User:Cedh audmanh/TCR3/Tmaśareʔ

Text fragment 5 in Tmaśareʔ

Mahńǫʔ yǫsso eniʔęńekiʔ; twiyekwe ćehką ktahmohcayayeskiʔ kwiyehco. Śeśoʔ elka, yokwe takacoʔ sąʔ wepihiʔna tweśokmąnoʔwase yeyeńaʔeʔ roʔ cą oyaʔnamǫʔ tahco mǫhi ćehką keleńęʔcomąkse.

Translation

I was equipped with a ray of moonlight; some of those were seen falling to the earth the other day. Because of this, those who dwell in the bright valley in the grassland, those people would seize shadows from the ground by force.

Interlinear gloss

Mahńǫʔ    yǫsso            eniʔęńekiʔ;
mahńę-oʔ  yǫsso       -Ø   eni             -ʔo -ęńe     -kiʔ
moon -GEN ray_of_light-ABS be_equipped_with-DIR-1SG>3.VI-PROG

I was equipped with a ray of moonlight;


twiyekwe        ćehką      ktahmohcayayeskiʔ                     kwiyehco.
twi= yekwe -Ø   ćehką -Ø   k-  tahmo-hca    -ya -ye  -se   -kiʔ  kwiyehco
some=3PL.VI-ABS ground-ABS LAT-fall -towards-VIS-3.VI-3.VII-PROG the_other_day

some of those were seen falling to the earth the other day.


Śeśoʔ           elka, 
śeśi       -oʔ  elka
this.VII.SG-GEN due_to

Because of this,


yokwe         takacoʔ       sąʔ wepihiʔna         tweśokmąnoʔwase
yokwe    -Ø   takace   -oʔ  sąʔ wepi=  hiʔna -Ø   twe-śokmą-loʔ -wa -se 
PROX.I.PL-ABS grassland-GEN in  bright=valley-ABS LOC-dwell-EVID-3.I-3.VII 

those who dwell in the bright valley in the prairie,


yeyeńaʔeʔ     roʔ       cą   oyaʔnamǫʔ         tahco mǫhi          ćehką      keleńęʔcomąkse. 
ye~yeńaʔ -eʔ  roʔ       cą   oyaʔna    -mę-oʔ  tahco ma~mahi  -Ø   ćehką -Ø   ke- leńę -ʔco -mą -kse 
PL~person-ERG therefore EMPH be_violent-VN-GEN by    PL~shadow-ABS ground-ABS LAT-seize-away-REP-3>3.VII

those people would therefore seize shadows from the ground by force.

Vocabulary

Content words

cą                  adv         indeed, really, by contrast
ćehką               n.VII       earth, ground, floor
elka                pp          due to, because of
eni-                v.tr        have, hold, be equipped with
hiʔna               n.VII       valley
kwiyehco            adv         the other day; one day (in the past)
leńę-               v.tr        grab, seize, take forcefully
mahi (pl. mǫhi)     n.VII       shadow
mahńę               n.I         moon, month
oyaʔna-             v.it        be forceful, be violent, be aggressive
roʔ                 cj          therefore
sąʔ                 pp          at, in
śeśi                pron        demonstrative pronoun (class VII singular)
śokmą-              v.it        stay, dwell
tahco               pp          by means of, using
tahmo-              v.it        fall, stumble
takace              n.VII       grassland, prairie, savannah
wepi-               adj         bright, white
yekwe               pron        proximate 3rd person pronoun (class VI plural)
yeńaʔ               n.I         person, human being
yokwe               pron        proximate 3rd person pronoun (class I plural)
yǫsso               n.VI        ray of light

Prefixes

k-, ke-         lative applicative
twe-            locative applicative
twi=            quantifier: "some, a few" (proclitic)

Suffixes

-Ø              absolutive case
-ę-             agreement: 1st person singular ergative (deletes preceding vowel)
-eʔ, -ęʔ, -iʔ   ergative case (deletes preceding vowel)
-hca-           directional: orientation towards focus
-k-             agreement: 3rd person ergative
-kiʔ-           progressive aspect (may delete preceding vowel)
-loʔ-           evidential: physical or situational evidence
-mą-            evidential: hearsay
-mę             verbal noun
-oʔ, -ǫʔ        genitive case (deletes preceding vowel)
-se             agreement: 3rd person class VII absolutive 
-wa             agreement: 3rd person class I absolutive
-ya-            evidential: visual perception
-ye-            agreement: 3rd person class VI absolutive
-ʔco-           directional: orientation away from focus
-ʔo-            evidential: direct participation or general knowledge

Phonological notes

The transcription scheme is fairly similar to standard Americanist usage, except that acute accents are used instead of carons to denote palatal consonants:

Consonants:     ‹p t c ć k ʔ›   /p t ʦ ʧ k ʔ/
                ‹    s ś   h›   /    s ʃ   h/
                ‹m   n ń    ›   /m   n ɲ    /
                ‹w l r y    ›   /w l ɾ j    /

Vowels:         ‹i e a o›       /i e a o/
                ‹  ę ą ǫ›       /  ẽ ã õ/

Two important morphophonological processes are worth mentioning:

• Vowel deletion: Fairly often a vowel will be deleted depending on the prosodic structure of the word; morphemes which may trigger this are marked in the glossary.
• Nasalization: /w ɾ l j/ become /m n n ɲ/ when preceded by a nasalized vowel.

Grammar

Tmaśareʔ is a fairly synthetic, mostly head-final, morphologically ergative language. Most bound morphemes are more or less agglutinative, but this is obscured to some extent by various morphophonological alternations. The language uses both prefixes and suffixes, with the latter clearly predominating.

Nominals

• There are seven noun classes, which are cross-referenced on verbs and pronouns.
• Nouns inflect for three cases (absolutive, ergative, genitive), which are marked with suffixes.
• Nominal plurals are usually formed with reduplication of the first syllable. Irregular plural forms also exist, these are mentioned in the glossary.
• Alienably possessed nouns are preceded by their possessor, which appears in the genitive case. Inalienably possessed nouns are marked with prefixes, but these don't appear in this text.
• Demonstrative pronouns take a noun class marker agreeing with their referent, and also inflect for case.
• Quantifiers are proclitics, which attach to the noun or pronoun they refer to.
• Adjectival concepts are expressed by bound morphemes that are prefixed to the noun.

Verbs

The general order of morphemes within a verb is as follows:

 -1: applicative prefix (optional)
  0: root
  1: derivational suffixes (optional)
  2: incorporated noun (optional)
  3: directional suffix (optional)
  4: causative (optional)
  5: modality (optional)
  6: evidentiality (mandatory in verbs not marked as interrogative or irrealis)
  7: ergative agreement (mandatory in transitive verbs)
  8: absolutive agreement (mandatory)
  9: aspect (optional)
 10: negation (optional)
 11: interrogative or irrealis (optional)

• 1st and 2nd person arguments are tracked on the verb by suffixes specifying person and number.
• 3rd person arguments are tracked on the verb by noun class, but not by number. Ergative 3rd person arguments do not take noun class concord.
• In verbs with an applicative prefix, the applicative object takes up the primary absolutive slot, replacing the subject/patient in this regard. However, if there is no agent, the verb will take "ergative" agreement referring to the intransitive subject. If both arguments are 3rd person and belong to different noun classes, absolutive noun class markers will be used for both of them.

Syntax

• Noun phrases are mostly head-final, genitives, adpositional attributes, and relative clauses preceding the head noun.
• Adpositional phrases are postpositional; they generally require their object to inflect for the genitive case.
• The typical constituent order is Agent - (Recipient) - Patient - (Applicative) - Verb.
• Pronouns in the absolutive or ergative case are often omitted (i.e. Tmaśareʔ is a pro-drop language).
• Relative clauses are formed exactly like ordinary clauses, but they always feature an introductory pronoun agreeing in noun class and number with the relativized nominal. This pronoun, which takes case markers according to the role of its referent within the relative clause, may not be dropped.
• Adverbs and conjunctions are usually placed after the head of the first constituent in a clause (Wackernagel's position). Adverbs may also appear in clause-final position, following the verb. When more than one adverbs and/or conjunctions appear in a sentence, they are typically placed immediately next to each other.

Links

Grammar sketch: http://akana.conlang.org/wiki/Tmaśareʔ