Conlang Relay 17/Calénnawn
Contents
Relay text 17 in Calénnawn
The text
Itùcca-crácibi.
Pur gol, h scawn še malú fh calásso. H calásso cráci huydímmor-zóres, h scawn hi búhu zi num itúcca, pso-zóro qábbot sciwn spíxo tredówc fh calásso, sno cas ífna panalúta ze. Gol tes, scawn vìrmu-códdi so bru calásso, sófa o calásso lóyma xabàsta-sínco so púnno. O calásso tímmi so scawn nuzawpósse o bru régo be xortday tof. O scawn búhu be hi panalúta félo séffið, pso-zóres fa orézu. O calásso siqàgaw-rúra. O folrúra dríru-ho so nóyliz be xími se calássima váha. O calássi acáw so scawn zi útay áduxo be fésni ron.
Grammar notes
- Calénnawn is a pro-drop language, usually with SVO word order.
- $ is an alternative spelling for š for non-UTF-8 environments. These represent the same letter (/ʃ/).
- Acute and grave accents denote primary and (in compounds) secondary stress, respectively. Vowels with acute or grave accents are not fundamentally different from the plain vowels, since the stress can shift when words are combined into compound words.
- There is no copula "to be"; it is implied when a noun or adjective is used as predicate directly.
- The tense is normally not repeated every sentence, but understood from context where possible.
- There are two cases used in this text: nominative and accusative. The cases are marked on the article.
- There is no indefinite article in the nominative. The absence of an article in the nominative indicates indefiniteness.
- All prepositions govern the nominative.
- The plural forms of nouns are formed by replacing the vowel in the last syllable with 'i' (this need not be a final vowel).
- Adjectives precede the nouns, but can also occur standalone (e.g. the big [one]). Cardinal numerals follow the nouns they belong to.
- In compound words, the first part is the modifying part: a predicate A-B is a B of type A.
- There are many conjunctions, nearly all of which express that one constituent of the first sentence is identical to one constituent in the second sentence. The constituent may be left out from one of the sentences. If one of the constituents is a prepositional object, then the conjunction is a compound with the preposition.
Example: He is underway in-zóres I have faith. Translation: I have faith in the fact that he is underway.
Lexicon
| acáw | (v) | chase someone |
| áduxo | (n) | death |
| be | (conj) | (links a subject (left) to a subject (right); see notes) |
| bru | (poss.pron) | his, her |
| búhu | (adj) | afraid |
| calásso | (n) | kind of feline predator |
| cas | (pron) | someone |
| códdi | (v) | decide something |
| cráci | (adj) | violent |
| -day | (suffix) | (initiative aspect: starts/begins doing) |
| dríru | (v) | shake something |
| f- | (proclitic) | (see fh) |
| fa | (pron) | he/she |
| félo | (conj) | (links a direct object (left) to a subject (right); see notes) |
| fésni | (v) | eat something/someone |
| fh /f?/ | (art) | the (concept/idea/mass/uncountable, accusative) |
| fol- | (prefix) | (verb to noun) the act of .. (forms an action or gerund) |
| gol | (adv) | at some time |
| h /?/ | (art) | the (concept/idea/mass/uncountable, nominative, epistemic) |
| hi | (adv) | no, not (negation particle) |
| ho | (v) | force/have/make/cause (someone to do something) |
| huydímmor | (prep) | in spite of, despite |
| -ib- | (infix) | (adjective to abstract noun; goes between last CV pair in word) |
| ífna | (numeral) | every |
| itúcca | (n) | animal |
| lóyma | (adv) | back |
| -ma | (suffix) | more |
| malú | (v) | feed, make someone drink, quench someone's thirst |
| nóylaz | (n) | mountain |
| nu- | (prefix) | off of, moving away from |
| num | (prep) | away from, coming/originating from |
| o | (art) | the (definite, nominative, countable) |
| orézu | (v) | flee |
| panalúta | (v) | know |
| pósse | (prep) | against, touching |
| pso | (prep) | because of |
| púnno | (n) | jungle, wilderness |
| pur | (particle) | unknown |
| qábbot | (adj) | mighty, powerful |
| régo | (n) | back (part of the body) |
| ron | (poss. pron) | his, her (obviative) |
| rúra | (v) | roar |
| scawn | (n) | human |
| se | (art) | (indefinite, countable, accusative) |
| séffið | (v) | happen, occur |
| sínco | (v) | want |
| siqágaw | (adv/adj) | intense |
| sno | (conj) | and (sentence level; no specific relation between constituents) |
| so | (art) | the (definite, accusative, countable) |
| sófa | (conj) | but |
| spíxo | (adv) | only |
| še | (adv) | (tense particle: past) |
| tes | (numeral) | one |
| tímmi | (v) | throw something/someone |
| tof | (pron) | him, her (accusative) |
| tredówc | (v) | control, reign, rule over someone/something |
| útay | (prep) | entering state, becoming |
| váha | (numeral) | many |
| vírmu | (v) | scare, frighten someone |
| xabásta | (v) | go to, towards |
| xími | (v) | draw, pull |
| xort | (v) | attack, fight |
| zaw | (prep) | above |
| ze | (pron) | it |
| zi | (particle) | (tight binding of a phrase to the word directly left of zi) |
| -zóres | (conj) | (links a "fact" abstraction (left) to a prepositional phrase (right)) |
| -zóro | (conj) | (links a prepositional phrase (left) to a "fact" abstraction (right)) |
Smooth English translation
Animal violence.
Once upon a time, man fed the lion. Although the lion was violent, man was not afraid of the animal because only mighty men reigned the lion, and everyone knew it. One time, a man decided to scare his lion, but the lion wanted to go back to the wilderness. The lion threw the man off his back and started to fight with him. The man was afraid and did not know what was happening, therefore he fled. The lion roared intensely. The roaring caused the mountains to shake and drew many more lions. The lions chased the man to death and ate him.
