Conlang Relay 15/Classical Arithide

by Eugene Oh

The Text

Topos Kūrōs

Inne dāreu euptōra nonnē, zier nōn fostaima! Tygnegē! Evveirē dāre, kori evikin; itae karasa ninevē veirē feono latro te. Olasōi, iknofta nos agames, sinam oplōis dyntesta nassos synthos. Nou dāre pou dōve kitēsi ambeltōra. Sin fānera rigne dāratēne evveirē sōlōradur: volumprān falevta nassaelo iknoftestrae rimnos zīrinos. Kiriāssae: oplur tēta soest fius. Antē syn ognēn dāratēnēn fyset dūtōis falystro peras da? Kithona pateōn faltim sisnīo toro.

Smooth English

A Deceitful Speech

This dance truly holds promise, and everyone should watch it! It is not only a dance, though it is not a song; it teaches one never only to play music. No indeed, it, resolute, transcends, and by this way can be discovered the deepest truth. It is a dance of great grace and extraordinarily harmonious. But it does not only move our dancers most elegantly: when they spin around, they let show their truest emotions so that the human soul and consciousness may be transcended. To clarify: in this way the word of God is accurately borne. Is it possible to explain otherwise how the dancers achieve it with so little effort? A common man would give up taking his first cautious step.

Grammar

The details are probably all available on Frath, so I'll simply point you to the places most important for comprehension:

• Classical_Arithide_declension
• Classical_Arithide_conjugation
• Classical_Arithide_adjectives
• Classical_Arithide_adpositions
• Classical_Arithide_pro-forms

In approximately declining order of importance. What you really really need to know is that

1. Classical Arithide was an absolutive language, and tended to be SOV in word order, with modifiers after antecedents.
2. However, its inflection system was so entrenched, embedded and pervasive that the above is not necessarily true (like Latin).
3. Classical Arithide has a strong compounding ability, particularly with verbs. Suffixation is king.
4. Classical Arithide had a copula that was barely ever used. Instead, the rule of the age was to form the equation simply as a nominative-essive pair.
5. Classical Arithide also had a negative copula, and this was sometimes used.
6. Phonologically speaking, Classical Arithide also had a large degree of assimilation, to the extent that morpheme boundaries might not be instantly recognisable, but such changes are illustrated on the pages provided above.
7. Classical Arithide words are largely classifiable into two groups, verbal and nominal (acting grammatically like verbs or nouns), and for inflection of each group refer to the correct page!
8. That above point is partly because of the considerable ambiguity arising from syncretism across word classes.
9. And speaking of word classes (of which Cl. Ar. has 8 lexical ones), certain adjectives are fixed declension, and certain are of variable declension! Also see the adjectives page for how some are not declined at all.
10. Due to the great difference in phraseology and expression from Latinate and European languages, translating directly will cause you much headache.
11. I have only given root forms of words below, hence no "-ation" equivalent for verbs etc. Irregular stuff I have, otherwise it would be unfair. (:
12. Agreement between words of the same grammatical argument is pervasive.
13. All grammatical function words can be found on the pages above.
14. All pronouns are irregular.

Glossary

agames

adj. fix. "fixed, resolute"

amblēn

v. "to converge, to blend; to be in harmony, to be in sync"

antos

n. "other, alternative"

da

part. (interrogative particle)

dāra

n. "dance"

dārān

v. "to dance"

dōvos

adj. var. "graceful"

dūtos

n. "effort, work, exertion"

dyntēn

v. "to find"

egēn

v. "to come"

euptos

n. "watchability, point of interest"

falēn

v. "to let loose, to release; to cause to bloom; to take (a step)"

falyssēn

v. "to achieve"

fānerēn

v. "to excite, to stir up, to rouse"

falevtēn

v. "to reveal, to show, to let loose, to express"

feonos

n. "music"

feos

n. irreg. "god"

fostān

v. "to watch, to look"

fys

adj. fix. "few, little"

iknoftēn

v. "to rise above, to transcend"

inne

dem. pron. invar. "this"

ither

it-, n. "person, one, human"

karasēn

v. "to impart"

kirios

adj. fix. "clear"

kis, kit-

adj. var. "ordinary"

kithon

n. "normal, common people"

kore

n. "song"

kūros

n. "lie"

latēn

v. "to play"

nassaelos

n. "truest feelings, deepest emotions"

nassos

adj. fix. "deepest, innermost"

ninevē

adv. "never"

nonnos

n. "real"

nos

pron. "it (inanim.)"

nōn

part. "also, too"

ognos

dem. adj. var. "this"

olā

interj. "no"

oplos

n. "this way, this manner"

oplur

adv. "thus, so, in this way"

patē, pate-

v. "to give up, to abandon"

perān

v. "to explain"

pou

adj. adv. invar. "a lot, much, many; very, greatly"

rimnos

n. "soul, spiritual consciousness"

rīs, rig-

pron. "we (excl.)"

sin, sina

conj. "but"

sinam

conj. "and, furthermore, moreover"

sisnēn

adj. "careful, cautious"

soest

n. "words, sayings, speech"

sōi

interj. "indeed, true, so it was, thus"

syn

prep. +abl. "by (agentive)"

synos

adj. "true, honest"

te

part. +acc. "that; (direct quotation)"

tētēn

v. "to pinpoint, to point out, to precisely determine, to accurately show"

topos

n. "speech"

tos, tor-

(I), n. "step"

tygnēn

v. "to see, to look closely, to observe, to take a peek"

Vv-

pref. "un-, in-, not, no" [where V is a reduplicated vowel, identical to the next following vowel in the word]

veirē

adv. "only, just, simply"

vēn, ev-

v. (the negative copula)

volumēn

v. "to spin, to whirl"

zier

n. "people, folk, everyone"

zīrinos

adj. fix. "human"

-ad-

infix. (superlative infix)

-aimēn

v. suff. "should, ought to"

-ān

tempor. loc. suff. "when"

-ē

adv. suff. "-ly" (on nominal stems only)

-ikin

suff. "though" (on verbs only)

-on (pl. -ein)

n. suff. (agentive suffix, on verbs only)

-ōs, -ōd-

adj. suff. "full of, -ous"

-si

suff. "and, as well as"

-(e/o)stēn

v. suff. (passive suffix)

-thos

n. suff. "-ness, -ity, -dom"

-ur

adv. suff. "-ly" (on verbal stems only)