A New Language

I have been working on a new language for a while.  It started off in a
previous as a eclectic language with a minimal grammar and lexicon.
Since I have revived it, I went through my language grammars and added
rules mostly at random and worked out how it fits together.

The working name of the language is 2.0, for now.

For an introductory translation, I took Mau's armadillo lullaby and
translated it, taking some liberties with the text as the speakers of
2.0 are neither cats nor armadillos.

He, corhyin!  Me sapilin't belt
Yahda to timo mulit da curishen, savo^!
Kshanane vinsenya,
Ga hyodi sapilt to po^maca sangust.
Jid mir, me^ bramna dim,
Stanyat ti curan, pilamegu.

A break down of the poem, with annotations:

He, cor.hyin!  Me sapil.in.'t bel.t
VOC child.DIM 1s know.REL.2s want.PRES
Hey, kid! I know what you want

The relative suffix -in follows a verb of speaking or thinking.  It
cannot be used independantly.  The pronoun following it has been
reduced.

The verb ending -t is commonly found for the second and third person of
the verb.

Yahda to ti.mo mulit da curish.en, sa.vo^!
CONJ 3s be.NEG occasion INF sleep.INF CAUS.see.IMP
But this is not the time to sleep, make like you see!

There is no personal pronoun for the third person.  The common
demonstrative pronoun 'to' is used instead.

Ti is the common present tense of the verb to be for the second and
third person.

The negative ending -mo was cannibalised from Welsh and indicates the
following word is definite.  For some strange reason one of the few
places where 2.0 makes a clear distinction between definite and
indefinite nouns is in the negative object.  Weird.

Mulit is a verbal noun that means falling.  Here I use it to mean
moment, time, occasion.  In another translation which I will post later
it means rain.

Kshan.an.e vins.en.ya,
sky.person.PL win.INF.COND
The shining ones would conquer,

The metaphysics of the 2.0-speakers is still under negotiation, but I
have decided that they are polytheists.  The kshanane are the gods that
dwell specifically in the heavens.  Kshan- is a variant of the standard
word kyan, sky.  I like the cluster /kS/.

Ga hyodi sapil.t to po^maca sa.ngus.t
PL people know.PRES 3s CONJ PL CAUS.hear.INF
People know that and listen.

The plural verb always takes the plural marker 'ga'.  Hyodi, people, has
no singular form.  The conjunction po^maca implies subsequent action.

Jid mir, me^ bramna dim,
come.IMP to_speaker 1s.POSS sister to.1s
Come, my sister,

2.0 has several verbs meaning to come or go which is complicated by the
use of directional markers to and from the speaker.  Note the possessed
noun is doubly reinforced.

Stanyat ti curan, pilam.egu.
future be.PRES beautiful light.rule
The future is beautiful, a world of light.

To conclude, a rough phonetic pronunciation of 2.0:

hE kQr\hjIn m@ sapIlIn bElt
Jahd@ to: ti:mo: mu-:li:t d@ kUr\ISEn savQ:
kSanan@ vInsEnj@
g@ hjQdi: sapIlt to: pQ:mak@
dZId mIr\ me: bramn@ dIm
stanjat ti: kUran pIlamEgu-:

- andrew.
--
Andrew Smith, Intheologus                         hobbit@griffler.co.nz
alias Mungo Foxburr of Loamsdown
http://hobbit.griffler.co.nz/homepage.html

The tribe need a father who is afraid only of ceasing to love them well.
                                                       - James K. Baxter