Conlang Relay 22/Old Albic

The text

Laras Drabasal Cǿphirolol

Aphramalsa cǿphiro ganasan. Adraganesa vegilim im trangonuesa móla. Sí draganesa im vegilim iselasa janam chvamal chvanal. Sí cholna am janam changalam, aharrathasa am cath am phanteasa matal. Sí arranthasa a chvana am cath, adarvalesi ethlini cham. Atalasa an chvanan am nasatesa a atragasa sam rothaman. Sí tranggesa o cǿphiro im bredesim imin vegilin, iselama am né thana on lin phelin. Mar iselama lin anthar! Sa anatragasa am chvanam. A ebéasa a chvana dróanth a chvaranth crachan. Upochasa sa om cǿphirom, a atlaphasa o cǿphiro am chvanam. A ilepha a chvana aman mólan a upochsa a móla. A itiphesa a móla om cǿphirom a im bredesim. Iphringi so omon rothaman a aphlaca. Â!

Interlinear

Laras Drabasal Cǿphirolol song fall-LOC merchant-PRT-LOC

Aphramalsa cǿphiro ganasan. AOR-prepare-3SG:A merchant-AGT travel-ALL

Adraganesa vegilim im trangonuesa móla. AOR-load-3PL:P-3SG:A wagon-PL REL-PL-OBJ pull-CND-3PL:P-3SG:A donkey-AGT

Sí draganesa im vegilim while load-3PL:P-3SG:A the:I-PL wagon-PL

iselasa janam chvamal chvanal. AOR-see-3SG:P-3SG:A child-OBJ compnay-PRT dog-PRT

Sí cholna am janam changalam, when become-IPF-3SG:P the:C-OBJ child-OBJ hungry-C-OBJ

aharrathasa am cath am phanteasa matal. AOR-enter-3SG:P-3SG:A the:I house CMP find-SBJ-3SG:P-3SG:A food.

Sí arranthasa a chvana am cath, when enter-IPF-3SG:P-3SG:A the:C-AGT dog-AGT the:I house,

adarvalesi ethlini cham. AOR-forbid-3SG:P-3PL:A relative-PL-AGT that.

Atalasa an chvanan am nasatesa AOR-tell-3SG:P-3SG:A the:C-DAT dog-DAT that sit.down-SBJ-3SG:A

a atragasa sam rothaman. and AOR-tie-3SG:P-3SG:A 3SG-OBJ bush-ALL.

Sí tranggesa o cǿphiro im bredesim imin vegilin, while tie-IPF-3PL:P-3SG:A the:M-AGT merchant-AGT the:I-PL freight-PL the-PL-ALL wagon-PL-ALL,

iselama am né thana on lin phelin. AOR-see-3SG:P-3SG:A that not ESTAR-IPF-3SG:P he-DAT rope enough.

Mar iselama lin anthar! but AOR-see-3SG:P-3SG:A rope another!

Sa anatragasa am chvanam. thus AOR-untie-3SG:P-3SG:A the:C-OBJ dog-OBJ.

A ebéasa a chvana dróanth a chvaranth crachan. and AOR-begin-3SG:P-3SG:A the:C-OBJ run-VN and make-VN noise-ABL.

Upochasa sa om cǿphirom, AOR-panic-3SG:P-3SG:A he/she-AGT the:M-OBJ merchant-OBJ,

a atlaphasa o cǿphiro am chvanam. and AOR-slap-3SG:P-3SG:A the:M-AGT merchant-AGT the:C-OBJ dog-OBJ.

A ilepha a chvana aman mólan a upochsa a móla. AOR-yelp-3SG:A the:C-AGT dog-AGT the:C-ALL donkey-ALL and AOR-spook-3SG:A the:C-AGT donkey-AGT.

A itiphesa a móla om cǿphirom a im bredesim. AOR-hit-3PL:P-3SG:A the:C-AGT donkey-AGT the:M-OBJ merchant-OBJ and the:I-PL freight-PL.

Iphringi so omon rothaman a aphlaca. Â! AOR-jump-3SG:A he-AGT the:C-ALL bush-ALL and AOR-stick-3SG:P hey!

Smooth translation

Song of the Fall of the Merchant

A merchant prepared for travel. He loaded his wagons which a donkey would pull. While he loaded the wagons, he saw a child with a dog, When the child got hungry, he entered the house to find some food. When the dog entered the house, the relatives forbade that. He told the dog to sit down and tied it to a bush. As the merchant tied the freight to the wagons, he saw that he did not have enough rope. But he saw another length of rope! So he untied the dog. And the dog began to run and make noise. It panicked the merchant, and the merchant slapped the dog. The dog yelped a the donkey and the donkey spooked. The donkey hit the merchant and his freight. He jumped into a bush and got stuck. Hey!

Grammar notes

The grammar of Old Albic can be found here.

Old Albic is an active-stative language in which intransitive subjects receive the same marking as transitive subjects if they are agent (as in "The dog runs") and as transitive objects if they are nit (as in "There is not enough rope").

Animate nouns have an agentive stem (AS) ending in a vowel that indicates gender and number (-o male, -e female, -a common, -u dual, -i plural), and an objective stem (OS) formed by adding -m ro the AS. Inanimate nouns only have an OS (singular: unmarked, dual: -um, plural: -im) and no AS.

Cases

Agentive

AS-0

Genitive

AS-s

Partitive

AS-l

Dative

AS-n

Objective

OS-0

Instrumental

OS-i

Locative

OS-°l

Allative

OS-°n

Ablative

OS-°d

Perlative

OS-°th

(° = vowel that echoes the preceding vowel)

Verbs

Most verbs in the text are in the aorist (perfective aspect, narrative form) which has a prefix echoing the root vowel (if the verb begins with a vowel, a /h/ is inserted between the two vowels). Other tense/ aspect forms occuring here are imperfect, conditional and subjunctive. The imperfect is formed with:

1. a nasal infix when the verb root ends with a single stop (e.g. briti -> brinti)
2. a suffix -n when the verb root ends with a liquid (e.g. chulu -> chulnu)
3. a suffix -°n otherwise (e.g. thanda -> thandana)

The conditional is formed by adding -u- to the imperfect. The subjunctive has a suffix -i-.

All this occurs before the personal endings. For the 3rd person, they are:

-sa

agentive singular

-si

agentive plural

-a

objective singular

-i

objective plural

Morphophonology

Watch out for umlaut! Umlaut rules are:

• Vowels before /a/ are lowered (i > e, y > ø, u > o).
• Vowels before /i/ are fronted (a > e, o > ø, u > y).
• Vowels before /u/ are rounded (a > o, e > ø, i > y).

Precedence is from right to left.

Vocabulary

a

definite article, common gender.

Also used to turn clauses into noun phrases.

â

interj. hey.

anthar

adj. other.

arratha

v. to enter.

béa

v. to begin.

bradas

n. freight.

cath

n. house.

cǿphiro

n. merchant.

crach

n. noise.

cham

pron. that.

changal

adj. hungry.

chulu

v. to become.

chvama

n. company.

chvana

n. dog.

chvara

v. to make.

drabas

n. a fall.

dragana

v. to load.

dróa

v. ro run.

ethlini

n. relatives.

ganas

n. a travel.

im

definite article, inanimate plural.

jana

n. child.

laras

n. song.

lin

n. rope.

liphi

v. to yelp.

mar

conj. but.

matal

n. food.

móla

n. donkey.

nasata

v. to sit down.

natraga

v. to untie.

né

not.

puchu

v. to spook, to panic.

phanta

v. to find.

phelin

adj.? enough.

phlaca

v. to get stuck.

phringi

v. to jump.

rotha

n. bush.

sa

pron. 3rd person common gender.

sa

conj. so, thus.

sí

conj. when, while.

sili

v. to see.

so

pron. 3rd person masculine.

tala

v. to tell.

tiphi

v. to hit.

tlapha

v. to slap.

traga

v. to tie.

tranga

v. to pull.

vegil

n. wagon.