ni K3'l3r0 Tww'va di iso'i.naci' nire ni sun0khu'e 3k3k33'ng3 du ar3di' ke.
naci' nire ni mw't3rag3 te're di Tacoo'ri ce.
nire nacu' n3 Twfw'tr3 n0 lal3k3' re.miKa' nacu' nire yn3 vuraa' d0 mw'tag3 ke.
isonaci' ebu' T3li'ny n3 mir33'n0 d3 ki'g3 ce.
isonaci' n3 burupuu'me du 3t3rag33' Ta'raa tyy're re.keve K3'l3r0 chww're 3t3ragiu' ebu'.
This text is written in poetic form, organized as a title, two contrasting stanzas of triplets (the Ebisedi are obsessed with the number 3), and a concluding line.
Note that the original text, which was unfortunately rather obscure, was not written in this style; the translator has taken the liberty to set it in this format in order to better express what he believes is its intended meaning.
FORMAT:
- the first line is the orthographic text
- the second line is a parse (indicating which part of speech something is,
the gender/number/case or aspect/focus/domain). The structure of the parse
is:
[part-of-speech]-[inflection]-...
If gender is not indicated, it is neuter by default.
If number is not indicated, it is singular by default.
Case is always indicated.
If focus is not indicated, it is incidental by default.
If domain is not indicated, it is physical by default.
Aspect is always indicated.
- the third line lists the dictionary form of the word (if different from
the text)
LEGEND:
n Noun
pn Pronoun
v Verb
* Other part of speech (exactly what part of speech will be
indicated in the glossary if relevant)
ABS Abstract
CVY Conveyant
EPI Epicene
INCEP Inceptive
INSTR Instrumental
INTROV Introvertive
LOC Locative
MASC Masculine
NUL Nullar
ORG Originative
PERF Perfective
PLUR Plural
RCP Receptive
\P Paragraph break
\\ Line break
ni K3'l3r0 Tww'va di iso'i. \P
*-LOC n-ORG v-PERF *-LOC n-LOC
Ka'l3ri Ta'va
naci' nire ni sun0khu'e 3k3k33'ng3 du ar3di' ke. \\
pn-LOC * *-LOC v-ABS-PERF n-EPI-PLUR-CVY *-RCP n-EPI-LOC *
jhidi' sun0'khe kiki'ngi di
naci' nire ni mw't3rag3 te're di Tacoo'ri ce. \\
pn-LOC * *-LOC n-NUL-CVY v-INCEP *-LOC n-LOC *
jhidi' t3ragi'
nire nacu' n3 Twfw'tr3 n0 lal3k3' re. \P
* pn-RCP *-CVY n-CVY *-ORG n-CVY *
jhidi' ni Tufu'tri lal3ki'
miKa' nacu' nire yn3 vuraa' d0 mw'tag3 ke. \\
* pn-RCP * *-NUL-CVY n-INSTR *-ORG n-EPI-NUL-CVY *
jhidi' ni vurai' di tagi'
isonaci' ebu' T3li'ny n3 mir33'n0 d3 ki'g3 ce. \\
n-LOC pn-MASC-RCP v-INTROV-PERF *-CVY n-EPI-ORG *-CVY n-CVY *
ebi' T3la'ni ni mir33'ni di ki'gi
isonaci' n3 burupuu'me du 3t3rag33' Ta'raa tyy're re. \P
n-LOC *-CVY v-PERF *-RCP n-PLUR-CVY n-INSTR v-PERF *
ni burup0'me di t3ragi' Ta'rai te're
keve K3'l3r0 chww're 3t3ragiu' ebu'. \\
* n-ORG v-PERF n-PLUR-RCP pn-MASC-RCP
Ka'l3ri cha're t3ragi' ebi'
NOTES: - the entries are arranged in the order they appear in the relay text. - you may notice that some verbs are glossed in both the active and passive. This does NOT imply a dual meaning; Ebisedian does not distinguish between active and passive, so the glosses are merely to show you the various shades of meaning the verb would have if some of its noun case "slots" are left empty. Consult the section on the noun case model in the grammar for further explanation. ni Subordinating particle, introduces a relative clause. Agrees in case and number with the modified noun. Consult section on subordinate clauses for more explanation. Ka'l3ri n., (1) "Fountain", "spring", "fountainhead". (2) "Geyser", "starburst". Please read the section on cultural context in order to have a more accurate understanding of this word. Ta'va phys. v. (1) "To eject", "to spew", "to spray", "to erupt" (2) "To vomit". di Subordinate clause relative pronoun. Consult section on subordinate clauses for more explanation. iso'i n. "Time". A very common idiom is to use a subordinate clause to qualify what period of time is being referred to. For example: ni ebu' zotww' mil3dau' di iso'i "the time when I saw the girl". jhidi' Distant pronoun. Please consult the section on pronouns for more explanation of how Ebisedian pronouns work. nire Adverbial particle, "like", "can be likened to", "as though", "as if". This particle indicates that what is stated is an analogy or metaphor, not to be taken literally. WARNING: in translating Ebisedian, it is usually best NOT to literally translate _nire_, but to indicate the metaphoric mood in other ways native to the target language. sun0'khe abs. v. "To suffer loss", "to deprive", "to lose". The receptive NP is used for the agent of deprivation; that which is lost is in the conveyant case. kiki'ngi poly. n. "Piglet", "small pig". A small, quadrupedal scavenger in Ferochromon, characterized by its short, stumpy legs and high-pitched squealing call. ar3di' n. (1) "Foreigner", "stranger". (2) "Outsider". Sometimes carries a derogative meaning. ke 1st trichotomial correlative particle. See section on correlatives for more explanation. t3ragi' n. "Plant", "vegetation", "extractor". A class of living entities in the Ferochromon characterized by their burrowing into the ground (jhusi') to transport nutrients to the surface, often in edible form. A branching structure is often formed at the surface, resembling Terran plants. Some types of _t3ragi'_, however, are quite unlike Terran plants. For example, the _ki'git3ri_ is able to "walk" on its lower "branches" as though they were legs. te're phys. v. "To sprout", "to grow". Tacoo'ri n. "Mountain", "hill". May also refer in a general sense to any large body of rock, such as plateaus, or even continents or landmasses. ce 2nd trichotomial correlative particle. See section on correlatives. Tufu'tri n. "Viciousness", "malignance", "violent tendency", "cruelty". The quality of being prone to viciousness (used of persons), or having the characteristics of being designed for viciousness or violence (used of tools and weapons), such as having a vicious shape. lal3ki' n. "Hook", "crooked stick". re 3rd trichotomial correlative particle. See section on correlatives. miKa' adv. "But", "however", "nevertheless", "in spite of all that". Introduces a contrasting section from preceding prose. vura'i n. Gerund of _vure'_. vure' phys. v. "To sink through", "to pierce through", "to penetrate into", "to bore through", "to dig into". tagi' n. "Finger" (when used of a person), "claw" (when used of an animal). isonaci' n. "At that time". Note the difference between using the neuter pronoun _naci'_ to refer to time, vs. using _isonaci'_ to refer to a particular period of time. The former refers to the time as an objective entity (e.g., "that (naci') was a long time" - _iso'i_). The latter refers to events that occured during that time (e.g. "during that time (isonaci') things were good"). ebi' Masculine 1st person pronoun, "I". T3la'ni introv. v. "To entertain", "to enjoy", "to make happy". mir33'ni epi. n. "child" ki'gi n. "Fun", "laughter", "happiness". Excitement, frolicking fun, not necessarily inner contentment. burup0'me phys. v. "To trample", "to stampede". Ta'rai n. Gerund of _Ta'ra_. Ta'ra abs. v. "To aspire", "to make a determination", "to look forward to". keve conj. "And so", "and". Similar to the English conjunction "and", except that _keve_ often has a cause-and-effect connotation. cha're phys. v. (1) "To manifest", "to express", "to reveal", "to witness the revealing of". (2) "To shine".
CULTURAL CONTEXT
The following brief description of the world of the Ebisedi may be helpful in understanding the intent behind some of the words used in the text.The Ebisedi live on island continents (mini-planets) called the Lands, suspended in space. In the sky between the Lands are diverse cosmic objects, among the most prominent of which are the _3Kal3rii'_ (singular: _Ka'l3ri_ ["k_hal@\r`i]), "starburst", an explosive phenomenon akin to supernovae in the Terran universe. A _Ka'l3ri_ ejects matter into space, often raining ejecta on nearby lands. Depending on its rate of eruption, it may appear as a swirling, rainbow-colored sphere, or a blinding disc of flashing colors, or a wild explosion of destructive fire. Some _Ka'l3ri_ are cyclic, cycling between different phases of activity at regular intervals.
Because there is no equivalent of Sun or Moon in the Ferochromon (and hence no day/night or months/years or seasons), the Ebisedi use objects like a cyclic _Ka'l3ri_ as a reference object for keeping time. A large _Ka'l3ri_ has a long cycle which corresponds with a "season" or "year" in the Ebisedi calendar. Different parts of the local "year" corresponds with different stages in the cycle of the _Ka'l3ri_. When the _Ka'l3ri_ burns out, the Ebisedi would switch to another reference object. Hence, it is common for the Ebisedi to refer to "the time of Shining Fire", or "the time of Majestic Ka'l3ri", etc., which are the periods of time in history when the named _Ka'l3ri_ was used as the reference object. It is also common to refer to specific events associated with such _Ka'l3ri_, e.g., "the time when Shining Fire ceased", or "the time Death Fire consumed (a previous land)", etc..
On a much smaller scale, the _Ka'l3ri_ may also appear on land as a fountain or volcano-like phenomenon, or even under the ground, causing mountains to appear.
EBISEDIAN CRASH COURSE
NOUNS ----- Nouns have 3 attributes: gender, number, and case. There are 5 genders: masculine, feminine, epicene, neuter, double. - Noun gender always reflects biological gender. - Epicene is used when the noun referent is either masculine or feminine - Neuter is for genderless things and abstract concepts. - Double is for hermaphroditic creatures and collective nouns referring to couples. (Does not occur in present text.) There are 3 numbers: singular, plural, nullar. - Plural is often used as an intensive ("much" or "very"). - Nullar indicates the absence of the noun referent. Where possible, the nullar is preferred over verb negation ("I see none-of-him" is preferred over "I do not see him"). When you see a nullar noun, it is very likely that the intended meaning is to negate the sentence. There are 5 cases: originative, receptive, instrumental, conveyant, locative. - Noun case is semantic, and operates according to the Noun Case Model (see below). IMPORTANT: understanding how noun cases work is *ESSENTIAL* to making any sense of Ebisedian. VERBS ----- Verbs in Ebisedian describe *state changes*. They do NOT describe a static state of things; for that, nouns are used, and possibly, gerunds derived from a verb are used. Verbs have 3 attributes: domain, focus, aspect. There are 3 domains: physical, introvertive, abstract. - Physical is for physical events - Introvertive is mainly for psychological events, although it can also refer to actions performed for one's own sake (similar to Indo-European's middle voice). Introvertive verbs are often cognate with physical verbs; the physical equivalent is a metaphoric description of the psychological action. - Abstract is for "collective" events (e.g. verb "to plan" is abstract; it consists of other actions such as talking, writing, drawing, thinking, etc.) There are 3 focii: incidental, deliberative, consequential. - Incidental is for events that just happen - Deliberative marks events that happened "for a purpose" - Consequential marks events that result from preceding events. There are 3 aspects: inceptive, progressive, perfective. - Inceptive is for events that are starting, or about to start. It is also used sometimes as an imperative (as in, "start doing this!", or "may this start happening!"). - Progressive is for events in progress, either interrupted or simultaneous with another event. It is NOT used for uninterrupted, isolated, continuous actions; for that, the gerund is used instead. The progressive is only used when (1) describing "while X is happening, Y also happened" (2) the event is interrupted. - Perfective is for complete events, even if completion is in the future. If an event is complete or will be complete, the perfective is used, even if it is not yet complete at the present time. Verbs do not inflect for tense. Whether an event is in the past, present, or future would have to be deduced from context (or, occasionally, explicit temporal nouns). NOUN CASE MODEL (VERY IMPORTANT) --------------- Understanding of this model is essential to understanding the meaning of sentences in Ebisedian. Every sentence fits in the following "mental model": Originative: the originating point of an event Receptive: the destination point of an event Instrumental: the thing "fuelling" the current action from origin to destination. If a verb is present, instrumental often used as adverb. The instrumental case of a gerund acts as a participle of the verb it is derived from (although it may also function as an adverb if a verb is present). Participles are frequently used to describe a continuous, unchanging action. (Unchanging in the sense that it is continuing indefinitely.) Conveyant: the thing being propelled, the thing undergoing change. Locative: the place where the conveyant noun is in currently. To visualize this, think of the conveyant noun, currently sitting in the locative noun, having come from the originative noun, and heading towards the receptive noun, being propelled by the instrumental noun (and verb, if there is one). This mental model applies both to physical descriptions as well as abstract concepts. See also the section on Stative Sentences to get a feel for how this works. SENTENCE TYPES -------------- There are a few distinct sentence categories which one should be familiar with. Nominator Sentence: ------------------- Single locative noun or noun-phrase. Sets the topic of subsequent discourse. Often used as a title, but also used when the speaker wishes to make several statements about a single topic. A favorite Ebisedian construct is: <locative noun>. kili <comment>. kili <comment>. E.g., "That house. It is red, it is big, it has many rooms." (_kili_ is the back-referencing particle, inflected for two cases.) Stative sentence: ----------------- Describes a continual state of things. Stative sentences do not have verbs. Very idiomatic interplay between noun cases. Common idioms: 1) noun A locative, noun B locative: A is B. 2) person A, originative; adjectival noun B, conveyant: A shows forth B. (B is "expressive" attribute) 3) noun A conveyant, noun B locative: A is in B. Or, B belongs to category A; B is an instance of A. 4) adjectival noun A conveyant, person B receptive: A is a "receptive attribute" of B. (E.g. th0't33 ebu' - I(rcp) am tall(cvy).) 5) thing A conveyant, person B receptive: B is the owner of A (possession). 6) person A conveyant, person B receptive: A is B's special friend / spouse. Additionally, a verbal sentence (see below) may be turned into a stative sentence by replacing the verb with a gerund in the instrumental case. The arguments to the gerund usually appear in the same cases as they do in a verbal sentence. Verbal sentence: ---------------- Only used for events (changes of state). For unchanging state of things, stative sentences are used instead. Verbal sentence consists of verb with any combination of nouns. NOTE: multiple nouns in the same case has "implicit conjunction": _A B_ = "A and B". For example, biz3t33' pii'z3d3 --> the woman(cvy) AND the man(cvy). Noun cases are chosen according to Noun Case Model. Things to watch out for: 1) _fa't3_ "to see" -- the seer is in the RECEPTIVE, the thing seen in the ORIGINATIVE. 2) _zota'_ "to look" -- looker in ORIGINATIVE, thing looked at in RECEPTIVE. 3) _le's_ "to go" -- the thing/person going is in the CONVEYANT; originative and receptive marks the source/destination of the journey. As an aid to beginners in Ebisedian, the following rules of thumb may be helpful: - in verbs of motion, the moving thing is in conveyant; the origin of the motion is in the originative, and the destination of the motion is in the receptive. - the party that receives something or gains the benefit of something or is at the receiving end of something is usually in the receptive. Similarly, the party towards which something goes is usually in the receptive. - the party that causes an event or from which something goes is usually in the originative. - the party that undergoes a process (in the sense of being changed, moved, or affected) is usually in the conveyant. It would be instructive for the reader to note the following semantic pairs, which demonstrate how noun cases are selected in Ebisedian: Verb Originative Conveyant Receptive 1) To look looker - thing looked at To see thing seen attribute seen seer 2) To listen listener - thing listened for To hear sound source sound itself hearer 3) To reach reacher - thing reached for To take original place thing taken taker 4) To seek seeker - thing sought To find - thing found finder SUBORDINATE CLAUSES ------------------- Because of the flat structure of sentences in Ebisedian, almost every noun modifier has to expressed using subordinate clauses. Subordinate noun-clauses are marked by the particles _ni_ and _di_. The clause appears between these two particles. _ni_ introduces the clause, and _di_ terminates the clause. The clause itself may contain nested subclauses; it is never ambiguous because the particles always match up. (In practice, however, it rarely goes beyond two levels.) _ni_ is inflected for number and case, which must agree with the noun being modified. _di_ is inflected for case. This case marks the function of the modified noun within the clause. For example: ni juli'r d3 biz3tai'. (loc) (loc) (cvy) (loc) "The woman in the house." (Literally, "the who-is-in-the-house woman".) Here, _ni_ (singular locative) matches biz3tai' (feminine singular locative). The function of the modified noun (biz3tai') in the subclause is the conveyant case, because _d3_ is the conveyant of _di_. Therefore, the subclause is equivalent to: juli'r b3z3t33'. (loc) (cvy) The woman is in the house. (See examples from the "Noun Case Model" section.) CORRELATIVES ------------ Correlatives are sentences parallel to each other, that either describe a chain of successive events, or different views/aspects of the thing being described. It is similar to the English "on the one hand ... on the other hand ...", except more concise and elegant. Ebisedian has two kinds of correlatives: the dichotomy (equivalent to the Classical Greek correlatives _men_ and _de_) and the trichotomy. Correlatives are marked by correlative particles, which appear at the *end* of a sentence. Dichotomy particles are _Ke_ and _ve_ (in that order), and trichotomy particles are _ke_, _ce_, _re_ (in that order). PRONOUNS -------- Ebisedian has an unusual pronominal system. It has first person singular pronouns as usual; but the other pronouns are not divided by person. Instead, they are classified as "intimate" or "distant". Intimate pronouns are always used to refer to those whom the speaker regards as close to him, on his side of a debate, in his "inner circle" of friends, regardless of whether he is addressing them or not. Similarly, distant pronouns are used for those he regards as distant and impersonal, regardless of whether he is addressing them. Distant pronouns are also used in formal settings, where intimate pronouns are deemed inappropriate. Pronouns are frequently used as a form of address. When used in this way, it establishes the terms on which the speaker will deal with the audience; whether he regards the addressee as distant or intimate, whether he will speak to the addressee intimately or impersonally. The intimate pronoun may be (very crudely) understood as "my dear" or "my fellow"; and the distant pronoun may be (very crudely) understood as "my dear stranger" or "my dear opponent". The neuter pronouns have a similar meaning: the neuter intimate pronoun refers to something the speaker owns, or regards as close to him; whereas the distant pronoun refers to something the speaker is indifferent about, or something which he does not own. This should be enough to get going with Ebisedian. If you're stuck, ask a local Bisedi, or consult your interpreter at [email deleted]. Also, the following resources might be helpful: 1) Ebisedian Tutorial: an introduction for beginnners. This is highly recommended reading if you're new to Ebisedian. http://quickfur.ath.cx:8080/~hsteoh/conlang/tutorial.pdf 2) Ebisedian Lexicon: if you need more than what the glossary contains: http://quickfur.ath.cx:8080/~hsteoh/conlang/lexicon.pdf 3) Ebisedian reference grammar: if you're really stuck and need to find a definitive answer to a grammatical issue. http://quickfur.ath.cx:8080/~hsteoh/conlang/grammar.pdf
The time the Starburst erupted.It was like a stranger who snatched away piglets;
It was like a mountain on which no plants grew;
It was as though it had a vicious hook.However, it did not have piercing claws;
For during it, I experienced the joy of a child;
During it, the trampled plants sprouted in hope.And so, the Starburst shone upon the plants and me.
The Starburst erupt time.It like the deprive piglets stranger for-one.
It like the no-plants sprout mountain for-two.
As-though to-it the vicious hook for-three.However, to-it as-though none-of piercing fingers for-one.
During-it I experience the from-child fun for-two.
During-it the trampled plants apiringly sprout.And-so, Starburst shine to-plants to-me.