Found the obscure language of Thunder Rock!

Packing things for our imminent move (well, not very imminent, not
until December or so but we're having some things stored) Boudewijn
came across the draft of a declaration of war in the language I
mentioned some time ago: nicely agglutinating and with some neat
features that I'd forgotten, like repeating the core pronoun as a
clitic in the verbal phrase and the consistent OVS structure that's
also echoed in the verb phrase.

It's from a joint conculture project that I used to take part in; the
language of a very small country, basically a rock in the middle of a
river, called _Ardh Keraiven_ "Rock of the Foremost Women" or _Arno_
"The Rock" (usually called "Thunder Rock" by other denizens of that
world) and inhabited by a temple full of priestesses.

Grammatical notes and vocabulary below. That the First Lady (the High
Priestess) addresses the Sheber King as -se- (non-human animate) is
not, as I first thought when I read it after eight years, because she
despises him, but because he's in fact an elf and technically doesn't
qualify for -su- (human masculine). Not that she doesn't despise him,
of course, he's trying to exact tribute from her.

I don't think I'll ever start working on this again, so here's all
there is of it. There's also a script, that I rather like, but
that'll have to wait till I put it on my web page.


Kerain=F3 Makhuri.

Kersen=F3i ranan Shebven,
Misen=F3i ebodh=F3miruzlemat lahaive emamat.
Misen=F3i ebodh=F3miruzlemat lahaive erorot.
Emaroket!
Lahaive=F3 levodmit=E9r=E9u misen=F3 miseve=F3 mivodleroke.
Temke!


ker-  ai-n=F3 makhur-i
first-F- DU Makhur-IO  =20

The First Lady to Makhur.

ker-  se-n=F3-i  ran-    a-n    sheb-  ve-n
first-A- DU-IO country-*-Poss Sheber-DP-Poss

King of the country of the Sheber,

mi-se-n=F3-i  e-  bodh- =F3- mi-ruz- le-ma- t   lah-ai-ve e-  ma- ma- t
2- A- DU-IO Neg-money-DO-2c-give-1c-PST-Neg 1-  F- DP Neg-PST-PST-Neg

We never paid you any tribute.

mi-se-n=F3-i  e-  bodh- =F3- mi-ruz- le-ma- t   lah-ai-ve e-  ro- ro- t
2- A- DU-IO Neg-money-DO-2c-give-1c-PST-Neg 1-  F- DP Neg-FUT-FUT-Neg

We will never pay you any tribute.

e-  ma- ro- ke- t
Neg-PST-FUT-PRF-Neg

Never at all! ("definitely not until now or in the future")

lah-ai-ve-=F3  le-vod-  mi-t=E9- r=E9- u   mi-se-n=F3=20
1-  F- DP-DO 1c-fight-2c-IGR-INT-CND 2- A- DU

If you try to attack us,

mi-se-ve-=F3  mi-vod-  le-ro- ke
2- A- DP-DO 2c-fight-1c-FUT-PRF=20

we will vanquish you.

tem-ke
be- PRF

That's a fact!


Abbreviations:=20

F - feminine, A - non-human animate=20
DU - definite unique, DP - definite plural
DO - direct object, IO - indirect object/vocative
1, 2 - personal pronouns, 1c, 2c - clitic pronouns, Poss - possessive
PST - past tense, FUT - future tense
IGR - ingressive aspect, PRF - perfective aspect
INT - intentional mood, CND - conditional mood
Neg - negation
* - consonant-separating vowel (the one from the last syllable)


Vocabulary:

ardh - rock
bodh - treasure, money
   bodh=F3ruz "to give treasure" - to pay (tribute)
ker - first, foremost, No. 1
ran - country, realm
ruz - give
tem - exist, be, state of existence, fact
vod - fight, war


Articles:

n=F3 - unique singular (the sun, the High Priestess, The Rock)
vo - definite singular (the woman)
o  - indefinite singular (a woman)
ve - definite plural (the women)
e  - indefinite plural (women, some women)

Nouns defined by something else have no article:

ardho          a rock
arvo           the rock
Arno           The (Only) Rock=20
Ardh Keraiven  Rock of the First Women


Gender:

ai  human feminine
su  human masculine
se  non-human animate (elves, animals and forces of nature)

Inanimates are unmarked.


Person:

lah (clitic: le)  first person
mi                second person

Third person has only gender and number.


Tense:

ma     past
mama   distant past; also "always until now"
ro     future
roro   distant future; also "for ever from now on"


Aspect:

ke     perfective, absolute
t=E9     ingressive


Mood and miscellaneous:

r=E9            intentional
u             conditional
e-[phrase]-t  negative


Ingressive fighting =3D to attack; with the intentional: to plan to
attack, to try to attack

Perfective fighting =3D to wage war, to vanquish

Perfective being =3D to be an immutable fact

Note the difference between:

levodmir=E9t=E9 =3D you decide to fight us (first intentional, then
              ingressive)
levodmit=E9r=E9 =3D you try to attack us (first ingressive, then
              intentional)



            Varsinen an laynynay, saraz no arlet rastynay.
                     irina@rempt.xs4all.nl (myself)
       http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/index.html (English)
    http://www.xs4all.nl/~bsarempt/irina/backpage.html (Nederlands)