Ring N/X: 3/11: Inagalasi

Eric W.

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[ Inagalasi | Smooth English | Interlinear | Grammar | Vocabulary ]

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Inagalasi

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Nakofu Uhekisudibaredalo

Putinusen bitilo ogofudahogilo ogosalalo aladefi selatu ogoputinusen ahatalo nidisififi nakonu baredalo. Dopurusen baredalo. Kutusen uhekilo repubinade ogoputinusen seboyanelo ogotanisolo ogolitanulo salade itu kukofi. Dugohusen baredalo kusufinetu huyalunafi bigabofu, arakasusen businalo papayafi sikufi adaneta. Putinusen kusufinelo satude uhekide sikunetu. Ulofusen tusa anatu ogoburokasusen alalo ubenata netananitu.

Smooth Translation

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How to Make Meat-cakes

To make the dough, mix ordinary wheat, oil, and salt, and add water as needed. Put aside the dough. Cut up some cooked meat and mix it with onions, spices, and a bit of salt. Knead the dough into walnut-sized balls, and then flatten them into circles with your hands. Put balls of the meat on the circles. Fold them in half and cook them all in an oven until golden.

Interlinear

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Nakofu	Uhekisudibaredalo
Nak-o-fu	Uheki-sudi-bareda-lo
make-GER-TOP	meat-sweet-dough-ACC
How to Make Meat-cakes

Putinusen	bitilo	ogofudahogilo	ogosalalo	aladefi	selatu
Put-in-us-en	biti-lo	ogo-fudahogi-lo	ogo-sala-lo	alade-fi	sela-tu
put-3DAT-SUBJ-2P	wheat-ACC	AND-oil-ACC	AND-salt-ACC	everyday-SIM	self-DAT
To make the dough, mix ordinary wheat, oil,

ogoputinusen	ahatalo	nidisififi	nakonu	baredalo.
ogo-put-in-us-en	ahata-lo	nid-is-i-fi-fi	nak-o-nu	bareda-lo.
AND-put-3DAT-SUBJ-2P	water-ACC	need-PASS-3PNOM-SIM-SIM	make-GER-BEN	dough-ACC.
and salt, and add water as needed.

Dopurusen	baredalo.	Kutusen	uhekilo	repubinade
Dopur-us-en	bareda-lo.	Kut-us-en	uheki-lo	repub-i-na-de
remove-SUBJ-2P	dough-ACC.	cut-SUBJ-2P	meat-ACC	cooked-3PNOM-NOM-GEN
Put aside the dough. Cut up some cooked meat and mix it with

ogoputinusen	seboyanelo	ogotanisolo	ogolitanulo	salade	itu	kukofi.
ogo-put-in-us-en	seboya-ne-lo	ogo-taniso-lo	ogo-litanu-lo	sala-de	i-tu	kuk-o-fi.
AND-put-3DAT-SUBJ-2P	onion-PL-ACC	AND-spice-ACC	AND-little-ACC	salt-GEN	3P-DAT	cook-GER-SIM.
onions, spices, and a bit of salt.

Dugohusen	baredalo	kusufinetu	huyalunafi	bigabofu,
Dugoh-us-en	bareda-lo	kusufi-ne-tu	huyaluna-fi	bigab-o-fu,
knead-SUBJ-2P	dough-ACC	ball-PL-DAT	walnut-SIM	big-GER-TOP,
Knead the dough into walnut-sized balls,

arakasusen	businalo	papayafi	sikufi	adaneta.
ara-kas-us-en	b-us-in-a-lo	papaya-fi	siku-fi	ada-ne-ta.
THEN-cause-SUBJ-2P	BE-SUBJ-3P-PLNOM-ACC	paper-SIM	circle-SIM	hand-PL-INST.
and then flatten them into circles with your hands.

Putinusen	kusufinelo	satude	uhekide	sikunetu.
Put-in-us-en	kusufi-ne-lo	sat-u-de	uheki-de	siku-ne-tu.
put-3DAT-SUBJ-2P	ball-PL-ACC	THAT-2DAT-GEN**	meat-GEN	circle-PL-DAT.
Put balls of the meat on the circles.

Ulofusen	tusa	anatu	ogoburokasusen	alalo	ubenata	netananitu.
Ulof-us-en	tu-sa	ana-tu	ogo-burokas-us-en	ala-lo	ubena-ta	netanani-tu.
fold-SUBJ-2P	two-ABL**	one-DAT**	AND-cook-SUBJ-2P	all-ACC	oven-INST	gold-DAT.
Fold them in half and cook them all in an oven until golden.

Grammar

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Grammatical Forms

Cases

PL	plural
NOM	nominative
ACC	accusative
GEN	genitive
SIM	similative (the manner in which an action is taken; similar to English "like")
DAT	dative (where something is moved to or what something is turned into)
ABL	ablative (opposite of dative; where things come from)
BEN	benefactive (for whom or what an action occurs, for whose benefit)
TOP	topic (what is the general topic or focus of the statement; similar to English "as for" or "with respect to")
INST	instrumental (what is used to perform the action)

Verb endings

1/2/3P	1st/2nd/3rd person subject
SUBJ	subjunctive (indicates that the clause is not an assertion but a possibility; also used in commands)
PASS	passive
1/2/3DAT	dative endings (see note)
NOM	nominalized (see note)
GER	gerund (the action associated with the verb (eg "destruction" from "destroy," "skiing" from "ski"); also similar to English -ness on adjectives)

Other

AND	"and" (conjunction)
THEN	"and then," "next" (conjunction)
THAT	"this", "that", or "that over there" depending on the following dative ending (see note)
BE	"to be" (the copula)
1/2/3P	1st/2nd/3rd person pronouns (I;you;he/she/it)

General grammatical notes

Inagalasi is a highly agglutinative language (as you can probably tell) with a very rich case system (17 cases). Word order is strictly verb-initial and usually VSO, and modifiers usually follow heads. Adjectives and verbs are not distinguished (well they slightly are but it doesn't matter for this little text); in fact, the only syntactic categories are nouns and verbs.

Verbs (and some special nouns for different reasons) that imply motion usually carry an ending that marks the person of the dative (ie whether the movement is towards me, towards you, or towards neither of us). These dative endings are used even when there is no corresponding noun in the dative case.

There is a rather large set of nouns in Inagalasi that are called "determiners"; these mostly correspond to determiners or quantifiers in English. The noun they modify always follows them and is in the genitive, while the determiner itself takes the case of the full phrase. For example, in a sentence like "I ate two apples", "two" would be a determiner in the accusative and "apples" would follow it in the genitive.

Lastly, the most confusing and complicated aspect of Inagalasi is the nominalization of verbs. First, to turn a clause into a noun-like form as in "the fact that you fly", you take the verb for "you fly" ("falayen") and drop the final consonant ("falaye"). This is indicated in the interlinear by adding "NOM" to the ending the consonant was a part of (compare "falay-en" "fly-2P" and "falay-e" "fly-2PNOM"). Case endings are then added to show the role of the clause in the sentence (eg "I believe (the fact) that you fly" "Karey-an falay-e-lo" "beleive-1P fly-2PNOM-ACC").

Alternatively, a case ending can be added to such a nominalized clause to make a nominal actor, such as "the way in which you fly" or "the person for whom you fly" ("falay-e-fi" "fly-2PNOM-SIM" and "falay-e-nu" "fly-2PNOM-BEN") respectively). The case ending added corresponds to the role of the "actor" in the nominalized clause: if "the way in which you fly" is "(like) a bird", then "you fly like a bird", with "bird" in the similative case. A second case ending is then added to show the role of the nominal actor in the sentence as a whole (as in "I eat in the way in which you fly" "Et-an falay-e-fi-fi" "eat-1P fly-2PNOM-SIM-SIM").

OK, I know that's confusing, but try to make some sense of it; hopefully the exact details won't be too hard when you just have to understand what the text is saying.

Vocabulary

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Wordlist:
ada	hand
ahata	water
ala	all, everything
alade	"everyday"; in the similative ("aladefi") it means "ordinary"
ana	one; see note under "ulof" for idiomatic usage
bareda	dough; bread (in compounds)
biga(b)	large, great
biti	wheat
burokas	to cook, heat, burn
dopur	to remove, displace, put aside
dugoh	to knead, shape, form
fudahogi	(cooking) oil
huyaluna	walnut
kas	to cause
kuk	to cook; see note under "put" for idiomatic usage
kusufi	sphere, ball, any 3-dimensional round shape
kut	to cut
litanu	"a little bit"
nak	to make
netanani	gold
nid	to need
papaya	paper; flat (in the similative "papayafi")
put	to put, place; when followed by "selatu" or "kukofi" it means "mix together"
repu(b)	cooked, ripe, mature
sala	salt
seboya	onion
sela	"self"; see note under "put" for idiomatic usage
siky	circle
sudi(b)	sweet, good-tasting
taniso	spice, flavoring
tu	two; see note under "ulof" for idiomatic usage
ubena	oven
uheki	meat
ulof	to fold; when followed by "tusa anatu" means "fold in half"