Conlang Relay 23/Ronc Tyu

Ronc Tyu text

Táe yu ugei fec gibyùc.

Trà ntrèc ugei bùn tśa tou runc vyei yu fwenc odzac twinc. Fyec sru man ugei dàon tyóu nyu ndlíc glúo. Ndzì nu soc tśi bè fwinc hxaenc gibyùc tśi, o ndzì yao nu soc tśi ràe tenc tśi lo pwec ró nanda. Wo ki hxaenc tśi, ugei ao kóan ndźi ndźi tou nù gyào dzó tèin gyác to. O trà mè tśi nrà ndza dzac ki kén, pyu kù ndlíc pòc zò tśi mbrinc tùc en ndùc. Ugei tyòu ndzì, o dzó yéi dric kèa ndźác dyao.

Translation

English translation of Ronc Tyu text

Story of an ambitious warrior chieftain.

Long ago there was a chieftain who lived in the land near the source of the northern river. One day, the chieftain dared to try some strong magical herbs. They made him think ambitious thoughts, and they made him desire that he would be more powerful. Having these ideas, the chieftain really wanted to conquer much more land which he would then rule over. And he was indeed able to achieve this goal, because the magical herbs had given him the courage and knowledge to fight a battle. The chieftain ate them, and then he attacked and defeated his enemies.

English translation of previous text

('"račonese, by Andrew Orr)

A long time ago, there was a king at the source of the northern river. He ate a plant which made him think bad thoughts, and which created in him a desire to be more powerful. Therefore he wanted to expand his kingdom.

About a bloodthirsty king

He found the desired thing because the plant that had been eaten by the ruler gave him the knowledge to attack. Then he ate, and he attacked him on purpose.

Interlinear gloss

Táe

story

yu

of

ugei

chieftain

fec

warrior

gibyùc.

ATTR\ambitious

Story of an ambitious warrior chieftain.

Trà

exist

ntrèc

long_ago

ugei

chieftain

bùn

REL.A

tśa

dwell_at

tou

land

runc

beside

vyei

source

yu

of

fwenc

river

odzac

north_of

twinc.

here

Long ago there was a chieftain who lived in the land near the source of the northern river.

Fyec

happen

sru

INDEF.A

man

day

ugei

chieftain

dàon

dare

tyòu

eat

nyu

see

ndlíc

magical_herbs

glúo.

ATTR\strong

One day, the chieftain dared to try some strong magical herbs.

Ndzì

3A.COLL

nu

push

soc

give

tśi

3A.SG

bè

be_intoxicated

fwinc

think

hxaenc

ideas[POSS]

gibyùc

ATTR\ambitious

tśi,

3A.SG

They made him think ambitious thoughts,

o

and

ndzì

3A.COLL

yao

also

nu

push

soc

give

tśi

3A.SG

ràe

wish

tenc

SUB

tśi

3A.SG

lo

become

pwec

famous

ró

special

nanda.

become_powerful

and they made him desire that he would be more powerful.

Wo

INSTR

ki

this

hxaenc

ideas[POSS]

tśi,

3A.SG

Having these ideas,

ugei

chieftain

ao

want

kóan

conquer

ndźi

much

ndźi

much

tou

land

nù

really

gyào

REL.I

dzó

same.A

tèin

then.FUT

gyác

control

to.

3I.COLL

the chieftain really wanted to conquer much more land which he would then rule over.

O

and

trà

exist

mè

MIR

tśi

3A.SG

nrà

be_able

ndza

successful

dzac

finish

ki

this

kén,

task

And he was indeed able to achieve this goal,

pyu

because

kù

that

ndlíc

magical_herbs

pòc

give

zò

put

tśi

3A.SG

mbrinc

brave

tùc

know

en

fight

ndùc.

battle

because the magical herbs had given him the courage and knowledge to fight a battle.

Ugei

chieftain

tyòu

eat

ndzì,

3A.COLL

The chieftain ate them,

o

and

dzó

same.A

yéi

then.PST

dric

attack

kèa

strike

ndźác

defeat

dyao.

enemies

and then he attacked and defeated his enemies.

Vocabulary

word	morphology	type	meaning
ao		v.tr	want
bè		v.it	be drunk, be intoxicated
bùn		pron	(relative pronoun, animate)
byùc	attr gibyùc	v.it	be ambitious
dàon		v.it	dare, venture, take a chance
dric		v.tr	attack
dyao		n.a.coll	enemies (as a group)
dzac		v.tr	finish, complete
dzó		pron	the same one (animate)
en		v.tr	fight
fec		n.a	warrior
fwenc		n.a	river
fwinc		v.tr	think, reflect, consider, assume
fyec		v.tr	happen, occur (may introduce a temporal noun phrase)
gyác		v.tr	control, manage, rule, govern
gyào		pron	(relative pronoun, inanimate)
hxaenc		n.i.coll.poss	mind, thoughts, ideas
ki		det	this
kèa		v.tr	hit, strike
kén		n.i.coll	task, mission, quest, project
kóan		v.tr	seize, conquer
kù		det	that
lo		v.tr	become
man		n.a	day
mbrinc		v.it	be brave, be courageous
mè		cj	(complementizer, mirative, indicates unexpected information)
nanda		v.it	gain power, rise to glory
ndlíc		n.a.coll	magical herbs, drugs
ndùc		n.i	battle
ndza		v.it	be successful, hit the target
ndzì		pron	(3rd person animate paucal/collective)
ndźác		v.tr	defeat
ndźi		qu	much, a lot, a large amount of (used with collective nouns)
nrà		v.it	can, be able
ntrèc		adv	long ago
nu		v.tr	push, have an influence on
nù		adv	really, indeed
nyu		v.tr	see
o		cj	and, also (used with clauses)
odzac		pp.n	to the north of
pòc		v.tr	give (as a gift)
pwec		v.it	be heroic, be famous, be noble
pyu		cj	because
ràe		v.tr	wish, hope
ró		v.it	be special, be unique
runc		pp.n	near, beside, close to
soc		v.tr	give; (in SVC) cause, bring about
sru		det	(indefinite determiner, animate)
táe		n.a	story, legend
tèin		adv	then (in the future)
tenc		cj	(complementizer)
to		pron	(3rd person inanimate singular/collective)
tou		n.i.coll	land, country
trà		v.it	exist (used with VS word order)
tśa		v.tr	dwell at, live in
tśi		pron	(3rd person animate singular/singulative)
tùc		v.tr	know (how to do sth.)
twinc		adv	here
twó	attr glúo	v.it	be strong
tyòu		v.tr	eat
ugei		n.a	chieftain, leader
vyei		n.i	spring, well, source
wo		pp.v	with, by, using (instrumental)
yao		adv	too, also, as well
yéi		adv	then (in the past)
yu		pp.n	of, belonging to, associated with
zò		v.tr	put, place

Idiomatic serial verb constructions

SVC	type	meaning	comments
tyòu nyu	svc.tr	taste, try (solid food)	(lit. eat see)

Grammar notes

Nouns

• Nouns can be animate or inanimate, countable or collective, and optionally or obligatorily possessed.
• Countable nouns refer to single entities, and may inflect for plural number. Collective nouns refer to a collection of items by default, and may inflect for singulative number if only one single member of the collection is referenced. However, there are no morphologically plural or singulative forms in this text.
• Obligatorily possessed nouns (which may be further characterized by an attributive verb) must be followed immediately by their possessor, without any explicit marking. Optionally possessed nouns form possessive phrases with a preposition.

Verbs

• Verbs inflect for passive voice and for the attributive (a kind of participle, which makes up for the fact that Ronc Tyu does not have a lexical class of adjectives). Passives are not used here; all attributive forms which occur in this text are given in the wordlist.

Prepositions

• Ronc Tyu distinguishes between two types of prepositions: Adnominal prepositions (pp.n) refer only to noun phrases (e.g. "the tree on the hill"), whereas adverbial prepositions (pp.v) always refer to the clause (e.g. "I'm standing on the hill"). Adnominal prepositions may be nested within an adverbial prepositional phrase.

Syntax

• The basic word order is SVO, with occasional exceptions (for example in existential statements).
• Phrases are typically head-initial, with modifiers following their heads.
• Ronc Tyu frequently uses serial verb constructions (SVC) consisting of two or more verbs to describe complex actions and situations, with the component verbs typically appearing in the chronological order of subevents. Some common collocations have a slightly idiomatic meaning, but most of the SVC instances in this text should be fairly transparent. One particularly idiomatic SVC is given in the wordlist.
• Some types of SVC can also serve a grammatical purpose, for example describing cause-event relationships or adding modal or aspectual information.
• Most SVC have the shape N₁ V V (V) (N₂), with all verbs sharing the same subject N₁ (and, where relevant, the same object N₂).
• Another type of SVC with the shape N₁ V (V) N₂ V (V) (N₃), where the middle noun phrase N₂ simultaneously functions as the object of the verb(s) before it and as the subject of the verb(s) after it.
• Relative clauses always contain an overt pronoun referring to the relativized element within the relative clause (i.e. they follow a pronoun-retention strategy).
• A few words lexically require unusual syntactic constructions; this has been noted in the wordlist where relevant.

Links

A more elaborate grammatical description of Ronc Tyu can be found at http://akana.conlang.org/wiki/Ronc_Tyu