Fifth Linguifex Relay/V

Transliteration

imou uqqu uigaisuq, you yuqŋeis,

yuu qou taagaisua.

nu ei iyũi: ou meedau haaḥısmuq, haada qou ṭou,

ou quuvoq vandavi qeenayu quunayu;

unau nuuhausuq.

Gloss

imou	uqqu	uigaisuq,	you	yuqŋeis,
j-mu(k)	ʔukku	ʔV-juk-V-j-sъ-uʔ	juw	juk-nъ-i-j-sъ
PROX-people	at_the_time	ATL-contént-IND-PROX-NVL-REL	again	contént-INCH-OPT-PROX-NVL

yuu	qou	taagaisua.
ju	kuw	tak-V-j-sъ-wa
EMPH	sometime	die-IND-PROX-NVL-CONTR

nu	ei	iyũi:	ou	meedau	haaḥısmuq,	haada	qou	ṭou,
nu	ʔij	j-jun-i-h	ʔuw	maj-ta-w	haṣ-V-h-s-m-uʔ	ha-V-h-ta	kuw	ṭup
TOP	PROX	PROX-consider-OPT-NEUT	DIST	soil-LOC-DIST	fertile-IND-NEUT-NVL-NEG-REL	grow-IND-NEUT-LOC	sometime	leaves

ou	quuvoq	vandavi	qeenayu	quunayu;
ʔuw	ku-V-w-uʔ	waNt-V-h-wi	kaNj-V-h-ju	kuNw-V-h-ju
DIST	pass-IND-DIST-REL	sunshine-IND-NEUT-SEMB	nightfall-IND-NEUT-CONJ	timepass-IND-NEUT-CONJ

unau	nuuhausuq.
w-naw	nus-V-w-s-uʔ
DIST-soul	old-IND-DIST-NVL-REL

Glossary

NEUT, PROX, DIST	deixis markers: neutral, proximal, distal
ATL	atelic; unmarked verbs are telic
IND, OPT	mood markers: indicative, optative
NVL	non-volitional; unmarked verbs are volitional
REL	relativisation marker
INCH	inchoative
EMPH	emphasis; and; too; also; even; indeed
CONTR	contrastive; but; however
TOP	topic shift marker
LOC	locative; in; on; at; by
NEG	negative polarity; not
SEMB	semblative; like; in the manner of
CONJ	conjunctive; and

Grammar notes

Basics:

• The construction yuu … -va/-ua means even though.
• The glosses sunshine, nightfall and timepass are verbs, not nouns.
• The gloss contént has been marked with an accent to clarify that it refers to the English adjective, not the noun. Also means thankful or accept.
• The word glossed as consider refers generally to celebral activities such as thinking, considering and understanding.

Verbs

All verbs are marked for indicative or optative; if no such marker exists, the word is not a verb. There is no tense, only perfective (telic) and imperfective (atelic) verbs.

Stative verbs (with adjectival meanings), and some other verbs, generally take on a causative meaning when transitive (having an object).

On verbs, subjects/agents are marked as suffixes and objects/patients as prefixes (see deixis for this kind of marking).

Deixis

Instead of person, the language uses deixis: neutral, proximal and distal. They are similar to demonstratives like this and that or here and there. The deictic centre of a sentence is established my marking a noun for deixis or using a deictic pronoun, and corresponding markers on the verb are then taken to agree with it. To approach the function of personal pronouns in other languages, other words are used, such as personal names, or expressions like "the people here".

Relations

Instead of relative pronouns, a relative marker -uq as well as syntactic markers (similar to case, such as the locative) are used. On a noun, the locative means at <noun> but on a verb it means where they (or other person) <verb>. Relativised verbs can work like attributive adjectives in English, as they effectively translate relative clauses such as (the one) who is/does <verb>.