User:Cedh audmanh/TCR3/Doayâu

Text fragment 3 in Doayâu

Dudìyè gósí tauhìfárarirea mulú tsapauyeogu. Faukìyàrarugo dogo, yèsagatsutsilàrugo fà tsàbò kâu térugo tsí. Nai furá, reayéfarìne yeri.

Translation

Today a bird gathered buckwheat from the ground (with his beak). He shouted loudly, and then he continued to eat like he had done before. I, however, heard nothing.

Interlinear gloss

Dudìyè        gósí  tauhìfárarirea                   mulú             tsapauyeogu.
dudìya-ì      gósí  <tauhì>-fárə  -ri  -ri    -a     mulu     -´      tsapə -ù     =yeogu
bird  -ERG.SG today <beak>- gather-SENS-IV.ABS-3.ERG buckwheat-ABS.PL ground-OBL.SG=from

Today a bird gathered buckwheat from the ground (with his beak).


Faukìyàrarugo          dogo,
faukì-dàrə -ri  -go    da  -go-Ø
loud- shout-SENS-I.ABS PROX-I -ABS.SG,

It shouted loudly,


yèsagatsutsilàrugo            fà       tsàbò kâu  térugo        tsí.
<yèsa>-gatsu-tsilə̀-ri  -go    fà       tsàbò kâu  tá-ri  -go    tsí
<food>-eat  -ITER -SENS-I.ABS and_then again like do-SENS-I.ABS earlier

and then it continued to eat like it had done before.


Nai     furá,   reayéfarìne                   yeri.
na -ì   furá    rea -yá     -fə -ri    -ne    ye  -ri-Ø
1SG-ERG however hear-DIR:NEG-NEG-IV.ABS-1.ERG none-IV-ABS.SG

I, however, heard nothing.

Vocabulary

Suffixes

-Ø          suffix    (absolutive case singular)
-´          suffix    (absolutive case plural; raises tone of preceding vowel)
-ì-/-è-     suffix    (ergative case singular; usually combines with preceding /e a o/ into -ai-)
-ù-         suffix    (oblique case singular; usually combines with preceding /e a o/ into -au-)

-ne-        suffix    (agreement 1st person ergative; lowers tone of preceding vowel)
-a-         suffix    (agreement 3rd person ergative; changes preceding /i u/ into /e o/)
-go-        suffix    (agreement noun class 1: humans, gods, spirits, birds, tools; changes preceding /i e a/ into /u o o/)
-ri-        suffix    (agreement noun class 4: food, ideas, unlimited areas, mass nouns)

-yé-        suffix    (evidential: direct participation; appears only in negated verbs)
-ri-        suffix    (evidential: sensory perception)

-fa-        suffix    (negation; goes between evidential and participant marking)
-tsilà-     suffix    (iterative)

=yeogu      pp.       away from (postclitic, governs oblique case)

Independent morphemes

da-         pron.     (proximal demonstrative pronoun; takes noun class agreement)
dudìya      n.1       bird
fà          cj.       also, and then, next, afterwards
fára-       v.        collect, gather
faukì-      adj.      loud, disrupting
furá        adv.      however, by contrast
gatsu       v.        eat (said of herbivorous animals)
gósí        adv.      today, now, currently, recently
kâu         pp.       as, like, similar to
mulu        n.4       buckwheat
na          pron.     (1st person singular)
rea-        v.        hear, listen
tauhì       n.7       beak
té-         v.        do (very general; often used as a proverb)
tsàbò       adv.      again, once more, over and over
tsapa       n.7       earth, ground
tsí         adv.      yesterday, earlier on, before something else
yàra-       v.        shout, scream, cry out
ye-         pron.     no, none, nothing (takes noun class agreement)
yèsa        n.4       food, meal

Grammar notes

• Doayâu is morphologically ergative, suffixing and agglutinative.
• There are seven noun classes, which are cross-referenced on verbs and deictic pronouns.
• Nouns inflect for three cases (absolutive, ergative, oblique) and two numbers (singular, plural)
• There are no 3rd person pronouns. Instead, demonstratives are used, which inflect for noun class, case, and number.
• Verbs are mandatorily marked for evidentiality and (absolutive) participant agreement (in this order).
• Absolutive 3rd person arguments are tracked on the verb by noun class, but not by number.
• Transitive verbs are also marked for their ergative arguments (after the absolutive marker). Ergative arguments are tracked only by person and number, not by noun class.
• In addition, verbs can take a large array of derivational suffixes, which are placed before the evidential suffix.
• Verbs can also incorporate nominal or adjectivial stems by prefixing them to the verb root. This has the semantic effect of backgrounding and conventionalizing a noun, or of adverbializing the adjective.
• Noun phrases are mostly head-initial, with genitives and adpositional phrases following their head.
• Adpositional phrases occur both with free-standing prepositions and with clitic postpositions. The latter attach to the oblique case of the noun and can be thought of as an extended case system.
• The unmarked sentence order is VSO.
• Other sentence orders are often used for pragmatic purposes. Notably, subclauses tend to have SOV order, sentence topics are often fronted, and focused elements typically appear clause-finally.
• Pronouns in the absolutive or ergative case are usually omitted, and left in only for emphasis (i.e. Doayâu is a pro-drop language).
• Adverbs and conjunctions are usually placed after the head of the first constituent in a clause (Wackernagel's position).

Links

A grammar sketch (which is somewhat lacking in the syntax section though) is available at http://akana.conlang.org/wiki/Doayâu