Fourth Linguifex Relay/Wiobian

ei! jån' kähne Jundemruger
snirre ure nungnung Troh;
Sioner röbes ƕieme Puger',
inde enwülze Þafte quoh'.
ei! lind mause bückne mungel,
Wiote Duzes duoɟ niens Kliten,
ionem' ƕind Benußes zungel;
Kuobs mes pepen, Ƕeiges miten.

Glossed

ei jån' kähne Jundemruger
O how soon-ACC life-ATTR-tapestry-NOM

snirre ure nungnung Troh
shatter/PRES-3PL like little-little pebble/PL

Sioner röbes ƕieme Pugere
crown-AUG-SG.NOM sit/PRES-3SG.IN one-ACC throne-SG.ACC

inde enwülze Þafte quoh'
suddenly completely_sweep/PRES-3PL wave-PL-NOM away/PRES-3PL

ei lind mause bückne mungel
O 2PL.NOM hither stationed-PRED come/PRES-2PL

Wiote Duzes duoɟ niens Kliten
heaven-GEN grace-DAT PERF CORELATIVE-PL-DAT accomodation_as_guest-PL-ACC

ionemen ƕind Benußes zungel
just-like 1PL.NOM judge-VERBAL_NOUN-DAT act-2PL

Kuobs mes pepen, Ƕeiges miten
poor-DAT this-DAT give_charitably-1PL-IMP neighbor-DAT give-1PL-IMP

Notes

In Wiobian, all nouns are capitalized. However, words beginning a sentence need not be capitalized.

Typology

The language is SVO (with more variation in poetry), and prepositions are preferred to postpositions. However, nominal modifiers precede the modified noun.

Nouns

In Classical Wiobian, nouns have a singular-plural distinction and are inflected in 5 cases:

• Nominative: subject
• Accusative: direct object, some adverbial expressions
• Dative: indirect object, some adverbial expressions
• Genitive: it's your bog-standard genitive case
• Predicative: predicate

Wiobian declension
Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	-Ø	[PLURAL STEM]-Ø
Accusative	-e	[PLURAL STEM]-n
Genitive	-Ø	[PLURAL STEM]-e
Dative	-s	[PLURAL STEM]-ns
Predicative	-e	[PLURAL STEM]-Ø

Adjectives

Adjectives may take the same case endings as nouns or, more commonly, take no ending. Adjectives in the predicative position, however, must have the predicative ending.

Verbs

Verbs have stem forms for present, past and verbal noun which are not always distinct. They are often additionally marked by auxiliary words to disambiguate the tense, since many forms are very similar.

Inflection

In Classical Wiobian, the verb is also inflected for person.

The superscript ^U denotes umlaut of stems of "athematic" verbs.

Imperative endings
	Singular	Plural
1	-	[PRESENT]-n
2	[PRESENT]-(t)	[PRESENT]-l

Present tense endings
	Singular	Plural
1	[PRESENT]U-n	[PRESENT]-m(e)
2	[PRESENT]-e	[PRESENT]-l
3.animate	[PRESENT]-n	[PRESENT]U-e
3.inanimate	[PRESENT]U-s

Past tense endings
	Singular	Plural
1	[PAST]-n	[PAST]-m(e)
2	[PAST]-e	[PAST]-l
3.animate	[PAST]-n	[PAST]U-e
3.inanimate	[PAST]-Ø

Syntactic constructions

Relative clauses

Relative clauses are internally headed: The head is the first constituent of the relative clause, and an anaphoric "co-relative pronoun" nie occurs after the relative clause that refers back to the head.

Perfect tense

The auxiliary construction for perfect tense is: duoɟ + SUBJECT in the DATIVE case + VERB in VERBAL NOUN form in the ACCUSATIVE + ADDITIONAL ARGUMENTS in whatever case the verbal argument is supposed to take.