Conlang Relay 22/Deevi

Text

Irttiis mu kehau mu be

Irt te ati te mu met i ti irttiis. Serki te attuken mu maro mu met me, ut te ikiri te ze.

Utme, teme te, kape ni, ver i ti tattiis. Anza ti, mui te neva te, dut te at. Utrou, nabatiis ti apoken su, kape ni utmu vedet su, korou te tiri mu navi me, kita me taki i det kape.

Irtiis ti serki te ant u attuken mu met me, navi mu temet mu murst dou, tiri su uten. Ahu! onmu, kita me teete me, mant temu tiri. Neen des ni naren ti, kuu mu veteier me, kape mu tori me met. Havu! Havu! Havu! onmu, irtiis te ait i ti kape. Zuur ni irtiis ti, ver ni mau ti vede. Pasu ni avet posu ni, ikiri te zuur su meva. Ikiri mu, ater te ait te at ti, serki ti naren. Irttiis mu, tiri ti naren ti, kehau. Serki mu, korou te ot ti, some te su sern tide, ran.

Smooth English

The Story of the Merchant's Fall

A merchant was preparing for a trading journey. He put pots and baskets in a wagon and was attaching his horse to the front.

Meanwhile, nearby, a boy was walking his dog. He was hungry, so he went into the house to look for food. But his family wouldn't let him bring his dog in, so the dog had to stay at the door, tied to a tree with rope.

When the merchant had put the last pot atop the wagon, he wanted to finish tying it but didn't have enough rope.

"Oh!" There was some more rope just by the door. He pulled at the rope with joy, loosening the knot and freeing the dog.

"Woof! Woof! Woof!" The dog ran towards the merchant, and with a kick from the fearful man, was injured. Shocked, the dog barked wildly, and the horse was spooked. She started jumping and running, pulling the wagon. The merchant pulled on the rope, and fell, while the wagon hit the tree, fell to pieces, and was destroyed.

Gloss

Irttiis mu kehau mu be merchant on fall on story "The Story of the Merchant’s Fall"

Irt te ati te mu met i ti irttiis. trade to journey to up put COP from merchant "A merchant was preparing for a trading journey."

Serki te attuken mu maro mu met me, wagon to pot on basket on put "He put pots and baskets in a wagon"

ut te ikiri te ze. front to horse on attach "and was attaching his horse to the front."

Utme, teme te, kape ni, ver i ti tattiis. previous:in, near to, dog with walk COP from boy "Meanwhile, nearby, a boy was walking his dog."

Anza ti, mui te neva te, dut te at. hunger from, food to search to, house to go COP from "He was hungry, so he went into the house to look for food."

Utrou, nabatiis ti apoken su, kape ni utmu vedet su, previous:despite, family from duty under, dog with previous:on not:good under, "But his family wouldn't let him bring his dog in,"

korou te tiri mu navi me, kita me taki i det kape. rope with tree to tie in, door in stay COP good dog "so the dog had to stay at the door, tied to a tree with rope."

Irtiis ti serki te ant u attuken mu met me, merchant from cart to last like pot on put in "When the merchant had put the last pot atop the wagon,"

navi mu temet mu murst dou, tie on finish on want despite "he wanted to finish tying it"

tiri su uten. rope under short "but didn't have enough rope."

Ahu! onmu, "'Oh!'"

kita me teete me, mant temu tiri. door in only in, now above rope on find "There was some more rope just by the door."

Neen des ni naren ti, joyful hand with pull "He pulled at the rope with joy,"

kuu mu veteier me, knot on unwind in "loosening the knot"

kape mu tori me met. dog on freedom in put "and freeing the dog."

Havu! Havu! Havu! onmu, "'Woof! Woof! Woof!'"

irtiis te ait i ti kape. merchant to run COP from dog "The dog ran towards the merchant,"

Zuur ni irtiis ti, ver ni mau ti vede. fear with merchant from, foot with strike from injure "and with a kick from the fearful man, was injured."

Pasu ni avet posu ni, ikiri te zuur su meva. shock with wild cry with, horse to fear under big "Shocked, the dog barked wildly, and the horse was spooked."

Ikiri mu, ater te ait te at ti, serki ti naren. horse TOP, jump to run to go from, wagon from pull "She started jumping and running, pulling the wagon."

Irttiis mu, tiri ti naren ti, kehau. merchant TOP, rope from pull from, fall "The merchant pulled on the rope, and fell,"

Serki mu, korou te ot ti, some te su sern tide, ran. wagon TOP, tree to collide from, part to break out of, destroy "while the wagon hit the tree, fell to pieces, and was destroyed."

Grammar

The good news is that Deevi is a mostly analytic language, so there’s only a few prefixes to worry about and no confusing allomorphy. The bad news is that Deevi’s verbs are a bit odd and can be a quite finicky about postposition choice. The really bad news is that Deevi, like Japanese, tends to drop things that are presumed recoverable from context, but I think you’ll still make out okay.

Nouns

Deevi does not have any articles, and its nouns do not inflect for number, case, or gender, which makes them pretty simple.

teva: book

:a book / the book / books

They can, however, be modified by a preceding adjective or postposition phrase.

meva teva: big book

;the big book

vezit mu teva: table on book

:the book on the table

=Demonstratives

Deevi has two sets of demonstratives. The first, do and da, are used for spatial deixis, proximal and distal respectively, while ut and ne provide discourse deixis, ut referring to a preceding statement and ne, to a subsequent one. In the most generalizable case, these words behave just like nouns and act as the head of a phrase which wraps an inner noun phrase through the postposition su.

meva teva su do: big book under this

:this big book (here)

meva teva su ut: big book under previous

:that big book (you just mentioned)

But when a noun phrase contains only the head noun, demonstratives can also cliticize directly to that noun, in which case they behave as prefixes.

dateva: that=book

:that book (there)

neteva: next=book

:this book (that I’m going to talk about)

The demonstratives also cliticize to a following postposition. If the postposition starts with a d, as in dou, in changes to an r.

doti: this=from

 :from this (thing here)

utrou: previous=despite

 :despite that (thing I just said)

Note, however, the ut and ne also have the senses front and back, and when used in this way the postposition does not cliticize. (In speech, incidentally, the vowels of the cliticized forms are reduced and the t of ut, elided, giving a contrast between utme [ʊmɛ] and ut me [uwtsmɛ].)

ut me: front in

 :at the front

Finally, these same demonstratives can also be used for person deixis, particularly when in this form. Here, do is used to refer to second person referents, while da, ut, and ne refer to third person referents while retaining their spatial and discourse deixis implications.

doti: this=from

:from you

dani: that=with

:with him (over there)

utni: previous=with

:with him (who I just mentioned)

Attributive Sentences

Deevi has just two forms of its copula: si, which is used for the first person, and i, which is used for all other persons. Deevi is prototypically SOV, and so an attributive sentence typically starts with the subject, followed by the predicate noun or adjective, and then the appropriate copula. In writing, the subject and predicate are separated by a comma which reflects the stress patterns of speech.

Teva, meva i.: book, big COP

:The book is big.

But as implied before, Deevi is pro-drop, such that when the subject is topical, it is almost always omitted. Sentences like the following are common.

Meva i.: big COP

:He/she/it’s/they’re big.

Hat si.: tall COP.1

:I’m/We’re tall.

And when a postposition phrase appears in the predicate, the postposition is moved to follow the copula.

Teva, vezit mu i. > Teva, vezit i mu.

book table on COP > book table COP on

:The book is on the table.

Verbs

The morphosyntax of Deevi’s verbs is very similar to that of its nouns: they are the invariant heads of their phrase and can be modified by adjectives and postposition phrases; for example, their arguments are introduced by a postposition indicating the thematic role.

naka ti tritiis te titi mu ert: teacher from(DON) student to(RCP) problem on(THM) explain

:the teacher explaining the problem to the student

Each postposition is generally correlated with particular roles—ti tends to mark agents and donors, for example—but to simplify things, examples are given for each verb in the glossary.

These verb phrases can be placed in a postposition phrase and used to modify nouns, with a result similar to that of relative clauses in other languages. The postpositions me, ti, and te are used to indicate present, past, and future, respectively.

tritiis su zeen me titi: student under try in problem

:the problem that the student is trying

titi mu ert ti naka: problem on explain from teacher

:the teacher who explained the problem

When the modifying verb phrase does not immediately precede the head, it is set off with a comma that reflects the stress pattern.

titi mu ert ti, betan naka: problem on explain from, kind teacher

:the kind teacher who explained the problem

These postposition phrases can also modify another verb, in which case me typically carries the meaning “when”, “during”, or “while” ti typically means “after” and tide, “because” te typically means “before”, “in order to”, or “so that” ni typically corresponds to and-coordination

naka ti titi mu ert me, tritiis su kouba: teacher from problem on explain in, student under pay_attention

 :the student paying attention while the teacher explains the problem

naka ti titi mu ert ti, tritiis su kouba: teacher from problem on explain from, student under pay_attention

:the student paying attention after the teacher explains the problem

naka ti titi mu ert tide, tritiis su kouba: teacher from problem on explain out_of, student under pay_attention

:the student paying attention because the teacher explains the problem

naka ti titi mu ert te, tritiis su kouba: teacher from problem on explain to, student under pay_attention

:the student paying attention before the teacher explains the problem
:the student paying attention so that the teacher explains the problem

naka ti titi mu ert ni, tritiis su kouba: teacher from problem on explain with, student under pay_attention

:the student paying attention and the teacher explaining the problem

Verbal Sentences

Consider the verb phrases from the previous examples. To form a sentence, we first promote any one of the arguments of the main verb to the subject, then introduce the rest of the verb phrase through a predicate postposition phrase. The postposition choice indicates tense in the same way as before: me, ti, and te for present, past, and future.

naka ti tritiis te titi mu ert: teacher from(DON) student to(RCP) problem on(THM) explain

:the teacher explaining the problem to the student

Promote naka and introduce tritiis te titi mu ert with me:

Naka, tritiis te titi mu ert i me.: teacher, student to problem on explain COP in

:The teacher is explaining the problem to the student.

Promote titi and introduce naka ti trittis te ert with te:

Titi, naka ti tritiis te ert i te.: problem, teacher from student to explain COP to

:The problem will be explained to the student by the teacher.

Promote tritiis and introduce naka ti titi mu ert with ti:

Here, where the subject is monosyllabic (Deevi orthography is… outdated), it moves to the end of the sentence for prosodic reasons and the subject is not set off with a comma.

Naka ti titi mu ert i ti tritiis.: teacher from problem on explain COP from student

:The student had the problem explained by the teacher.

There is a small closed class of adjectives that can be used in place of the tense-marking postpositions to mark moods. For example, det is used to mark that something is encouraged or even required, while vedet, its negation, is used to mark an action as discouraged or potentially forbidden.

Naka ti titi mu ert i det tritiis.: teacher from problem on explain COP good student

:The student should have the problem explained by the teacher.

Narratives

Finally—and this is quite pertinent to this particular piece—narratives in Deevi tend to forgo full verbal sentences, with a copula and postposition or adjective, in favor of a simple verb phrase. Once the tense is established, subsequent sentences will often choose not to repeat it.

And that, I think, is all you should need to translate the text. Have fun!

Glossary

Guide

The following abbreviations are used to mark word classes.

n.: noun
v.: verb
a.: adjective
p.: postposition
pp.: postposition phrase
q.: qualifier/quantifier
d.: demonstrative
pro.: pronominal
int.: interjection
ono.: onomatopoeia
cop.: copula

In glossary examples, the tilde ~ stands in for the main entry while the letters A, B, and D stand in for another phrase. For example:

dut

n. house; home

tattiis

n. boy

at

v. go; proceed; A ti B te ~ going/coming from A to B

tattiis ti dut te at: boy from home to go; the boy going home

da

d. distal that pro. third person he; she; it; they

murst

v. A su B mu ~ A wanting or desiring B

asu tattiis ti dut te at mu murst: that=under boy from home to go on want; him wanting the boy to go home

Entries

ahu

int. exclamation of surprise or recognition

ait

v.

A ti B te ~: A running to B

ant

n. end; finish

anza

n. hunger

apoken

n. duty; obligation

at

v. go; proceed; A ti B te ~ going/coming from A to B

ater

v. jump

ati

n. journey; trip; adventure

avet

a. random; unpatterned; wild

be

n. a story or tale, particularly one with a long history or mythology behind it; a folktale, myth, or legend

da

d. distal that pro. third person he; she; it; they

des

n. 1. hand 2. grasp; hold q. five

det

a. right; good; well; imperative particle, following the copula used to mark a request, suggestion, or command

dit

pro. first person singular I

do

d. proximal this pro. second person you

dou

p. despite

dut

n. house; home

havu

ono. sound of a dog’s bark

i

cop. second and third person

ikiri

n. horse

irt

n. trade; exchange v. trade; exchange; buy; sell;

A ti B te D mu ~: A selling D to B; B buying D from A

irttiis

n. merchant; trader; salesperson

kape

n. dog

kehau

v. A ti B te D mu ~ D falling from A to B n. fall

kita

n. door; gate

korou

n. plant, especially a woody plant such as a tree or large bush

kuu

n. 1. circle 2. knot; loop

mant

n. now a. current

maro

n. basket

mau

v.

A su B mu ~ A: pushing B
A ti B te ~ A: striking or hitting B

me

p. in; at; around

met

v. put;

A ti B te D mu ~: A putting D in (location) B
A ti B te D me ~: A putting D in (state) B
A ti/su B te mu ~: A preparing or planning for B

meva

a. big; large q. much; a lot

mu

p. on; about; marking a topic as for

mui

n. food

murst

v.

A su B mu ~: A wanting or desiring B
nabatiis: n. family; relative

naren

v.

A ti B te ~: pulling from A to B B pulling A

navi n. anchor; pivot v. fix; fasten; tie

A su B ti D te E mu ~: A tying B to D with E

ne: d. next; subsequent; latter

: n. back

neen

a. joyful; excited

neva

v. A ti B te ~: A searching for B

ni

p. with

onmu

p. quotative, used to mark direct speech

ot

v. A su B mu ~: A meeting, encountering, or happening upon B
A ti B te ~: A colliding with B

pasu: n. turn; twist; surprise; unexpected event

:shock; bewilderment

posu

v. cry; shout

ran

v.

A su B mu D te su ~ A razing B to D; A destroying or ransacking B

serki

n. wagon

sern

v. A su B mu D te su ~: A breaking B down into D
A ti B te ~: A damaging B

si

cop. first person

some

n. bit; piece

su

p. under; below; according to; given

taki

v.

A me ~: continue with A; stay in A

tat

a. little; small q. little; not much; not a lot

tattiis

n. boy

te

1. p. to; towards

~ mu: up to; upwards:
~ su: down to; downwards

teete

a. only; sole

teier

n. turn; revolution

v. A su B mu ~: A turning, winding, or raveling B

teme

a. close; near

A me ~: near A

temet

v.

A su B mu ~: A finishing, accomplishing, or completing B

temu: p. above
tesu: p. below
ti: p. from
tide: p. out of; away from; because of
tiri: n. rope; cord; thick string
tori: a. free; open; accessible; unfettered
u: p. like; in the style of
ut: d. previous; preceding; aforementioned; former

: n. front

uten

a. short; insufficient

ve-

negative prefix

vede

v.

A ti B te ~: A injuring B

ver: n. foot

: v. walk

ze

v.

A su B ti D te E mu ~: A routing E from B to D; A attaching E to B and D; A linking B and D through E;

zuur: n. fear

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