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>.