Conlang Relay 23/Ilaini
Ilaini text
Mustenin rythein demein laysin
Arlut echain moye rythan lea rozein vestyen ludie sun yat havien astinat. Sahanrie rythan vanyinan rystena lhasat lea dilynat. Orea loch lea vanat, lea rastyna dilynat. Deman muy, orea loch lea torin, chan, airen pura dilynat. Rastien yat rythan lochyn gola purynat, ludena loch, cyne ali da airenit fere.
Lea dilynat so vai! fara verat! Vanyin hune lea vara mustyan musta so graya menat. Lei so nafalinan rodat, rodynat so bysat.
Vocabulary
airena - to rule
airen - powerful
ali - 3d person inanimate plural pronoun
arla - to exist
arlut echain moye - "once upon a time"
astina - to live, to dwell
bysa - to beat, to defeat, to win
chan - one, only, unique
cyne - then, afterwards
da (V) fere - in order to
deman - ambitious person
dilyna - to do, to make, to cause
echain - past-tense marker
fara - to achieve, to complete
gola - to subdue, to conquer
graya - to know
havin - north
hune - because
laysin - story
lea - 3rd person animate; 3rd person relative ; impersonal pronoun
lea dilynat - it happens that
lhasa - to taste, to try
loch - much, many
lochyn - a lot, a great deal
lud - region, province
mena - to give
moye - much, greatly mustan - soldier
musta - to fight
mustyn - battle
muy - yet, already
nafalin (coll) - enemy
orea - power
pura - to wish, to desire
puryna - to want (something specific)
rasten - thought, idea
rastyna - to (suddenly) think, to have an idea
roda - to attack
rodyna - to hit
rozen - river
ryst - strong
rythan - "head person" - boss, commander
sahanrie - one day
so - and
sun pp+loc - near
torin - famous
vai! - hey! eek! coo! (exclamation of surprise)
vana - to intoxicate
vanyin - drugs
vara - to be brave
vestyn - spring
yat - here
Grammar notes
Stories are told in the narrative present: only the first verb can be in the past tense to set the time. (The expression "arlut echain moye", literally "it existed very long ago" does that in spades with both a past-tense verb and an intensified past-tense marker)
Ilaini is relentlessly SOV, where O can be anything from nothing-at-all to a whole phrase. There is no copula, nor indeed any verb meaning "to be" (as opposed to "to exist" or "to be in a place").
Phrase conjunctions come after the first constituent of the phrase.
Nouns: there are 3 noun classes, which is irrelevant for this text except that they take somewhat different endings. Basically, nouns ending in -n or -s preserve -n or -s in the ending, nouns ending in a different consonant or a vowel don't. Collective nouns (-in endings, plural form) take a singular verb; case endings of collective nouns have -i- rather than -e-.
Cases used in this text: nominative (subject): dictionary form accusative (direct object): -a (singular), -ena (plural) genitive: -ei, -eni locative/instrumental: -ie (causing -yn endings to be -yen)
Verbs: all verbs used in the text are either 3rd person singular (present -at, future -it) or infinitive (-a).
Smooth translation
(This contains singular 'they'. Culturally appropriate, and my source didn't specify the commander's gender either.)
The story of the ambitious army commander
Once upon a time there was a commander who lived near the spring of a river north of here. One day the commander happened to try strong drugs. The great power intoxicated them and gave them an idea. Being ambitious already, the power made them wish to be famous, unique and powerful. By that thought this commander wanted to conquer a great deal, many regions, in order to rule over them.
And see! it happened that they could achieve it! Because the drugs gave them bravery and the knowledge to fight a battle, and they attacked, hit and beat the enemy.
