Fourth Linguifex Relay/Van

varaske ha-vavaralas halov ha-sotsorite
ha-lisat, nome ras, sere ha-seralas ras
veńavaj mir valo ta
tavańa mir ha-livav nomete
vańa vańa sataka mir jan vańa tan
ha-koralas, mare mir, nivańa nonete mir ras, netesi rase

Interlinear gloss

var-a-s-ke	ha-vavaralas	halov	ha-sotso<ri>t=e
tear-dyn-nonact-quickly	poss-mosaic	life	def-stones<dim>=dir
ha-lisat	no-m-e	ras	ser-e	ha-seralas	ras
def-ruler	intens-great-stat	3p.m	sit-stat	poss-chair	3p.m
veń-a-vaj	mir	valo	ta
come-dyn-suddenly	2p	sea	away
ta-vań-a	mir	ha-livav	no-met=e
good-do-dyn	2p	poss-favour	intens-sky=dir
vań-a	vań-a	sataka	mir	jan	vań-a	tan
cause-dyn	do-dyn	law	2p	like	proverb-dyn	1p
ha-koralas	mar-e	mir	ni-vań-a	no-net-e	mir	ras	net-e-si	ras=e
def-friend	upright-stat	2p	perhaps-cause-dyn	intens-hold-stat	2p	3p.m	hold-stat-little	3p.m=dir

Notes

• Almost everything is explained in the short article Van. Do take a peek.
• Van is almost excludingly VSO with rare SVO.
• Time is *not* of essence in Van. Context and adverbs may be of help but aren't really considered necessary most of the time (ha!).
• A construction approaching a polite imperative is formed using the 2P and the prefix ni- “perhaps” on the verb.
• A “relative” clause follows its (pro-)nominal head and is always offset with comma. When they are related to the object of the main clause they are marked with the directive =e.

  mak, karesi ras, lana ras ha-tok. “Mark, a bit old is he, cooks he the chicken.” → mak, karesi ras, lana ras ha-tok, laja rase. “Mark, a bit old is he, cooks he the chicken, sings he;dir” where the second relative clause matches with ha-tok, i.e. it's the chicken who sings and not Mark.

• When the verb in a relative clause is stative and the main clause verb too, the main clause drops the common pronoun.

  mak, pare ras, tanire [] mar vańe tavi → “Mark, red is he, taller is [he] than taller is David”

• no- is variously translated as “great, many, much, very, really, truly” depending on context and is a general intensifier which attaches to any word.
• The directive enclitic =e habitually works several jobs including doing night shifts as an object marker for relclauses, a benefactive/dative marker here and there on saturdays, all this beyond being a typical 'directive'. Oh, right, let's not forget, sometimes it works a bit like a translative, (NP NP=e), e.g. mak nansi=e “Mark became Nancy”. It attaches to phrases.

Bonus

• vavaralas and varaske looking similar? That's because a mosaic in Van is a "a collection of torn things/things you tear".
• The diminutive infix <ri> is a recycled favourite from an old sketch.
• lisat and sataka looking similar as well? Well, yes, these are two related nouns: a ruler and "things-used-to-rule-with" (laws) formed on the common root √sat- “to govern, rule”!
• √mar- is a bit of a dark joke, being borrowed from Latinate 'mort-' with the semantic shift of “dead” → “stiff” → “upright”~“just”.