MeloChalaka

Finally!  I'm here now.  Here is that clip of a poem in MeloChalaka I
said I would post.  I included the translation with it.

G`rüshk   klú klú               Bluebird   chuckles(verb)
Tád'á   vív                     Woodpecker   buzzes(verb)
Gád   yágló                     Bluejay   warbles(verb)
Wádwí   tyí                     Bobwhite   whistles(verb)

  fá  vâl  lí  fâl     And more beautiful than all
Ylí  D'râç                      Breath of-forrest
Sñétwín  â  sñéchlâyn   C-E-tweet-3p. and C-E-sing-3p
Chíláyí  çånå  ón               Song haunt his (possesive pronoun)

 ¡ú'ínë!                               And look! (no morphology, just some word that
                                        sounds right)
Vûltsú  sîyå                    Sky W-I-Hm-brighten
Syér  sîshlå                    Cloud W-I-Hm-tearapart

Sfí  -dgó                               Com-NP-I   do(verb)
Sfí  d'yåy'l mgó                Com-NP-I  day make(verb)
Sfí móg gwló                    Com-NP-I  work(noun) finish(verb)
Sfí ké'ú -dgó                   Com-NP-I  painter do(verb)

C = Cyclical aspect
E = Efferent, i.e. the action is going out from subject
3p = third person
W = Waxing aspect, i.e. its getting more and more
I = Infferent, i.e. all the action is occuring within the subject
Hm = Happy mood, the person who says this is happy about it.
Com = completed aspect
NP = proximal past, the action has just happened.

Now, there are two things in this language about which I am very proud,
the accent, or metrical system and the voices.

The accent system is built for poetry.  It is very simple, but can be
used very effectively.  There are three rules.
1.  The accent always falls on the first syllable.
2.  A word cannot consist of more than three syllables. NO EXCEPTIONS.
3.  Every word in an utterance gets the same amount of time.  So,
whether it has one, two or three syllables, each gets the same abount
of time, like a beat for music.

The third rule makes all the fun.  Note in the first stanza the order
of syllable is 1-2, 2-1, 1-2, 2-1.  Try saying the first stanza and
beating the time with your hands.

I think it would also be fun to experiment with pauses, vowel
harmonization and putting all this to real music.

The second thing I am proud of is the voices.  There are four,
Afferent, Efferent, Infferent and Exfferent.  Efferent is like an
Active voice.  Afferent is like a Passive voice.  Infferent means all
the action is occuring WITHIN the person, Reflexive, sort of.  "My
heart beats" would be infferent, but "I beat myself" would be afferent.
Exfferent means all the action is occuring outside the speaker, the
speaker is merely the observer.  So, you can keep the person the same,
but change the voice, or keep the voice the same and change the person.

I thought this was a great language, but the speakers took one look at
it and threw it back at me.  They said it was to impractical for daily
use, what with the metrical system and all.  They did grudginly agree
that they would use it for poetry, but told me to go invent another
language for daily use.  So, I'm back at inventing a new one again.

chao,

Heather

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