Conlang Relay 23/Taivwni Dziwm

Smooth English Translation of Old Albic

"In the oldest time, people say, a tyrant ate an herb that caused him to desire power over people; he desperately desired to rule an empire." -- King Bloodletter

What he ate gave him knowledge that made him able to begin and conduct war. Thus what he desired, he found and ate, he punished himself.

Taivwni Dziwm Text

"Corich agiam, ayich agiam, dovwthe cazi covo, gi us ra golamaesi lwsaec. Res caithecheci caithechene nolvam lw." -- Ravumun Dovwthe

Cazi ik res covo iloco rau ichi, laigi res tauchiane hura. Laigi res maik res lw barthe gi covo, ayo res nav echaer.

Smooth English Translation of Taivwni Dziwm

"Once upon a time, a king ate an herb, and it made him want power over people. He desperately wanted to rule a kingdom." -- The Bloody King

The herb that he ate gave him knowledge, and thus he was able to wage war. Thus he found and ate what he wanted, and then he punished himself.

Word List

 Word        POS     Meaning
 agiam       adv     to the end, all the way
 ayich       adv     in the north
 ayo         conj    and then, then
 barthene    v       to find, discover
 caithecheco n       kingdom, empire
 caithechene v       to rule
 cazi        n       herb with medicinal or magical properties
 corich      adv     upriver
 covone      v       to eat
 dovwthe     n       king, ruler
 echaerne    v       to punish
 gi          conj    and
 golamaesi   n       power (over people, not individual ability or empowerment)
 hurane      v       to be able, can
 ichine      v       to give
 ik          pn      that (relative pronoun)
 iloco       n       knowledge
 laigi       conj    thus, so that
 maik        pn      that which (contraction of demostrative and "ik")
 nav         pn      himself/herself (reflexive pronoun)
 nolvam      adv     very, intensely, desperately
 ravumun     adj     bloody
 res         pn      (s)he
 tauchiane   v       to wage war
 us          pn      it
 lwne        v       to desire, want

Grammar Notes

Nominals: the four cases that you will encounter in this text are Nominative, Genitive, Accusative, and Dative-Allative. Only certain personal pronouns have an Accusative that's distinct from the Nominative; the ones you'll encounter are "us" (Acc. "an") and "res" (Acc. "ra"). The Genitive is formed by replacing the final vowel of a noun with -i, whereas the Dative-Allative is formed by adding a -u to the Accusative. Note that the object of an infinitive verb is in the Genitive, not the Accusative.

Verbs: the infinitive ends in -ne. The two finite forms that you will encounter are the 3rd person singular non-progressive (marked by the bare stem), and the 3rd person singular causative in -saec. Taivwni Dziwm verbs are not marked for tense.

Syntax: word order is SOV, and adjectives precede nouns, but relative clauses follow.