Conlang Relay 18/Skerre

The Skerre Text

Se’eran a sakar riitoso a roohina. Riiheran a kihan e tswanet wateson. Risan a rohas e quenos sawa kihan. Keeriihaton a eson, ire te hasin hiyos. Hantsarin tsa sakar a tsahi ye teen ir keeriiwatayonin a sisa-sa. Ona sekeeyowarin a eson sawa sii’erek ne tintsaka i yiket. Keeriiheran sawa tinkotsiyok ir kiyes ka’antanen, yaatse sesiisan a sakar ye teen.

Grammatical Notes

Morphological Constructions

• tin- + N-stem 'Ns, collection of Ns'         (collective plural)
• wa-/wat- + N-stem    'have N'           (verbalizer)
• N-word + -sa 'his, her, its N' (3sg possessor)
• sii- + V-stem               'Ving, Vation'   ('action' nominalizer)
• ts- + V-stem 'thing that Vs' ('patient' nominalizer)
  • A stem-initial s- or h- is absorbed into the -s- of this prefix
• rii- + V-stem 'make V, cause to V' (causative)
• kee- + V-stem 'get V'd, V oneself' (anticausative)
  • This turns an externally-caused event into an internally-caused one
• V-stem + -(i)n            VFIN form                 (finite verb)
  •  If the vowel in the syllable preceding the affix would otherwise be long, it is short before this suffix
  • Without a prefix signifying tense, aspect, or mood, the VFIN form has a general aspectual interpretation (somewhat similar to the English present tense)
  • Without a person-marking suffix, the VFIN form is interpreted as having a 3SG subject
• se- + VFIN form            'Ved'                (perfective aspect)
• ka- + VFIN form            'be Ving'         (progressive aspect)

Syntax

• Head-initial: verbs, nouns, prepositions all precede their arguments.
  • Most modifiers are also after verbs, nouns, etc. but some are before
  • Sentential connectives (coordinators, subordinators) all precede the sentence they go with
• If subject marking is found in a clause, it will be suffixed to either the clause-initial verb or to the first of any number of adverbials preceding the first verb of the clause
• The 'with' preposition is used as a coordinator with nominal phrases
• Skerre has ergative alignment with "full NPs", but accusative alignment with pronominal affixes
• Skerre verbs are known for their "quirky" case assignment, so you might find that a Skerre preposition may seem superfluous (from the standpoint of the English translation) or should be translated in a way that appears to contradict the glossary translation.
• See my website for additional and/or supplementary information. In cases where the website and these notes disagree, take the notes here as correct.

Glossary

• a - absolutive preposition
• aka - do
• antane - disappear, be gone
• ayon - red
• e - of the
• era - begin, start, commence
• erek - be proud
• eson - spirit, demon
• hantsar - serve, give food to, give drink to
• hasin - surface, slab, tabletop
• hato - be visible
• hera - move, go
• hiyos - white
• i - of
• ir - and
• ire - sit
• kihan - arm
• kiyes - while, when
• kotsiyok - untruth
• ne - with the
• ona - but
• quenos - smoke
• risa - spew, spurt
• rohas - cloud, plume, billow
• roohina - shrine, temple, area of religious significance
• sahi - drink
• sakar - child
• sawa - from the
• sisa - face
• te - at the, in the, on the
• teen - him, her, it (general use 3SG independent pronoun)
• toso - wake up, rise (from sleep)
• tsa - ergative preposition
• wanet - worship, idolize (has negative connotations)
• yaatse - only, just
• ye - to, towards, into
• yiket - all, everyone
• yowar - forget

Smooth English Translation

The child began to awaken the shrine. S/he moved the arm of the spirit-idol. A cloud of smoke billowed from the arm. A spirit appeared, sitting on a white slab. The child served a drink to it and its face turned red. But the spirit had been forgotten due to everyone's pride and habits. It was removed by [these] falsehoods and, when it disappeared, the child only smiled at it.