A portion of a poem, in West Nindic (Hinession)

Vit denian essiles áit galév a meira
es da iól nos d’hevein
glas, cáis ha ellorn
es da nér no c’huaven ág potein a dhi

/vit dEnja~ Esil@s a:jt galev @ me:R@
 Es d@ jo:l n@s dEve:n
 glas ka:js a ElORn
 Es d@ ne:r n@ GwavE~ a: pote:n @ Di/

There was sorrow
unperceived until this moment
in the reflection of the clouds,
gray, pink and white,
in the lake water at my feet.

Interlinear:
Vit        denian e-ssil-es* áit    galév  a meira*
there.was  sorrow un-see-PP  before moment "this"

e-s*   da  iól           no-s    d’  hev-ein
in-def the reflection    of-def the  cloud-PL

glas, cáis ha  ellorn
gray  pink and white

e-s    da  nér   no c’h0uaven* ág  pot-ein a dhi*
in-def the water of lake       at  foot-pl "mine"


*essiles:  This is the past participle of the verb
<tili> "to see". It has the negative prefix <e->,
which causes nasal mutation, one of the few instances
of this mutation in Hinession.

N.Mutation:
 t > ss     (< /T/ < /nT/  < n + t)
 p > f      (< /f/ < /mP/  < n + p)
 c > <zero> (< /x/ < /Nx/  < n + k)

 b > m
 d > n
 g > ng

*galév a meira

This is a kind of determiner phrase in Hinession.
Determiner phrases occur in Hinession  with possessive
adjectives and demonstratives, but not usually the
article (which is preposed not postposed).

The "a" is the clue that it's a determiner phrase,
it's most likely the head of the determiner phrase..
In x-bar syntax it'd be:

[DP[SPEC NP'galév'][D'[D'a'[Demonstrative 'meira']]]]
or something to that effect.

The final "v" of <galév> is a liaison device. It comes
from nouns in Nindic that had a weakly sounded "v"
final, that was most of the time dropped.

*es da iól
This is an example of a preposition in the definite
form. Many prepositions have a final "s" appended
before the article. This arose in Middle Nindic with
various analogies:

 Old Nindic: /Es/ "in"
             /nOz/ "of"

 Early Middle Nindic: /Es/ + Consonant/Vowel
                      /nO/ + Consonant
                      /nOz/ + Vowel

 Late Middle Nindic: /E/ +Consonant
                     /E/ + Vowel
                     /nO/ + Consonant
                     /nOs/ + Vowel

 The form with "s" was used in Middle Nindic before
the older Definite Article "i", which started with a
vowel. In Hinession, this article was substituted with
"da", but the old "s" form remain, reanalysed as a
definite form.


*no c’houaven

This is the "genitive" of  <couaven> "lake"
the particle <no> "of", causes second lenition:

t > dh  /D/
p > v   /v/
c > c'h /G/
d > dh  /D/
b > v   /v/
g > <zero>

First lenition happens after leniting words ending in
a vowel:

t > d /d/
p > b /b/
k > g /g/
d > dh /D/
b > v /v/
g > <zero>

*pot-ein a dhi

Here is another determiner phrase. This time with the
possessive adjective "dhi". The plural of <pot>
"foot", could also be <pét>, which is the older form.



Well, there you go :)
~Elliott









		
_______________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Declare Yourself - Register online to vote today!
http://vote.yahoo.com