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1. ɕoɑm (Jonathan)

Text

uɑqʰtʰɑɴ ɑɬθiæɾ̥ kʰuɑɲcɑw ciæθxɑquɑɴ epi æɾ̥eæ piqxoɾ̥iɕu æɾ̥piæ. qep kʰiciw xeæmɑɴtuɑ tʰoɾ̥eɬ cʰiæqʰ θiæχ ɰɾ̥ɕw mxɕw æɾ̥puɑtʰ — æɕuɑtʰ epi xæθɕ cʰəmq tepχ utʰtʰəɾ̥ətʰɕu pikttʰətutʰ — ɕoɑɾ̥ təχeɬ piktmətʰət. ɑɴqɑqʰcʰuɑ epi cʰɾ̥cw wtqʰɬq uɑχoɑxɕuɑ æɾ̥cɑw, ŋə weɸe ɲəpi: "θiqɲəpi, keæɾ̥ ɬekɕən ɾ̥exɬəɸ epi, ætʰiæŋ opʰ ɬ cʰiæqʰ emenuɾ̥pθitʰ. qepjuɾ̥ piktməχəppi ɸɲx æcʰ æɾ̥uɑɾ̥cɑ — ɑɬɑθɰɑ jætʰiæŋ θntqʰq ɕuɬcʰu neɸ tupʰəɴɰə enəɬətəɴ ewej təɰ oɑɬ jetʰkɕu æɾ̥uɑɾ̥uɑ," uɴicə.

Backtranslation

Because the fire is burning weakly, I [can] barely see what I'm writing. We've been sitting clustered close together in this small yurt for four hours — my friends have smoked eight packs of cigarettes — the conversation still hasn't finished. My translator is tired and wants to sleep, but I plead with him, saying: "please, my dear ɬekɕən ɾ̥exɬəɸ, tomorrow we will ride for only six hours. If I don't finish today it'll be too late — by tomorrow evening "Trunk Chaser" will already reach far to the end of the White Water Valley."

Grammar

ORTHOGRAPHY AND PHONOLOGY - Please see orthography image. Orthography is alphabetic, written left to right. Normally lines are broken at spaces, but they may also be broken at syllable or morpheme boundaries with no hyphen to indicate that this has happened. - Vowel length is a harmonic feature; i.e., all vowels in a word agree in length. There are three contrastive vowel lengths: not present, short, and long. In words with not present vowels, [ɨ] is inserted to form syllables, but the patterns for this are irrelevant here. - Long-vowel word marker and vowelless word marker occur at the beginning of a word to indicate that vowels are all pronounced long, or are not pronounced at all (respectively). Without one of these marks, all vowels in the word are “short”. - There are five short vowels: /i/, /e/, /ə/, /o/, /u/. These each have a “long vowel” (realised as falling diphthong except for ə/ɑ) equivalent: /iæ/, /eæ/, /ɑ/, /oɑ/, /uɑ/, respectively. - There is also an /æ/ vowel, which phonologically patterns with the long vowels. When a word contains an /æ/, the long-vowel word marker is omitted, despite the fact that all other vowels in the word should be understood to be long. GENERAL WORD ORDER - Sentence-level word order is mostly SOV. - Adjectives precede nouns. - Subjects and objects closest to the verb have highest focus VERB MORPHOLOGY - Verbs must agree with subject and object, and other overt marking of subject and object is optional. A length-harmonised prefix clitic version of a pronoun agrees with object and a length-harmonised suffix clitic version of a pronoun agrees with subject. Examples include the following forms of /ɕuɬ/ ‘chase’, /ɸɲ/ ‘pass’, and /ɑɴqɑqʰ/ ‘translate’: -- /ɕuɬpi/ ‘I chase’, /piɕuɬθi/ ‘you chase me’, /uwɕuɬpθi/ ‘we (incl.) chase them (dual)’ -- /ɸɲp/ ‘I pass’, /pɸɲθ/ ‘you pass me’, /wwɸɲpθ/ ‘we (incl.) pass them (dual)’ -- /ɑɴqɑqʰpiæ/ ‘I translate’, /pjɑɴqɑqʰθiæ/~/piæɑɴqɑqʰθiæ/ ‘I translate you’, /uɑwɑɴqɑqʰpθiæ/ ‘we (incl.) translate them (dual)’ - Sometimes vowels can become glides to avoid hiatus issues (cf. ‘I translate you’ above) - The pronouns are as follow: -- 1.sg /pi/ (p/piæ), 1.du.incl /pθi/ (pθ/pθiæ), 1.pl.incl /pθitʰ/ (pθtʰ/pθiætʰ), 1.du.excl /pu/ (pw/puɑ), 1.pl.excl /putʰ/ (pwtʰ/puɑtʰ) -- 2.sg /θi/ (θ/θiæ), 2.du /θiθ/ (θθ~θjθ/θiæθ), 2.pl /θitʰ/ (θtʰ/θiætʰ) -- 3.sg /u/ (w/uɑ), 3.du /uw/ (ww/uɑw), 3.pl /utʰ/ (wtʰ/uɑtʰ) - In auxiliary verb constructions, the main verb receives object agreement and the auxiliary receives subject agreement, e.g. /piɕuɬɕu æɾ̥θiæ/ - ‘you are chasing me’ - Finite verb forms are assumed to be in a general “non-past” unless indicated otherwise. Tense suffixes follow the verb stem and precede any subject agreement markers. The tense markers include /wɾ̥/uɾ̥/uɑɾ̥/ (future), /χp/χəp/χɑp/ (conditional≈”if”), and /tʰt/tʰət/tʰɑt/ (past). - Verb negation is marked immediately after the stem (preceding any tense markers) using the suffix /m/mə/mæ/. - Auxiliary verbs are used to mark aspect. The main verb must occur in a participial form to occur with auxiliaries. The participial marker is /ɕw/ɕu/ɕuɑ/. Common auxiliaries include /æɾ̥/ ‘be’ (progressive aspect), /pikt/ ‘finish’ (perfective/completed aspect), /mx/ ‘come’ (durative/”still” aspect) - Verbal adjectives are formed with the suffix /x/xə/xɑ/, which follows tense marking. Verbal adjectives take no person agreement. They modify nouns, and can be formed from auxiliaries. They can modify a “null” noun, in which case case suffixes can be attached. E.g., /kʰuɑɲxɑ/ ‘something that’s burning’, /kʰuɑɲxɑ uɑqʰtʰ/ ‘a burning fire, a fire that’s burning’, /kʰuɑɲxɑquɑɴ uxoripi/ ‘I see that which is burning’ - Verbal nouns are formed with the suffix /ɬ~jɬ/eɬ/eɑɬ/, e.g. /kʰuɑɲeɑɬquɑ uxoripi/ ‘I see burning’. They take noun morphology (see below). - Verbal adverbs are marked with the suffix /c/cə/cɑ/. A verbal phrase headed by a verbal adverb becomes an adjunct to another phrase, e.g., /ɰɾ̥c wtqʰtʰtp/ ‘I slept sitting down’, or literally ‘sitting, I slept’. Aspect-marking auxiliaries can be verbal adverbs, and tense can also be marked, e.g. /ɰɾ̥ɕw pikttʰətcə wtqʰtʰtp/ ‘having sat down, I slept’. Each verb phrase can take its own arguments. If the subjects of the two verb phrases are different, subject agreement marking follows the verbal adverb marking, e.g. /ɰɾ̥ɕw pikttʰətcəw æɾ̥æ wtqʰtʰtp/ ‘I barely slept after he sat down’, or literally ‘him having sat down, barely I slept’. NOUN MORPHOLOGY - Nouns can be marked as definite with the suffix /ɴ/əɴ/ɑɴ/, which follows case suffixes. - Cases mark the grammatical role of nouns. The suffixes can occur on other noun-like things (pronouns, adjectives with no following noun, verbal nouns, verbal adjectives with no following noun, etc.). Nouns in nominative (subjects) receive no case marking. Common case suffixes include: -- /q/qu/quɑ/ accusative (direct object of verb) -- /θɾ̥/θiɾ̥/θiæɾ̥/ inessive (“without”) -- /tw/tu/tuɑ/ locative (“in/at/on”) -- /jɸ/eɸe/eæɸeæ/ commitative (“with”) -- /ɰ/ɰə/ɰɑ/ dative/delimitive (“to/up to/by”) - The genitive case is not marked by a suffix, but by a prefix /j/e/eæ/ on the “possessed” word, which usually follows it. An example might be /uɑqʰtʰɑɴ etepχəɴ/ ‘the fire of the cigarette’. It can also be used to name something and make noun-noun “compounds”, e.g. /cʰiæqʰɑɴ jæɕ/ ‘friend hour’, or literally ‘the hour of friend’ - When a noun phrase with an embedded genitive phrase in it receives case, the head noun receives the case marking, e.g. /uɑqʰtʰquɑɴ etepχəɴ uxoripi/ ‘I see the fire of the ciegarette’. - The plural suffix /wtʰ/utʰ/uɑtʰ/ extends the noun stem—i.e., it occurs immediately after it before any other noun suffixes are added.