Davot dava dimityok ret syin yupeltem, lir tisanyik anyayu saplelis, polyelis, sof syin yupeltem. Syim ey lin yudod, lir lhom simil ey kakeli.Syin davot, sil dava misyok leftet, tisyok yuhesem. Sem tomyok tise "Lo delye mi kakrot lek! Eff delye kardyik sanya leftet myol!"
Syin anya ekaril astye, lir tomil "Kitya, rhaym efim dava sokryot tamyev, sil lo delye leftyok astye."
Syin davot sipelyok, "Sodra delye kre? Sem ey laya?"
Syim kasot tise "Sem ey tyem sodra uyilame, lir dava tremilyok dolv salimeyu efim."
anya (f) n. a woman
astye pron. 3p. s. accusative
dava modal v. expressing progressive, iterative, or habitual
davot (m) n. a worker, a laborer
delye modal v. expressing irrealis aspect including
future, hypothetical, optative, conditional, and more
dimitet v. to walk, to go
dolv det. three
dod (m) n. death
eff pron. 1p. s. nominative
efim pron. 1p. s. genitive
ekaret v. to regard, to look at
ey copula
hesem pron. 3p. s. for locative, instrumental, or causative
(takes noun-style case marking)
-il suff. female verb agreement for verbs in -et
ilame (f) n. a house
kakeli adj. broken
kakral v. to fear
kardal v. to be able
kasal v. to reply
kitya adv. actually, in fact
kre interrogative why
laya interrogative where
leftet v. to help
lek adv. not
lhom (m) n. leg
lin prep. near, close to
lir conj. and (connects predicates or clauses)
lo pron. 2p. s. nominative
mi modal v. (with delye): expresses "should"
miset v. to want, to desire
myol pron. 2p. s. accusative
-ot suff. female verb agreement for verbs in -al
peltem (m) n. a road
polyeli adj. damaged, injured
ret prep. along
rhaym (m) n. husband
-s suff. female adjective agreement
salime (f) n. daughter
sanya adv. certainly, surely (asserting certainty in the
face of uncertainty)
sapleli adj. collapsed, crumpled, fallen down
sem pron. 3p. s. m. nominative
sil acts as relativizer (who) or nominalizer (that)
simil pron. 3p. s. f. genitive
sipelet v. to query
sodra det. that (deictic)
sof prep. beside, to the side of
sokret v. to need
syim pron. 3p. s. f. nominative
syin det. sing. definite article *or* the number one
tamyev adv. (comparative) "more"
tomet v. to say
tyem prep. in
tisanal v. to see
tise pron. 3p. s. dative
tiset v. to approach, to walk up to
tremilet v. to look after, to care for
-yik suff. male verb agreement for verbs in -al
-yok suff. male verb agreement for verbs in -et
yu-, uy- pref. indicating locative case
-yu, -u suff. indicating accusative case
Grammar notes (longer version with charts here):Word order is SVO. Relative and nominal clauses are both introduced by the relativizer/nominalizer sil. Interrogative sentences are indicated by the presence of an interrogative word, but word order does not change.
Determiners (deictics, numbers, articles) and prepositions precede nouns, and adjectives follow them. Nouns have gender, but it is not marked on the nouns; it is marked on the adjectives that modify them and the verbs for which they are the subject.
Nouns inflect for case, of which there are seven (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, instrumental, locative, causative). Only four of these are used in the text. Inflection is by a mix of prefixes and suffixes.
Pronouns inflect irregularly for case and are given in their inflected forms above except where noted. In some cases, the singular third person pronoun differs by gender.
Adjectives follow the noun and agree with it in gender (if singular) or number (if plural). In the singular, no suffix indicates a male noun, and -s indicates a female noun. -d indicates a plural noun.
Adjectives can modify a noun or be the object of the copula.
Modals precede verbs, and adverbs follow them. Verbs conjugate for gender or number of the subject (gender if singular, number if plural). Tense, mood, and aspect are indicated by the modals. Verbs in the infinitive can follow the conjugated verb to modify it.
The modal verb system is based on the three-part Creole system:
The modals always appear in the order "seta delye dava". No modals indicates non-past indicative, aka the simple present. All three modals would indicate "would have been doing", or "was about to be doing", or "intended to be doing"...
- seta indicates past tense.
- delye indicates irrealis mode, and has its own auxiliary particles to indicate certain moods; it is used for future events, probable, potential, wished-for, hypothetical, conditional, and "coulda/shoulda/woulda" constructions.
- dava indicates imperfective aspect, including progressive, iterative, and habitual aspects.
The copula, ey, disappears in the presence of modals. Therefore, modals without a verb after them should be considered a form of the copula. Since the copula is considered naturally imperfective, dava is not used with it.
Adverbs usually end in "ya". Some adverbs have comparative and superlative forms, which are listed in the vocabulary where appropriate.
Charts of verb conjugations, noun declensions, and the pronoun matrix can be seen here.
A worker is walking along the road, and sees a woman collapsed, injured, beside the road. She is near death, and her leg is broken.The worker, wanting to help, approaches her. He says "Don't worry! I'll surely be able to help you!"
The woman looks at him, and says "Actually, my husband needs you to help him more."
The worker queries, "Why is that? Where is he?"
She replies "He is in that house, and taking care of my three daughters."