Sí gararátha ammem Ndoremada Machemada
phar chvaras matalas matanathas,
sanach natalora hañ:
Acajarara macal cvavamas, potetim, samelim,
smeñ, ñal, haph, thaj, piper, pheldim Chinana
majach tirph malag haralas u semelas.
Acraphatha macal, potetim, a samelim nar phiñim pichithim;
anadaratha amana merechana piper a thaj simiñ;
achvaratha techen malegi, hephi, smeñi,
piperi, pheldimi Chinana a majechi
a ephelatha am techen merechi macaleri.
Ndoremas Machemas oñgomara "raviolim".
Sal asapharatha emim raviolim ñalas,
a acvachatha isil baralas.
Narajá!
|
 |
When you ask a mother from the Great Lands
for the making of a very tasty meal,
maybe she will answer thus:
You need beef, potatos, onions,
butter, oil, water, salt, pepper, Chince spices,
spicy sauce, oat or wheat flour.
You chop meat, potatos and onions into very small pieces;
you add pepper and a little salt to the mixture;
you make dough from flour, water, butter,
pepper, Chinese spices ans sauce
and fill the dough with the meat mixture.
In the Great Lands, they name it "ravioli".
Now soak the ravioli in oil
and cook until boiling.
Enjoy it!
|
Typology
Old Albic is a richly inflecting (part agglutinating, part fusional)
active-stative language of the fluid-S subtype, in which intranstitive
subjects are marked like transitive subjects if they are agents, and
like transitive objects otherwise. The unmarked word order is VSO.
Phonological alternations
An intervocalic /s/ becomes /r/.
The vowels /a/, /i/ and /u/ cause umlaut (changes of preceding vowels):
| /a/ |
lowers |
(i -> e, y -> ø, u -> o), |
| /i/ |
fronts |
(a -> e, o -> ø, u -> y), |
| /u/ |
rounds |
(a -> o, e -> ø, i -> y). |
Some affixes undergo vowel harmony, i.e. the vowel in them assimilates
to the nearest stem vowel.
Nouns
The Old Albic noun has eight cases:
| Agentive |
AS-0 |
| Genitive |
AS-as |
| Dative |
AS-ana |
| Objective |
OS-0 |
| Instrumental |
OS-i |
| Allative |
OS-ana |
| Locative |
OS-as |
| Ablative |
OS-ada |
Most are what you expect, but the locative also marks inalienable
possessors and objects of verbal nouns. The agentive is also used as
vocative. The instrumental is also used to derive adverbs from
adjectives.
The symbols `AS' and `OS' represent the agentive and objective stems,
respectively. The AS of an animate noun ends in a vowel indicating
gender and number:
| masc. sing. |
-o |
| fem. sing. |
-e |
| common sing. |
-a |
| dual |
-u |
| plural |
-i |
The OS is formed by adding -m to the AS. Inanimate nouns have only
an unmarked OS (dual -um, plural -im) and no AS.
Nouns modifying other nouns (including arguments of verbal nouns)
undergo suffixaufnahme, i.e. they agree with the head noun in number
and case in addition to their own number and case.
Verbs
The Old Albic verb takes person/number suffixes for agent and patient
if transitive, for agent if active intransitive, and for patient if
inactive intransitive:
| |
A |
P |
|---|
| 1sg. |
-ma |
-ha |
|---|
| 2sg. |
-tha |
-cha |
|---|
| 3sg. |
-sa |
-a |
|---|
| 1pl. |
-mi |
-hi |
|---|
| 2pl. |
-thi |
-chi |
|---|
| 3pl. |
-si |
-i |
|---|
There are eight tense/aspect/mood forms:
| present |
-a |
|---|
| imperfect |
-n- /-@n |
|---|
| future |
-u |
|---|
| conditional |
-n-u / -@nu |
|---|
| aorist |
°- (subject to vowel harmony) |
|---|
| subjunctive |
-i |
|---|
| aorist subjunctive |
°-...-i |
|---|
| imperative |
-0 |
|---|
An important nonfinite form of the verb is the verbal noun,
formed with the suffix -as. It declines like a regular inanimate
noun. The arguments of the verbal noun are coded as possessors:
the agent in genitive, the patient in locative case.
