Ring E: 22/22: Asha'ille

Grammar

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Background

Asha'ille is spoken on a conworld, Cresaea, and as such their flora and fauna have no *exact* Terran equivalent. I've provided the closest Terran terms anyhow, since a huge treatise on Cresaean ecology isn't appropriate to a relay. :)

Syntax

Asha'ille has fairly strict VSO order and no case markings. S is separated from O by the word "ne," which always precedes the object(s), even when no subject is explicitly given. By convention, some verbs take two objects instead of using an adverbial phrase for one. In these cases, "ne" separates each object from one another, as well.

Multiple subjects for one verb (as would be joined with "and" in English) are listed serially in Asha'ille. If only two subjects are given, there is usually no comma separating them.

One-word adjectives precede nouns; multi-word adjective phrases follow nouns and are headed by a word that links the phrase to the word it describes. Adverbial phrases also obey this rule for determining whether they precede the verb or follow after it.

Adverbial phrases are always introduced with an opening adverb, and if the phrase is longer than a single word (not counting the adverb itself), then the phrase must also end with its closing adverb. These phrases may nest:

      ves'... vek'... kek kes

Closing adverbs are frequently contracted to just "k'," with inner closing adverbs of nested phrases tending to contract before outer closing adverbs:

      ves'... vek'... k' kes

Where two closing adjectives appear adjacent to one another, and the first would be contracted to "k'," they may be further contracted:

      ves'... vek'... kkes

Pronouns

Instead of a 1st-2nd-3rd person system, Asha'ille categorizes people into 7 levels of "closeness" (with three sub-categories of beneficial relationships, harmful relationships, and neutral relationships). The simplest category -- and the only relevant to this text -- is the neutral category:

CATEGORY	CONJUGATION	PRONOUN
self	-naro	naroln
close	-aiye	e<#>
distant	-sóte	ó<#>
generic	-aerdh	ae<#> (used where English might use passive)

The "<#>" means that a "number suffix" must be added to the stem to form a complete pronoun: "-sa" is #1, "-da" is #2, for example. These number-suffix–derived pronouns only temporarily refer to a specific person. The number chosen start with #1 for the first person mentioned, and increases as each additional person from the same subcategory is singled out for discussion. Once the conversation is over, these pronouns no longer refer to anything, because they exist only in context.

Adjectival Phrase Headers

The word "e'kath" heads a phrase that describes the indirect object.

The stem "alun-" plus a number suffix (say for #n) heads a phrase that describes the nth previous word. By far the most common of these is "alunsa," which heads a phrase describing the immediately preceding word. "Alunsa" is so common that it is usually contracted to just "'sa." A special number suffix, "-yu", applies to clause-level descriptions.

Orthography

Apostrophes have multiple uses in Asha'ille. They can mean any of:

1. glottal stop, required between vowels that are not dipthongs.
2. long consonant, only allowed after m, n, or l.
3. morpheme binding, as between opening adverbs and their phrases
4. contraction

Where "ne" is followed by a word beginning with an e (say, "eyen"), it is regularly contracted (to "n'yen," in this example).

Miscellaneous

All declarative sentences may colloquially end with an upward-inflected "'e." In common usage, however, it normally only appears at the end of a long list of serial objects.

Vocabulary

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* see grammar notes below for an explanation

a'ach	boiling
acídh	hot
*ae-
*-aiye
arigh	meat
arishav	to answer
asardav	to add (may take 2 objects: first is the thing being added, second is the thing being added TO)
asárn	mixture
chat-	polite imperative
chi	small
*-da
di'ay	future tense
diy-	from (origin)
-d-	future tense
dochishyiv	to chop
dogír	most
*e
*e-
edh	this
eyen	container (very generic term, more so than in English)
gana	spice
gid	oil
hiji	a bovine-like animal
hyilok	cooking stone
ileiya	mother
-im	plural (i drops when noun ends in a vowel)
Imacatá	a region of Cresaea know for its cheese (and other food)
-ith	adjectivizer (i drops when noun ends in a vowel)
krurás	salt
-l-	separates subject and object conjugations on the verb
latijo	necessary
lloshav	to call, to name
ml-	possessive
nagov	to eat
*ne
no	it
*ó-
oshyen	butter
pajhen so'aefa	an onion-like plant
rilei	sauce
rúriv	to do, to make. to cook
*-sa
saetheth ttan	flour (a specialty kind of flour, not normal flour)
shanago	a spice used in Imacatá cooking
shatruv	to ask how to do something (may take 2 objects: first is the person being asked, second is the topic being asked
about)
sheló	tasty
sirev	to have
sshak	begins quotation
taraga	a traditional Imacatá dish not unlike ravioli ;)
te	and
téjh	Enjoy!
ura	water
ve	generic adverbial clauses introducer; often used for manner (closing adverb ke)
vae	where (closing adverb kae)
vedá	from (closing adverb kedá)
vek	when (closing adverb kek)
vek'vel	until (closing adverb ke)
vel	to, 'toward' (closing adverb (kel)
ves	also, simultaneously (closing adverb kes)
vesik	then (closing adverb kesik)
vik	now (closing adverb kik)
-yi	adds uncertainty or possibility to the action yinaveth gana a peppery spice
*-yu
zin'e	meal