Ring B: 21/22: Naisek

Jeffrey Jones

[ Naisek | Smooth English | Grammar | Vocabulary | Abbrevs. ]

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Naisek

Lalbai ham girgixam po ham baigixam

Ah arkaxnor swali jemli leihanali besil gixnel:

Hafkubor swali natsu (1) hi suni rok launi.
Hafkubor sunu biyax bennigi po hi liktyar (2).
Hafkubor sunu rasbax hi fupla ham gufrasnam u him cispassem.
Hafkubor sunu jali rasnali, tali stwe mihin toklax balum folde.
Lalbubor wix him xalmem po wix hilum istalum, til xanhitto hyu sunyu gordo.
Lalbubor wix him humem dim wof si cobilihin lo hopaldokubwe lantke.
Lalbubor wix him korilom dim wof subwe honausin.
Lalbubor wix him buxmigim cangipe po xolkepe.
Markubor balum wakel noku moxkax ha jem leihana dar sta sofin hali banjeli.
Lalbubor wix besilum jesmigilum po wix hantelum banilum.

Jesmiti dosofax girgixai baigixa.
Jesmiti dosofax baigixai girgixa.
Ah buxmitaxnor besyu dofsu po swilu dofsulu saxilu.

Translator's Notes

This is somewhat ungrammatical because the subject is 1st person inclusive plural, which includes the 2nd person, but the object is 2nd person.
Liktyar remains untranslated, being a rendering of the Twisspraak word.

There are some other oddities that probably wouldn't occur in a native text.

Smooth Translation

Song of the Bride and the Bridegroom

Oh may you tell all spiritual beings these promises:

Let's give all of you thanks for the whole beautiful thing.
Let's give thanks completely for making warmth and for the lightyear.
Let's give thanks completely for protecting the trouble of the warrior on the plain.
Let's give thanks completely to many men, which have the harvesting of our grain.
Let's sing to the moon and to the stars, which shine the whole night long.
Let's sing to the wind which causes the raining of skill on us.
Let's sing to the hazel which shades us.
Let's sing to the happiness with health and power.
Let's raise our hands to honor the spiritual being which gives to the children.
Let's sing to these goodnesses and young loves.

Giving a bride a bridegroom is good
Giving a bridegroom a bride is good.
Oh may you be happy in this year and in all coming years.

Grammar

Nouns are inflected for number and case and are classified as either vowel-stems or consonant-stems. Fortunately, the consonant-stem forms occuring take the same endings as the vowel-stem forms occurring. The core cases (absolutive, dative, and ergative) indicate role groups: Ergative = donor, agent, actor Dative = recipient, perceiver Absolutive = thing given, patient, intransitive subject, clarifier

Adjectives are inflected for gender as well as number and case and agree with their nouns. The animate gender of adjectives is formed by adding -a to the stem and the inanimate gender is formed by adding -i. These modified stems then take the same number and case endings as vowel-stem nouns. Adverbs are formed by adding -u instead of the gender suffix.

The noun and adjective number and case suffixes occurring are:

Singular Absolutive	-	Plural Absolutive	-l
Singular Dative	-i	Plural Dative	-li
Singular Genitive	-m	Plural Genitive	-lum
Singular Temporal	-u *	Plural Temporal	-lu
Singular Instrumental -pe

* The combination -i + -u becomes -yu and final o + -u becomes u.

Prepositions take the genitive case. Relative pronouns are placed before their prepositions.

Verbs are inflected for mood, tense, person, number, and subject case. A limited number of combinations occur in the text. Aspect is either implied by the tense and mood (perfective or imperfective), or is specified using some periphrastic construction.

The present tense (indicative mood) and the imperative mood stems are formed by adding either -u, -i, or nothing to the stem. This added vowel may also occur between a mood stem and the personal ending. A given verb will have only a present tense or an imperative mood, but not both.

The subjunctive mood stems are formed by adding -ax. This stem is also used for the infinitive and the prospective participle. A purpose clause may be headed by either an infinitive or a subjunctive verb. The verb stem bili becomes biy- when this is added.

The cotemporal mood stems are formed by adding -ok. The cotemporal acts like the indicative, except the tense is relative, not absolute.

The verbal noun is formed by adding -in (-hin after vowel-stem verbs). The verbal noun used with the copula to form the habitual aspect.

A verb agrees with the highest case in its argument structure according to the ergative > dative > absolutive hierarchy. The proclitics change a verb's argument structure:

do-	deletes the verb's ergative argument; the agreement then is either dative or absolutive.;
ho-	adds a dative argument;
co-	makes a verb impersonal; it then takes absolutive agreement.

A limited number of person, number, and subject case combinations occur in the text. These are:

-bor	1st person inclusive plural ergative
-nor	2nd person plural ergative
-i	3rd person singular absolutive
-to	3rd person plural absolutive
-twe	3rd person plural dative

The forms of the copula are similar to those of a normal verb.

Vocabulary

ah	I	oh
ark-	V	to tell
baigixa	NA	bridegroom
balum	*	1st person, inclusive plural, genitive
ban-	A	young
banje	NA	child
bennigi	NI	heat
bes-	A	this/these
bili-	V Irr	to cause, make
buxmigi	NI	happiness
buxmit-	V	to be happy
cangi	NI	health
cispasse	NI	plain
co-	PC	(see grammar)
d-	A	which, relative, restrictive
do-	PC	(see grammar)
dofsu	NI	year
folde	NI	grain
fupla	NI	trouble
girgixa	NA	bride
gixne	NI	promise
gordo	NI	night
gufrasna	NA	warrior
h-	A	the
hafk-	V	to thank (Dat for Abs)
hante	NI	love
ho-	PC	(see grammar)
hume	NI	wind
ista	NI	star
j-	A	many
jem	NA	person
jesmigi	NI	goodness
jesmit-	V	to be good
korilo	NI	hazel
lalb-	V	to sing
lalbai	NI	song
lantke	NI	skill
laun-	A	beautiful
leihan-	A	spiritual
liktyar	NI	lightyear
lo	C	introduces subordinate clause
mark-	V	to raise
mi-	V Irr	to have
moxk-	V	to honor
natse	*	2nd person, plural, partitive
naus-	V Imp	to shade
noku	C	(followed by purpose clause)
pald-	V Imp	to rain
po	C	and
rasb-	V	to protect (Dat from Abs)
rasna	NA	man
rok	NI	thing
s-	V	Copula
sax-	A	future
sof-	V	to give (Abs to Dat)
sun-	A	whole
sw-	A	all
t-	A	which, relative, non-restrictive
tokl-	V Irr	harvest
u	P	at
wake	NI	hand
wix	P	to
wof	P	from
xalme	NI	moon
xanhit-	V	to be bright
xolke	NI	power

Abbreviations

A	Adjective
C	Conjunction
I	Interjection
NA	Noun, Animate
NI	Noun, Inanimate
P	Preposition
PC	Proclitic
V	Verb
V Imp	Verb, Impersonal
V Irr	Verb, Irregular
*	inflected form