first native text!

On a long car trip last Sunday, I finally discovered the first connected
_native_ text in Asiteya. It's a classical hymn, though the melody is not
forthcoming. Probably in a minor key. Anyway:

-eseh iganu
cloak the-sky.gen
The sky's cloak,

-yerad@ wa hoyanal om@ ikoas@
mist-COL TOP drape-MID on the-mountain-DIS
mists [are] draped on every mountain,

-si wa ei xya
you TOP much beauty
You are so beautiful.

-kate aralu nao
cloud distance.gen INS
From a distant cloud,

-baiya sa baiyanal om@ imoiya
lightening AGT flashes-MID over the-sea
Lightening flashes over the sea,

-si wa ei xya
You are so beautiful.

-si wa ei xya
-ikatek@ wa ihw@ isamnu
the-cloud-PL TOP feather the-sun.gen
The clouds are the sun's feathers

-ta ais@
at dusk

Abbrev.
COL - collective plural
MID - middle voice
DIS - distributive plural
TOP - topic
gen - genitive
INS - instrumental
AGT - agent
PL - plural

-The article used is consistently the polite article.
-Instrumental covers the role of source.
-In line 5, the verb "baiyan" just means "to do what lightening does" and
has a number of idiomatic and metaphoric uses. It is reflexive here, so the
literal meaning is more like "lightening lightenings itself".

So what d'yall think?

Jennifer


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