Conlang Relay 22/Iliani

Iliani

Trynein guleyn halsen

Trynan neasa tenut. Irelsean ponat li merven le lasat. Ponsinan irelsinen tay ponat, lesne chala le mostat dost leaz. Lesne tay nacronesat croninan nasta asten le denat. Dost asten dona purat, nezii do naperat. Lesne dosta chonyna dilat gurnien so lea sonat. Trynan tay ponsinan irelsinen sonat ni lein lerei irashen. Leryan hyrna chalat! Trynan yatesh dosta nasonat. Dost brysesat so nanerisisat. trynean lea golesat, trynan fayat dosta da rodynet fere. dost melynat mervean so serynat. merven trynein ponsinan rodynat. gurnen ferynat so lea ganat, ey!

Smooth English

Song of the Merchant's Fall

A merchant prepared to travel. He loads a donkey-drawn wagon. While he loads the cargo into the cart, a child comes to watch, a dog with him/her. When the child gets hungry he/she goes home to find food. The dog wants to go into the house but the relatives don't let it. The child makes the dog sit down and ties it to a bush. When the merchant ties the cargo to the cart he doesn't have enough rope. He sees another rope! So the merchant unties the dog, the dog starts to run and to make a fuss, the merchant begins to panic, the merchant swings to hit the dog, the dog yelps and spooks the donkey, the donkey hits the merchant's cargo, jumps into the bush and gets stuck, hey!

Grammar

Ilaini is relentlessly SOV, where O can be anything from nothing at all to a whole phrase. Other constituents can be wherever it's convenient. Phrase conjunctions ("and", "but") tend to come after the first constituent of the phrase.

Impersonal constructions

The impersonal construction is formed with the epicene third person pronoun _lea_ and the third person singular of a verb. Some verbs are intrinsically impersonal, with other verbs it can be used as a kind of passive (lea furat, from fura "to name" - "he/she is called"), The semantic subject of an impersonal is in the accusative. Conjunctions can't come between _lea_ and the verb; only prefixes and some negations do.

Reflexive

The reflexive pronoun is _le_ for all persons and genders. Verbs of motion with regard to a place ("come", "go to") are often reflexive.

Inceptive aspect

This has the infix -es- (before the verb ending). It designates that the action of the verb is beginning or imminent.

Of verbs with multiple infixes the weakest syllable (usually -en-) can get elided: daysenesat "it starts to rain" -> daysesat.

Historical present

The traditional way to tell a story taking place in the past is to start with a verb in the past tense (-u- in the endings) and go on in the present tense (-a- in the endings). In this text only the third person singular is used (-at/-ut).

Collective nouns

The collective plural is formed like the normal plural with -i- in the endings where the normal plural has -e-. It takes singular endings.

Nominal paradigm: Class II (-[V]n ending) [1] Class III (no ending) [2]

Vocabulary

astin

house, home

az

with (suffixed to pronouns)

brysa

to run

chala

to see, to watch

chonyna

sit down

croni (c)

food

da [V] fere

so that [V], in order to [V]

dila

- cause to, make (someone do something)

do

but, however

dost

dog

ey

exclamation, "hey!"

feryna

to jump

gulyn

a fall

gurnen

bush

halsen

song

irashen (+gen)

enough

irelsin (c)

wagon, cart

lasa

to pull

lea

3rd person singular epicene pronoun, impersonal pronoun lea ganat - to get stuck

lea golat

to panic

le dena + ill

to go into

le mosta

to come

lein

genitive of masculine singular possessive pronoun, "of his"

ler

rope (mass noun)

leryn

a rope

lesne

child

li

neuter singular relative pronoun

melyna

to yelp

merven

donkey

nacrona

to be hungry

nanerisina

to make trouble, to make a fuss

napera

to disallow, to forbid

nasona

to untie, to loosen

nasta

to find

neasa

to travel

nezii (c)

relatives, family

ni

negation for everything except verbs

pona

to load, to fill

ponsin (c)

cargo, load

pura

to want

rodyna

to hit

seryna

to be frightened, to spook

so

and

sona

to tie

tay

while, during

tena

to prepare, to make ready

trynan

trader, merchant

yatesh

therefore, because of that