Conlang Relay 25/Buruya Nzaysa

Buruya Nzaysa text

Nzo ña’éxu axe, na u ñufɛ tsə xoñi leda.
Seya məmat rɛ nə lo ñufɛ ɔ ñavra ntsa.
Nɛ sɛga rabɛ rɛ ɛ’iya Tɔma ɔ raxolbo kwə u sɔmɛ mvomérɔ.
"Xɛwa ste’ɔwa ño u tsəñe nəbe? O ewa tso u lo ñuylu pɔwə dediɡa Tɔma ɔ raxolbo?", neya mve.
"Alme ma ntɛvɔ́ve loru ɔ raxolbo; esə Tɔma ɔ maldɔ!"
Dal ma lo ñufɛ, rɔma ɔ mpɛsa nə tul, lu lɛwi axe kwemi.
Nɔdɔwa lu mpɛsa nzɛwə u Tɔma.

Translation

English

As for my patience, a cat destroyed it completely.
I remember that it was a very large cat.
It played a trick on me on the occasion that Tɔma wanted to open a barrel of water.
"What kind of nonsense are you thinking?"
"In which corner of the marketplace could Tɔma possibly be a barrel?", I said.
"Of course he is not a barrel at all; Tɔma is a person!"
But the cat, who had been eating a fish, did not understand my words.
She had been given the fish by Tɔma.

Translation of previous text

(Emihtazuu, by Aidan Aannestad)

My childlikeness, a large yurt-cat has killed it.
I believe it was a large cat.
This animal lied because Thomas needed to open a bottle.
'Is Thomas a bottle?', I said.
'He is not a large bottle; this person is Thomas.'
The cat, who had eaten a fish, did not understand (lit. was not made to understand).
The object that Thomas carried was a fish.

Interlinear gloss

Nzo

TOP.ACC

ña’éxu

patience

axe,

GEN.1

na

PFV.AUX-3SG>3

u

INDEF.NOM

ñufɛ

cat

tsə

that.ACC

xoñi

break

leda.

completely

As for my patience, a cat destroyed it completely.

Seya

NULL.AUX-1SG>3

məmat

remember

rɛ

SUB.ACC

nə

PFV.COP-3SG

lo

DEF.NOM

ñufɛ

cat

ɔ

INDEF.ACC

ñavra

large

ntsa.

very

I remember that it was a very large cat.

Nɛ

PFV.AUX-3SG>1

sɛga

deceive

rabɛ

during.3

rɛ

SUB.ACC

ɛ’iya

OPT.AUX-3SG>3

Tɔma

NAME

ɔ

INDEF.ACC

raxolbo

barrel

kwə

with.3

u

INDEF.NOM

sɔmɛ

water

mvomérɔ.

CAUS-open

It played a trick on me on the occasion that Tɔma wanted to open a barrel of water.

"Xɛwa

what.ACC

ste’ɔwa

PROG.AUX-2SG>3

ño

as.3

u

INDEF.NOM

tsəñe

unlikely_thing

nəbe?"

think

"What kind of nonsense are you thinking?"

"O

at.3

ewa

which.ACC

tso

corner

u

from.3

lo

DEF.NOM

ñuylu

marketplace

pɔwə

COND.COP-3SG

dediɡa

possibly

Tɔma

NAME

ɔ

INDEF.ACC

raxolbo?",

barrel

neya

PFV.AUX>1SG>3

mve.

say

"In which corner of the marketplace could Tɔma possibly be a barrel?", I said.

"Alme

invariably

ma

NEG.COP-3SG

ntɛvɔ́ve

not_at_all

loru

3SG.ANIM.NOM

ɔ

INDEF.ACC

raxolbo;

barrel

esə

EMPH.COP-3SG

Tɔma

NAME

ɔ

INDEF.ACC

maldɔ!"

person

"Of course he is not a barrel at all; Tɔma is a person!"

Dal

but

ma

NEG.AUX-3SG>3

lo

DEF.NOM

ñufɛ,

cat

rɔma

REL.AUX-3SG>3

ɔ

INDEF.ACC

mpɛsa

fish

nə

PFV.AUX

tul,

eat

lu

DEF.ACC

lɛwi

word

axe

of.1

kwemi.

understand

But the cat, who had been eating a fish, did not understand my words.

Nɔdɔwa

RES.AUX-3SG>3

lu

DEF.ACC

mpɛsa

fish

nzɛwə

receive

u

from.3

Tɔma

NAME

She had been given the fish by Tɔma.

Vocabulary

morpheme	type	meaning
ah	pp. +NOM	of, belonging to, with regard to
alme	adv.	surely, certainly, invariably, without exception, of course
axe	(pp.)	(1st person object form of ah: "of me")
dal	cj.	but, however
dediga	adv.	maybe, possibly, conceivably
ɛ’i-	aux.	(optative auxiliary: "want")
esə-	aux.	(emphatic/abilitative auxiliary: "do indeed, can indeed")
ewa	det./pron.	which one? (accusative)
kwemi	v.	understand
kwə	pp. +NOM	with, having (comitative)
lɛwi	n.	word
leda	adv.	completely, thoroughly
lo	det.	(definite article, nominative)
loru	pron.	(3rd person animate singular, nominative)
lu	det.	(definite article, accusative)
ma-	aux.	(negative auxiliary: "do not")
maldɔ	n.	person; human being
məmat	v.	recall, remember
mpɛsa	n.	fish
mve	v.	say, speak
mvomérɔ	v.	open sth.
nə-	aux.	(perfective auxiliary: "has done")
nəbe	v.	think about, refer to, have in mind, mean, intend
nɔdɔ-	aux.	(past resultative auxiliary: "had done before; had become")
ntɛvɔ́ve	adv.	in vain; (in negated clauses) not at all
ntsa	adv.	very
nzɛwə	v.	receive, be given sth.
nzo	det.	(topic marker, accusative)
ña’éxu	n.	patience, tolerance
ñavra	n.	broad, wide, large
ño	pp. +NOM	as, like (essive)
ñufɛ	n.	cat
ñuylu	n.	main square, marketplace
ɔ	det.	(indefinite article, accusative)
o	pp. +ACC	at, on
pɔ-	aux.	(conditional/irrealis auxiliary: "might, would, could")
rabɛ	pp. +ACC	at the time of, while, during
raxolbo	n.	cask, barrel
rɛ	cj.	(complementiser, accusative)
rɔma-	aux.	(relative clause auxiliary; relativized noun is topic but not necessarily subject of subclause)
sɛga	v.	lie, deceive, play tricks on sb.
sə-	aux.	(null auxiliary: "do")
ste-	aux.	(progressive/durative auxiliary: "be doing")
Tɔma	n.	(a male name)
tul	v.	eat
tsə	det./pron.	(distal deictic, accusative: "that, those")
tsəñe	n.	unlikely, far-fetched, having a non-obvious connection
tso	n.	knee; corner
u	det.	(indefinite article, nominative)
u	pp. +NOM	of, from, relating to (associative/genitive)
xɛwa	pron.	what? (accusative)
xoñi	v.	break, destroy, tear apart

Auxiliary verb suffixes:

morpheme	type	meaning	variants
-’ɔwa	suffix	2nd person singular subject, 3rd person object
-a	suffix	3rd person singular subject, 3rd person object	-ya after /i e ɛ/, -wa after /u o ɔ/
-ɛ	suffix	3rd person singular subject, 1st person object
-e	suffix	1st person singular intransitive
-eya	suffix	1st person singular subject, 3rd person object
-ə	suffix	3rd person singular intransitive	-Ø after /a/, -wə after /u o ɔ/

Grammar notes

Typology

• mostly isolating
• head-initial
• basic word order: AuxSOV with occasional topic fronting and subclause postposing
• basic morphosyntactic alignment: NOM-ACC
• pro-drop

Nominals

• no lexical distinction between nouns and adjectives
• nouns/adjectives do not inflect at all
• determiners are mandatory in full noun phrases (except when the head of the noun phrase is a pronoun or a proper name)
• nouns without a determiner usually have adjectival function
• most determiners are marked for case (but quantifiers and some pronouns aren't)
• nominal number is unmarked

Prepositions

• prepositions inflect for the person of their object (almost all instances in the text are 3rd person)
• each preposition governs a specific case for their object
• objects of prepositions can be omitted if clear from context

Verbs

• content verbs do not inflect at all
• auxiliary verbs are mandatory in all clauses
• auxiliary verbs inflect for person and number of the subject AND person of the object
• aspect, mood, and voice are indicated by the choice of the auxiliary
• no tense marking
• additional distinctions may be made by adding one or more uninflected auxiliaries right before the content verb, or sentence-finally if the content verb is missing
• in clauses which have no content verb but contain an accusative-marked noun phrase, the auxiliary functions as a copula

Links

Grammar sketch: http://akana.conlang.org/wiki/Buruya_Nzaysa