Fourth Linguifex Relay/Minhast
Introduction
Minhast is a polysynthetic language that exhibits polypersonal cross-indexing on the verb, noun incorporation, and valence operations affixes. Its morphological alignment is Ergative-Absolutive, and canonical word order is SOV. The reader is advised to go to the Minhast wiki for details on valence operations, applicatives, noun incorporation, and antipassivation. Also helpful will be the discussions on the Connectives min and wa=. In this text be on the lookout for noun incorporation and any operation that manipulates the S/O pivot.
Minhast Text
Ikkūne kuriktahan iħyitahammā,
Duħtaniktaharu, ittaħyamekan,
Hakkumman.
Taħ watturħa kungatarabammā, ikšākarampā
Wahēk, šuxtān min turħa kurganaft, dutikšakinnarumā,
Wahēk, duħtiptayyariknenaru.
Ra'e, wattā' hittanankūyaranaft keħredāš tadammantankūyismattabu
Wašia wakayyunar intakahešnuktararampi, wammīn.
Interlinear Gloss
Ikkūne kurg-tah-an iħy-tah-an=mā
Chieftain be.strong-2S.ABS-INTRANS be.high-2S.ABS-INTRANS=SUBORD
Dut-han-ktah-ar-u, ittah-yam-ek-an,
DAT.APPL-come-1S.ABS+2S.ERG-PST-TRANS, have-sea-1S.ABS-INTRANS,
Hakkum-m-an.
Be.far-3S.ANIM.ABS-INTRANS
Taħ watturħa kungat-Ø-ar-ab-an=mā, ikšāk-Ø-ar=ampā
2S.ABS CONN=spirit look.forward.to.arrival-3S.ABS-PST-IMPF-INTRANS=SUBORD, request-3MS.ABS-PST-ANTIPASS+SUBORD
Wahēk, šuxtān min turħa kurg-Ø-an=aft, dut-ikšāk-nn-ar-u=mā
SEQUENTIAL.DISC, sky CONN spirit be.great-3S.ABS-INTRANS=NMLZ, DAT.APPL-request-3S.ABS+3S.ERG-PST-TRANS=SUBORD
Wahēk, dut-hitt-payyar-knen-ar-u
SEQUENTIAL.DISC, DAT.APPL-give-custom-1S.ABS+3MS.ERG-PST-TRANS
Ra'e, wa=hattā' hitt-nannankūy-Ø-ar-an=aft keħre=dāš ta-idammat-nannankūy-m-satt-ab-u
CONFIRM.EXPECT.DISC CONN=NEG give-silver-3MS.ABS-PST-INTRANS=NMLZ death=MAL NEG=protect-silver-3S.ABS+3S.INANIM.ERG-FUT-IMPF-TRANS
Wašia wa=kayyun-ar nt-kah-ešnuk-tar-Ø-ar-ampi, wammīn.
DISTAL.ADV CONN=tree-PST INTENS-INVERSE.VOLITIONAL-tip-DISTR-3S.ANIM.ABS-PST-ANTIPASS, CAUSAL.DISC
Glossing Key
- DAT.APPL - Dative Applicative
- ERG - Ergative
- ABS - Absolutive
- DAT - Dative
- MAL - Malefactive
- INTRANS - Intransitive
- TRANS - Transitive
- ANTIPASS - Antipassive
- CONN - Connective particle or clitic. Minhast has two kinds of Connectives: min links two or more noun phrases (NP); wa= links adjuncts with clauses.
- ANIM - Animate
- INANIM - Inanimate
- 1S - First person singular
- 2S - Second person singular
- 3S - Third person singular
- SUBORD - Subordinative clitic
- DISC - Discourse particle
- NEG - Negation particle, affix or clitic
- INTENS - Intensive
- INVERSE.VOLITIONAL - Inverse volitional affix, changes verbs that are semantically deliberate to accidental, and vice versa
- DISTR - Distributive
- PST - Past tense
- FUT - Future tense
- IMPF - Imperfect aspect
- DISTAL.ADV - Distal demonstrative adverb
- SEQUENTIAL.DISC - Sequential discourse particle, similar to the Subordinative clitic. However, this particle implies also a shift in grammatical roles between the core arguments.
- CONFIRM.EXPECT.DISC - Confirmatory-Expective discourse particle which indicates that the speaker expects the listener to agree what the speaker just said.
- CAUSAL.DISC - Discourse particle that indicates that the clause it is bound to was responsible for causing previous clauses to occur. It has wide scope over extended discourse.