Fourth Linguifex Relay/Wiobian
ei enswälzel! dullel meis!
mes engünfel Gungs Gungs Sneis!
tang lind mause bückne mungel,
Wiote Duzes duoɟ niens Kliten,
ionem' ƕind Benußes enzungel;
Kuobs mes pepen, Ƕeiges miten.
Glossed
ei enswälzel! dullel meis!
O hearken-2PL.IMP hear-2PL.IMP now
mie engünfel Gungs Gungs Sneis!
this-ACC consider-2PL hour-DAT hour-DAT life-DAT
tang lind mause bückne mungel,
Indeed 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
ionem' ƕind Benußes zungel;
just-like 1PL.NOM judge-INF-DAT act-2PL
Kuobs mes pepen, Ƕeiges miten.
poor-DAT this-DAT love-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 first constituent of the relative clause is the head, and there may be an anaphoric "co-relative pronoun" nie occurring 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.