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>.