Vos u Yatsal - A short story in Oldvak

This is a translation of August Schleicher's story "The Sheep and the
Horses", using the English version shown below.  As Oldvak does not have a
general word for a single sheep of undetermined gender (sort of like English
cow/bull/cattle), I have used "ewe".  Same goes for horses, using "mare" in
this story.  So "Vos u Yatsal" means "The Ewe and the Mares".  If anyone
wants to puzzle through how the story works, I'd be glad to help!


Vos u Yatsal

   Dolba, vos alirmatye selde alerse yatsal, ial yali tamulag goran tseyer,
ial antar go zurze, u ial dzoi antar ber.
   Vos iva yatsali, "Egerseas ber aldira yatsali obolsu mat zia."
   Yatsal iva, "Vos, tasi, yegerseas ber aldira sulteye usselde ulotasi ali
yobolsu mat zia.  U vos irmat selde."
   Alatasur, vos lergai eldilu.


The Ewe and the Mares

   On a hill, a ewe who had no wool saw horses, one of them pulling a heavy
wagon, one carrying a big load, and one carrying a man quickly.
   The ewe said to the mares, "My heart has pain to see a man ruling over
the mares."
   The mares said, "Listen, ewe, our hearts have pain when we see man, the
master, taking your wool for a warm coat for himself.  And the ewe has no
wool."
   Hearing this, the ewe fled into the plains.


How would you describe the sound of this language?  I can't figure out what
natlang it sounds like, though it seems vaguely "Siberian".  The vowels are
all Latin, |s| is /S/, |y| is /j/, stress is on the syllable before the last
closed syllable (penultimate in words ending in a consonant, antepenultimate
in words ending in a vowel).

Replies