Relay 13 Ring C: Obrenje Torch Text ==== Baw caja bisce tukan bontcinjae essade Ce tenne ro gore densur ur dejen, kela bisce i drinej tuksom dys tumpoj. Dzha bace pidraq zunin, kilmu nokomma i tsemmaja, a lynseq salimin qar kwete u fango jem. Raw nu kurae bis pandee roj tse jem astee leve zunine ki dume. Roj ti, aw ximme genta palamma toj nedja i tse mivi tumpoje dri lizni. Ewchem pandee u gykwa setas. Ce lize, dys salime u duvi i karace bacee, joq gwaj lis tjo ae, priklese ne cyne culle tumom ur zunine kitsaj. Blize amil ne comu, miv tumpoje. Maj fyse miza mjec i salime. Grammar Notes ============= This is a really ugly skeletal painful compactification of Obrenje grammar... if you have the time and leisure, you can check out the grammar webpage at http://www.cinga.ch/langmaking/obrenje_index.htm , though it might confuse you more than it would help. - The most basic word order is VSO(O). The verb usually comes first, then the subject, then the object(s). Adverbs that belong to the whole sentence can appear almost anywhere, particularly at the beginning. - Obrenje has two unconventional noun cases called "predicative" and "directive", rather than the classical accusative and dative cases. In a nutshell, the directive case shows the target or origin of the verb action, whereas the predicative is a part of the verb action itself. You may also consult http://www.cinga.ch/langmaking/obrenje_nouns.htm#2 . It's explained in few words and some pictures. =P - The subject is unmarked, while the objects are tagged with prepositions. Even the grammatical object cases of Obrenje (predicative, directive) are marked with prepositions: i for directive and u for predicative. Only personal pronouns can exhibit case through inflected forms rather than prepositions. - Often 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. Example: Tog ny warve u sawne and Sawne tog ny warve both mean the same, "dogs in general eat meat (sawne)". Furthermore, personal pronouns (both predicative and directive forms) are often also placed before the verb. - There is no special construction for modal verbs. They are simply verbs which take the gerunds of other verbs as predicative objects: Moze u torva "I am a grown man", Kwoze u moa u torva "I want being a grown man" = "I want to be a grown man". The OVS syntax mentioned above is often employed here for its brevity: Kwoze u moa u torva means the same thing as Torva moa kwoze (any object before a given verb has to be its predicative object). - Verb conjugation is rather non-trivial... I'll simply show you how to identify the few forms you'll need. In fact, the most difficult verb forms are even given as vocab items. If you're really interested, there's a more complete treatment at: http://www.cinga.ch/langmaking/obrenje_verbs.htm . There are two basic verb conjugation paradigms: Consonantic and vocalic verbs. I will simply demonstrate the forms you need for the text on the example of the consonantic verb gwan- "to hear" and the vocalic verb olja- "to drink". - Gerund: gwana "(act of) hearing", oljae "(act of) drinking" - Explicit 3rd person present: gwan "hears", olje "drinks" - Implicit 3rd person present: gwane "he/she/it/they hear/s", olja "he/she/it/they drink/s" - Impersonal present: gwance "one hears"; oljac "one drinks" (the impersonal verb form is also used for constructions like "it's raining"). - Continuous active present participle: gwanamma "hearing", oljamma "drinking" - Continuous explicit 3rd person present: gwanaq "is/are hearing", oljaq "is/are drinking" - Nouns do not inflect for number (singular/plural), but they do inflect for definiteness... for example, tin means "a man, men" while tine means "the man, the men". The basic form of the noun is the indefinite form. The definite form is derived either by adding -e to the basic form, or exchanging the final vowel and consonant (e.g. warve ['warv@] -> warev [wa'rEv]). In both cases, the stress is drawn onto the last syllable. - Obrenje does not distinguish adjectives from nouns. When two noun-like words stand next to each other, the leftmost is the head noun of the phrase, and the ones to the right modify it. Example: From the words setam "guarding, guard" and warve "dog" we can make both warve setam "watchdog" and setam warve "dog watcher". Sometimes the choice of head noun can convey nuances: naq ral "a friend that is good" and ral naq "a good one of friends" are both valid ways of translating "a good friend". Word List ========= a conj. "and" ae pron. 3rd person inanimate, nominative case amil n. "comfortable; emotionally supported" aste- v. "shake #, quake; dance ecstatically" aw pron. 3rd person animate, predicative case bace n. "garden, park" baw pron. "that which" (relative pronoun) bis- v. "can, be able to" blize adv. "then, when..." (relative) bontcinja n. "gloom, depression" (from bom "heavy" and cine "the emotional part of the mind") caj- v. "do, make" ce, cej pron. "one" chem- v. "cause, make ... be/do ..." comu past implicit 3rd person form of chem- culle prep. "inside, within" cyn- v. "hide (... in ...)" dejne n. "year" densur n. "month" dri lizni adv. "soon" (lit. after a short amount of time) drinje n. "next, following, subsequent, upcoming" dume adv. "down, on the bottom" duvi n. "foot" dys n. "place, location" dys- v. "put, place" dzha prep. "before" essad n. "winter" ew- pref. marks the hypothetical verb mood fango n. "shoulder" fyse n. "interesting, fascinating" genta, getan n. "fear" gore n. "the last, latest; loser (of a race)" gwaj adv. "too, too much" gykwa n. "trouble, disturbance, turmoil" i prep. marks the directive case -in suff. "male" jem pron. 3rd person animate, genitive case joq adv. "but, however" karac n. "wall" kel- v. "see" ki prep. "to, up to" kilmu adv. "clearly, understandably" kitsaj n. "student, learner, apprentice" kura- v. "balance; tune; mediate between, pacify" kwete n. "thick, fat" leva- v. "try, attempt" lis n. "cold" lize n. "(point in) time, instance, round" lynse- v. "sit on; man (a vehicle); fig: beleaguer" maj adv. "yes (when refuting a negative statement), after all, contrary to previous expectation" miv- v. "come, arrive" mivi future explicit 3rd person form of miv- miza n. "day" mjec future 0th person form of mo- mo- v. "be" ne pron. reflexive pronoun, directive case nedja- v. "know; recognize" nok- v. "go; happen" nu pron. reflexive pronoun, predicative case pal- v. "grow; become, turn into" pan, pandee n. "animal" pidra- v. "wait; await, expect" priklese adv. "so, therefore" (< pri kelese "from what is seen") qar n. "red" raw adv. "well" ro prep. "in, on, at (generic locative)" roj prep. "through; across" roj tse conj. "while, during" (lit. through that) salim n. "cat" setas adv. "(over) there, yonder" tenne n. "morning" ti pron. "this (here)" tjo- v. "seem, appear" (CAUTION: consonantic type) toj conj. "because, for, since" tse conj. "that" (generic subordinate clause marker) tsemmaja n. "school" (lit. teacher-collective) tukan prep. "against, versus, anti" tuksom prep. "on the other side; opposite of, facing" tummo n. "bag, backpack" tumpoj n. "bus" u prep. marks the predicative case ur prep. "of, pertaining to (non-possessive genitive)" ximme- v. "settle into; grow roots" zun n. "child"