Nokuq ce romaj lammu nom blize kolu i falve sommu nome, cunge a baggush. Das ponda mue, a krok mu jem lande.Je dazzu romaje je zenda kwome. Je zynu: "Tash gente! Zew je zenda bizze!"
Je kellu falev, a zynu: "Now taru bujuq xim conin i lem zenda."
Je dyg romaje: "Vuje? Vys ona?"
Je kcimu falev: "Ro tje gun ona a fwamana i xim ryl zunel."
Nokuq ce romaj lammu nom blize kolu i falve V:PST:LIQ:3e QF N Prep N Conj V:PST:3i Prep N sommu nome, cunge a baggush. Prep N:d V:PST:PTC Conj V:PST:PSV:PTC Das ponda mue, a krok mu jem lande. Prep N V:PST:3i Conj N V:PST:3e QF N Je dazzu romaje je zenda kwome. Je Prep:OBJ V:PST:3e N:d Prep:OBJ V:GND V:PTC Prep:OBJ zynu: "Tash gente! Zew je zenda bizze!" V:PST:3e Adv V:IMP Adv Pron:OBJ V:GND V:1 Je kellu falev, a zynu: Prep:OBJ V:PST:3e N:d Conj V:PST:3i "Now taru bujuq xim conin i lem zenda." Adv Adv V:LIQ:3e QF N Prep QF V:GND Je dyg romaje: "Vuje? Vys ona?" Prep:OBJ V:PST:3e N:d Adv Adv V:LIQ:3i Je kcimu falev: Prep:OBJ V:PST:3e N:d "Ro tje gun ona a fwamana i xim ryl zunel." Prep QF N V:LIQ:3i Conj V:LIQ:3i Prep QF QF N
|a| conj. "and"
|bagga-| v. "to injure"
|bis-| v. "to be able, can"
|blize| conj. "then, when..."
|buj-| v. "to need, to require, to necessitate"
|cawg-| v. "to fall over, to collapse" (irregular PST:PTC |cunge|)
|ce| qf. "one"
|conin| n. "husband"
|das| prep. "near"
|dazza-| v. "to approach"
|dyg-| v. "to ask"
|falve| n. "(adult) woman"
|fwam-| v. "to care for"
|genta-| v. "to fear, to be afraid"
|gun| n. "house"
|i| prep. objective case marker
|je| pron. 3rd person animate personal pronoun, objective case
|jem| qf. 3rd person animate possessive pronoun
|kcima-| v. "to answer"
|kel-| v. "to see"
|kella-| v. "to look at"
|krok| n. "broken, apart"
|kwo-| v. "to want, to desire, to hope for"
|lammu| prep. "along, following"
|lande| n. "leg"
|lem| qf. 2nd person possessive pronoun
|mo-| v. "to be" (many irregular forms, see the dedicated table at http://catharsis.netpeople.ch/langmaking/obrenje_verbs.htm)
|nok-| v. "to go; to happen"
|nom| n. "road"
|now| adv. "truly, actually, in fact"
|ponda| n. "death"
|ro| prep. "in, on, at"
|romaj| n. "worker, laborer"
|ryl| qf. "three"
|sommu| prep. "to the side of, alongside, next to"
|taru| adv. "more"
|tash| adv. "not"
|tje| qf. "that (there)"
|vuje| adv. "why?"
|vys| adv. "where?"
|xim| qf. 1st person possessive pronoun
|zend-| v. "to help"
|zin-| v. "to speak, to talk, to say"
|zew| adv. "surely, certainly"
|zunel| n. "daughter"
Abbreviations
N noun: d definite i indefinite V verb: 1 1st person 2 2nd person 3i 3rd person, implicit subject 3e 3rd person, explicit subject PTC participle GND gerund PST past FUT future PSV passive IMP imperative LIQ liquid aspect TSE generic subordinate clause marker Prep Preposition: OBJ objective case PRE predicative case Adv adverb QF quantifier Conj conjunctionGrammar Sketch
This is a really skeletal compactification of Obrenje grammar... if you have the time and leisure, check out the grammar webpage at http://catharsis.netpeople.ch/langmaking/obrenje_index.htm
- Nouns do not inflect for number (singular/plural), but they do inflect for definiteness... for example, |romaj| means "worker/s" while |romaje| means "the worker/s". The inflection rules are quite simple, but you don't need to bother with them... all definite forms are marked with ":d" in the interlinear.
- The Obrenje language does not distinguish adjectives from nouns. Modifiers come after the head noun, so if |warve| means "dog" and |setam| means "guard", |warve setam| would have to be translated as "watchdog", not "dog watcher".
- The most basic word order is VSO(O). The verb usually comes first, then the subject, then the object(s).
- The subject is unmarked, while the objects are tagged with prepositions. Even the grammatical object cases of Obrenje (predicative, objective) are marked with prepositions: |i| for objective and |u| for predicative.
Example: |Powze u mej i warev|, lit: "give:1 PRE fruit OBJ dog:d", meaning "I give a fruit to the dog".
- Sometimes an object is placed *before* the verb in the sentence: OVS(O). In this situation, an unmarked object (no preposition) is taken to be in the predicative case. In other words, if you place the predicative object before the verb, you can drop the preposition |u|. Even though unmarked, it cannot be confounded with the subject, since that must always come after the verb. This object-fronting is even common with non-finite verbs, e.g. infinitives and participles. Observe:
Torva umae doljoa kwome man sea:d bathe:GND want:PTC Literally: "a [in] the sea to bathe wanting man" Meaning: "a man wanting to bathe in the sea"The following sentence means the same as the above one. The difference is that the predicate objects aren't fronted, but come after their verbs, and are marked with the predicative case preposition |u|.Torva kwome u doljoa u umae man want:PTC PRE bathe:GND PRE sea:d Literally: "a man wanting a bathing [in] the sea" Meaning: "a man wanting to bathe in the sea"- Note that there exist both active and passive participles for all verb tenses. (The default tense is present. It's not marked in the interlinear.) From |lonna-| "to sing", we can build:|lonnam| V:PTC "singing" |lonnum| V:PST:PTC "having sung" |lonnim| V:FUT:PTC "going to sing, about to sing" |lonnash| V:PSV:PTC "being sung" |lonnush| V:PST:PSV:PTC "sung; having been sung" |lonnish| V:FUT:PSV:PTC "going to be sung, about to be sung"Likewise, there are gerunds for all voice/tense combinations.- Modal verbs behave like regular verbs that take gerunds as predicative objects. Example: |kwoze u lonnae i lawne|, literally "I want a singing-a-song", meaning "I want to sing a song". This word order is not very popular though...
With modal verbs, the otherwise optional fronting of the predicative object is so common that one might regard it as mandatory. Therefore, you're much more likely to hear the sentence above in the form of |lonnae kwoze i lawne|. Each element still fulfills the same grammatical roles, the difference is simply that the gerund |lonnae| has been placed before the verb, where the predicative case marker |u| is no longer needed. The objective phrase |i lawne| is still the object of the verb |lonna-|, not of |kwoze|.
To make things more complicated, the gerund might have a predicative object of its own, which might or might not be fronted as well: |mej powa kwoze i warev|, fruit give:GND want:1 OBJ dog:d, or |powa kwoze u mej i warev|, give:GND want:1 PRE fruit OBJ dog:d, both meaning "I want to give the dog a fruit".
- For the roles of the two unconventional cases "predicative" and "objective", please consult http://catharsis.netpeople.ch/langmaking/obrenje_nouns.htm#2. It's explained in few words and some pictures. =P
- For verb conjugations, check out the following page (especially the tables): http://catharsis.netpeople.ch/langmaking/obrenje_verbs.htm. Don't despair, the interlinear identifies verb forms for you. =)
- In case you wonder why there are always two 3rd person forms for verbs... 3e stands for "3rd person, explicit subject" and 3i for "3rd person, implicit subject". You use the 3i form when the subject is not explicitly mentioned in this sentence, but appeared in an earlier sentence. It replaces the 3rd person subject pronouns of English. Compare: |Rolde torav| "The man walks" versus |Rolda| "He walks".
- For our purposes, the "solid" and "liquid" verb aspects correspond quite well to the English "simple" and "continuous" aspects.
A worker was walking along a road when he saw a woman alongside the road who had fallen and injured herself. She was nearly dead, and her leg was broken.He approached her, hoping to help her. He said to her: "Fear not! I am certainly able to help you!"
The woman looked at him and said: "In fact, my husband has more need for your help than I."
The worker asked her: "Why? Where is he?"
The woman replied to him: "He is in that house, taking care of our three daughters."
Annotations:
Pretty straight-forward... though the text I received suggested that the woman's leg was severed rather than broken. I decided to translate it as a broken leg since I find it highly unlikely that a simple trip and fall on the roadside should result in a traumatic amputation. Furthermore, had the leg really been severed, the woman would probably have died within minutes.Since the Obrenaj have a well-developed medicine and include a fair amount of life sciences into the mandatory school program, my decision is consistent with the cultural background of my language. =)