Conlang Relay 17/Kerno

Text

Llethió nr. XXIIJ: Anterior Simple dil Gouerbe; Transduc ty ce la prosckem favla.

Il Ballió

do c' omèn fus yn marcs. do li meirch fuont l' ockla rudd.
are-ducouasot l' oms li meirch. beseilleis-li il marcs li omèn.
defugeoes il oms. hiniyeis il marcs. dois-gouensont y verch le mil.
appersexasont y verch l' omèn. mosmorzuont ys l' omèn.
morus il oms.

Smooth English

Lesson 23: Anterior Simple Tense of the Verb; Translate the following story.

The White Horse

To this man there was a horse. And to the horse were two red eyes. The man mounted up.
The horse savaged the man. The man ran away. The horse whinnied. To him came a thousand
horses more. They chased after the man. They rent the man to bits. The man died.

Lexicon

Ballió: a big bad white horse
oms, omèn: man (nom., acc.)
marcs, meirch, verch: horse (nom.s., dat.s., plural)
il, la, l': definite article
c': indefinite article ("this", "a", "some")
yn: indefinite article
fus, fuont: was, were
ockla: eyes
rudd: red (adj.)
are-: upon, onto, above (preverb)
ducouar: mount, get on
beseilleir: attack, destroy
defugeoer: run away, flee
hiniyeir: whinny, neigh
dois-: to him (conjugated preverb)
gouenir: come
mil: thousand
appersexar: chase, hunt, follow
morder: bite, chew
morer: die
do + a person: "at him/her" = possession
ys: third person plural personal pronoun

Grammar

Verbs are all in the indicative past simple (Anterior Simple) tense, the
various endings of these verbs are -asot (1st conj 3s); -us (2nd conj 3s);
-is (3rd conj 3s); -(u)ont (general 3pl). Morder undergoes reduplication in
this tense. Fu- is the past tense form of esser, to be.

-s is masculine nominative singular ending; "horse" undergoes umlaut in the
dative singular and umlaut and a mutation in the nominative/accusative plural
forms; "man" reveals its original Latinate stem in the accusative and plural forms:

nom. il oms ils omèn il marcs y verch dat. li meirch y marccib obl. l' omèn ils omèn le marcke y verch

Sentence order is VSO. Several verbs take a dative object, whose definite article
is "li". Possession is shown by the circumlocution "at so-and-so is a something".

Background

Kerno is a Romance language with some strong Celtic leanings. If it looks a little
like weird French, that's normal. Ballió is a horse of the Otherworld (the red eyes
(and ears) give him away immediately). Obviously, such a beastie needs to be respected
and not wanked around with.