Conlang Relay 22/Urianian

Text in Urianian, Urduk dialect

Zambe crinle

Crinil birki barti mades.

Toli ai karbe bil piljan.

Jugi ai asin, kun abri.

Lan bante abi ja lizri.

Ralti bet kan dytfes brezni.

Klajan od kaftami gavni.

Dambat en fali kun dame.

Bet sarci kun od darnali.

Samre crinil sarzi pilja.

Nu am y ja sebaf grante.

Aci grant kune – «Ha!» saci.

Kun san am kasi an colai.

Egzi grant, bleki kun, kun fevi zacan asin.

Karbe kraci, pilja fálan, crinil folri zamban an firzem.

Smooth English

The fall of the merchant

The merchant prepared for a trading journey.

He loaded his wagon full of goods.

He harnessed his donkey, his dog followed.

Along the road a farmboy then hitched a ride.

The boy got hungry as time passed.

They sheltered at a coffee-house to eat.

The host did not want the dog in the house.

The boy tied the dog to a bush.

Meanwhile the merchant was tying up the goods.

But then he had too little rope.

He saw the dog rope – «Aha!» he said.

The dog, free, ran into his legs.

He swung the rope, hit the dog, the dog barked, scaring the donkey.

The wagon fell over, the goods fell out, the merchant was pushed over, tumbling into the brambles.

Some grammar notes

Urianian is an Indoeuropean language that forms its own family but is nearest to Germanic. The standard Urianian that's used for writing today is a relatively modern development, formed from the highland dialect spoken around the university town Uria. Earlier, most literature was written in lowland Urianian, but as Urianian died out in most of the lowlands during the 2nd millennium, the focus of Urianian culture moved to the highlands. This torch is written in the dialect of the biggest lowland town, Urduk, where Urianian is spoken and written by a minority, and it follows the pronunciation used there rather than the traditional ortography apparent from place and personal names. The phonetic values of the letters are roughly as the corresponding IPA codes, except that the letter c stands for a voiceless palatal fricative /ç/, and the z for a voiceless dental fricative /θ/. Vowel length is not marked in writing, but I’ll add it in one case here where it could otherwise lead to misunderstanding, with an acute accent denoting long vowel.

Lowland and Highland Urianian are hardly mutually understandable because of some sound changes that happened in the highlands and are functionally different languages. Also, eastern and western Lowland Urianian are mutually understandable with some difficulty Urduk belongs to the western branch.

The grammar of the various branches are similar. The main differences are that Highland is more conservative, retaining more of the complexity of IE grammar, and that the standard language abhors prepositions, while lowland Urianian is fully prepositional.

The syntax is rather free, but the most unmarked is SOV. Since there is no nominative/accusative distinction in the lowland dialect, SO order has to be strict. There is also no indefinite/definite distinction, so when you translate into your language, you must remember to make the appropriate distinctions if your language has them. There is no verb meaning 'have'. Instead, possession is denoted by 'be' + the possessor in the genitive. Urianian, both lowland and standard, has modal compounds consiting of an adjective, the verb be, and a personal pronoun in the oblique case. For example: necessary + is + for you = you must.

Nouns are inflected for number: singular and plural, and case: nominative/accusative, genitive, and oblique, which is an amalgation of the former dative, locative, ablative and instrumental cases. In addition, a vocative suffix is used when addressing someone, but this is not grammatically productive. Accusative and nominative are distinguised only in personal pronouns, though the nominative forms are seldom used. Elsewhere, subjects and direct objects have the same forms. The noun class system has two main classes, masculine and feminine. Of the minor ones, only one is represented here. The inflection is as follows:

Masculine

nom/acc

(sg) / -a (pl)

'gen: -e / -an

obl

-i / -ai

Feminine

nom/acc

-e / -a

gen

-es / -an

obl

-e / -em

Io-stems

nom/acc

-i / -ja

gen

-je / -jan

obl

-y / -jai

Stress is regularly initial, and unstressed vowels in the final syllable of any root will tend to disappear when an ending is appended, for example, crinil + -e = crinle.

Personal pronouns are inflected as follows:

Singular

nom

me (1sg) / to (2sg) / is (3sg masc) / u (3sg fem)

acc

mi / ti / in / jon

gen

my / ty / ai / ai

obl

mo / te / am / am

Plural

nom

nim (1pl) / em (2pl) / u (3pl masc) / je (3pl fem)

acc

na / fa / es / jes

gen

nam / fam / jam / jam

obl

ni / ym / is / is

Adjectives have inflection and comparison, but as there are no inflected or compared forms here, I will not trouble you further with them.

Verbs are inflected for tense, voice, mood and aspect, and are also equipped with clitic subject pronouns. Just as in standard Urianian there are 4 main conjugations. The 1st and 2nd conjugations have infinitives in -tu, the others have infinitives in -at. The infinitives are given in the vocabulary below. Here are some paradigms that are relevant for this torch, and a few more:

Present indicative, 2nd conjugation

-am (1sg) / -ad (2sg) / - (3sg) / -ant (1pl) / -ta (2pl) / -an (3pl)

3rd and 4th conjugations are equal, except that 2pl has -at.

Present optative, 2nd conjugation

-yam / -yad / -y / -yant / -yta / -yan

Present subjunctive, 2nd conjugation

-fam / -fad / -u / -fant / -fat / -fan

Past indicative, 1st conjugation

-jam / jad / -ci / -jant / -jat / -jan

2nd conjugation is equal except for -i at 3sg.;

Past indicative, 3rd and 4th conjugation:-em / -ed / -i / -ent / -et / -en

Future, 2nd conjugation

-sam / -sad / -s / -sant / -sta / -san

4th conjugation

-iam / -iad / -is / -iant / -ita / -ian

Imperative, 2nd conjugation

NA / -zi / -t / -tad / -ti /-anu

4th conjugation

NA / -az / -at / -atad / -ati / -anu

Irregular verb: etat - to be

Present indicative

em / ed / e / sant / sat / san

Past indicative

ym / yt / y / sint / sit / sin

imperative

NA / vei / veita / vejant / veit / vejan

Participles aren't used as much in place of subordinate clauses as in standard Urianian, but they do occur. Their meanings must be interpreted along with their associated prepositions. Example: with + genitive (pro)noun + oblique participle = while doing the verb.

Active participle, 2nd conjugation

an (sg, nom/acc) / -ne (sg, gen) / -ni (sg, obl) / -na (pl, nom/acc) / -nan (pl, gen) / -nai (pl, obl)

Vocabulary

(personal pronouns, see above)

abi

(io) farmboy

abrat

(v4) follow

actu

(v2) see

alut

(m) hunger

an

(prep) into (+obl)

asin

(m) male donkey

bante

(f) road

barit

(m) journey

bet

(m) boy

bil

(adv) full

birkat

(v4) prepare

blekat

(v2) hit, strike

brezat

(v3) pass, go past

col

(m) leg

crinil

(m) male merchant

dame

(f) house

dambat

(m) host

darnal

(m) bush, small tree

dytfe

(f) time

egzat

(v4) swing

en

(adv) not

fálat

(v3) fall

faltu

(v2) want

fevat

(v3) bark

firze

(f) bramble

folrat

(v4) be pushed aside

gavtu

(v2) eat

grant

(m) rope

ha

(interj) aha

ja

(adv) then

jugtu

(v2) harness (a draft animal)

kaftam

(m) coffee-house

kan

(prep) with (+obl)

karbe

(f) wagon

kasat

(v3) run

klatu

(v1) shelter, find shelter

kratu

(v1) topple over

kun

(m) male dog

lan

(prep) along (+obl)

lizrat

(v4) hitch a ride

made

(f) trade

nu

(conj, adv) but, now, incidentally

od

(prep) at, to (+obl)

pili

(io) item of merchandise/goods

ralt

(v4) get hungry

sactu

(v2) say

samre

(adv) meanwhile

san

(adj) free

sarcat

(v4) tie, restrain

sarzat

(v4) tie up, tighten up

sebaf

(adj) not at all sufficient

tattu

(v2) stop

tolat

(v3) load, tax, charge

zambat

(v4) tumble, stumble, fall

zambe

(f) fall

zatu

(v1) scare

Abbreviations

1

1. person

2

2. person

3

3. person

acc

accusative

adj

adjective

adv

adverb

conj

conjunction

f

feminine noun

fem

feminine

gen

genitive

interj

interjection

io

noun of the io-stem class

m

masculine noun

masc

masculine

NA

not appropriate

nom

nominative

num

numeral

obl

oblique

pl

plural

prep

preposition

sg

singular

v1–4

1st to 4th conjugation verb