
The equative suffix -sö (-so) creates a verb meaning "to be X", where
X is the root to which it is affixed and is either a noun or adjective:
èchi (echi) hot
èchisö (echiso) to be hot
lahèchisö (lahechiso) to become hot
echidà (echida) to keep hot
lahechidà (lahechida) to make hot
pàlit (palit) a ball
pàlitsö (palitso) to be a ball
lapàlitsö (lapalitso) to become a ball
lapalitsödà (lapalitsoda) to make into a ball
The equative suffix can be omitted between an adjective and a causative
suffix, as illustrated above with echidà and lahechidà.
Vocabulary |
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Articles: à (a) the Prepositions: kep- (kEp-) to (dative) Postpositions: -bö (-bo) despite -'c accusative case (after vowels) -cash on (after vowels) -icüm (-icum) in -icümdi (-icumdi) into -di at -gë (-ge) possessive affix -hart about, concerning (after vowels) -i like -ic accusative case (after consonants) -li with -nëdi (-nedi) toward -nët (-net) near -nö (-no) of -pë (-pe) made from, made of -prë (-pre) among Nouns: àmë (ame) head artdatéfia (artdatefia) a story, a tale böltàn (boltan) a hand (collective plural of "finger") córü (coru) fear dèlchë (dElche) earth delú (dElu) stone gëléata (geleata) animal höcàn (hocan) tower höfàmë (hofame) shoulder hrík (hrik) ice íllü (illu) man kíela (kiEla) home lahú (lahu) name lièlfor (liElfor) shore lielú (liElu) ocean, sea lüpàn (lupan) plains, fields lyín (lyin) a time lyín kabàlëki (lyin kabaleki) winter Màlero (Malero) the name Malero narishidà (narishida) teacher tëcàpia (tecapia) the end tëcàpiadi (tecapiadi) finally tírrdë (tirrde) bird týra (tyra) happiness vàrn (varn) ship Adjectives: àlacli (alacli) young clinétiri (clinetiri) recent ëàmliö (eamlio) this fúi (fui) white líri (liri) large màtari (matari) dead týrai (tyrai) happy Pronouns (can be suffixed or standalone): -'ë (-'e) third person singular suffix, male -'fa first person plural suffix -'hë (-'he) third person singular suffex, male (after vowel) -'n third person singular suffix, neuter or unknown nà (na) relative pronoun: who, which (standalone or prefix) né (ne) third person singular standalone, male vó (vo) second person plural standalone Verb prefixes: ka'- not ki'- future tense la- inceptive derivational prefix - to begin to X na- relative pronoun who, which t'- past tense, before vowels të'- (te-) past tense, before consonants Verb suffixes: -a nominalizer -dà (-da) causative derivational suffix - to make do X -ë (-e) perfective aspect, after consonants -fi passive participle -hé (-he) attemptive derivational suffix - to try to do X -ípi (-ipi) active participle, after consonants -n imperfective aspect, after liquids -p imperfective aspect, after vowels, sonorants -pi active participle, after vowels -sa abilitative derivational suffix - to be able to do X -sö (-so) equative derivational suffix - to be X -v perfective aspect, after vowels Verbs: ànësi (anesi) to be full àpatvër (apatver) to go away àrtdatë (artdate) to tell (a story) cític (citic) to hold dísö (diso) to be located èl (El) to see ésö (eso) to be (copula) hóci (hoci) to reach ladísö (ladiso) to take one's place ló (lo) to watch pàsa (pasa) to move pémë (peme) to sit sàma (sama) to greet, hail, wave to tèden (tEdEn) to await Other words: lítac (litac) when rív (riv) always të (te) and
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