As promised, a gloss of the translation in my last post of Shleicher’s Fable into Calintese.
Máfi=s raùcco=s=go
sheep=ART horse=ART=and
The Sheep and the Horse
Articles are suffixed onto the preceding noun. The clitic -go ‘and’ I borrowed from Latin -que.
Hey-éa craùrm-Ø–a-va máfi ar-ìt-ea raucc-ún,
hill-LOC woolly-PRS-F.S-NEG sheep see-PFV-F.S horse-ACC.P
On a hill a sheep without wool saw horses
There are no true adjectives in Calintese–they are subsumed by the category of verbs. Thus, there is not “woolly” but rather a verb “be woolly,” and placed in attributive position before a noun it takes participial meaning: “a being-woolly sheep.” In certain classes of verbs the ending differs between attributive and predicative functions. In this example, -a and -ea both mark that the subject of the verb is feminine and singular (and nominative, only subjects can govern predicate verbals anyways), but the long form is used in the predicate or main verb. Diachronically, the long forms are reduplicated endings changed by vowel dissimilation. Originally, the reduplicated part must have been an entire copula. (Calintese lacks an overt copula. Thus one could alternately analyze the verbal system as consisting entirely of participles, which, in predicate, post-subject position are understood to be accompanied by an implicit “is” or “are”.)
These verbal adjectives can be marked for any nominal case. The entire system is largely inspired by the Russian past tense, though instead of just -л, -ла, -ло, -ли, I expanded the system to include the analogues of the marginally existent -лого, -лому, etc.–what the forms would be in the other, non-nominative cases.
Note also that the present tense has no overt marker, unlike the past perfective and imperfective.
xi é bièd-il-ei il-èi treàul-á,
and one lead-IPFV-N.S great-PRS.ACC.N.S cart-ACC.N.S
and one was pulling a big cart,
é nó-el-ei il-èi nost-á,
one bear-IPFV-N.S great-PRS.ACC.N.S burden-ACC.N.S
one was carrying a big load,
égo nó-el-ei amatt-ú griècc-il-ei-go.
one=and bear-IPFV-N.S person-ACC.S quick-IPFV-N.S=and
and one was carrying a person quickly.
I have decided that adverbs can’t be straightforwardly derived from verbal adjectives. The strategy Calintese instead employs can be seen in the above sentence: literally, “was carrying and was quick”. Compare English, in which someone can “come running” but not “come runningly.”
Máfi-s im-ìt-ea raucc-òden=sa,
sheep=ART say-PFV-F.S horse-DAT.P=ART
The sheep said to the horses,
“Dlàtta=ca métt-Ø-e ar-Ø-àu biètt-Ø-e raucc-ún amatt-ú c-é.”
heart-1S hurt-PRS-N.S see-PRS-ACC.F.S drive-PRS-ACC.M.S horse-ACC.P person-ACC.S 1S-ACC.F
“My heart hurts me seeing a man driving horses.”
Note that biètte ‘driving’ is accusative, just as all predicative verb-adjectives can be considered nominative. Ample verbal case agreement obviates most need for relative pronouns, Calintese instead liberally using participial phrases.
Ráucc-a-s im-ìt-iae, “Last-í, màfi, dlàtt-ae=na métt-Ø-iei aunet-ú, àr-Ø-ia é-a:
horse-P=ART say-PFV-M.P listen-IMP sheep heart-PL=1P hurt-PRS-N.P 1P.EXCL-ACC see-PRS-M.P this-ACC.N
The horses said, “Listen, sheep, our hearts hurt us, seeing this:
amátto, hiettél=so, dèx-Ø-i memm-Ø-èi éyal maf-ev-á=s craùr-ie=s pr-òdi,
person, master=ART, make-PRS-M.S warm-PRS-ACC.N garment sheep-GEN-INS.F=ART wool-INS=ART REFL-DAT.M
a man, the master, makes a warm garment for himself from the sheep’s wool,
The genitive case takes Suffixaufnahme, i.e., verbal endings to agree with its head (subject) noun. This also means it can take tense! We could say that the wool was mafevila “formerly of the sheep.” I feel justified in calling the genitive a case and not a derivational morpheme in that its form differs among the nominal declension classes.
xi máfi=s craùrm-Ø-a-va. Last-ít-a é-a màfi=s plùv-it-ea lurín-ara=s.
and sheep=ART woolly-PRS-F.S-NEG. listen-PFV-F.S this-ACC.N sheep=ART flee-PFV-F.S plain-DAT=ART
and the sheep is without wool.” Having heard this the sheep fled into the plain.
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