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Ring E: 2/22: mërèchi
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Amanda Furrow
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ëàlis lachàtian calëlómnö siröfàsap'të:
lösiröfàp'n fàla kèshepë fúi, sàlapë, këràtpë, të lièlpë, të lötödisödafàp'n;
lökesanikfàp'të calëlóm yihechidàfi të làcci, të lögürifàp'të kasàtanli të
këràtli nikèsi;
lölapalitsödafàp'n gàtasü fàla, të lalüpidafàp'të pàlitan hródi lösiröfàp'të
lítan böltànsü haridàfi;
lödisödafàp'të pàlitan calëlóm-gürífiapë lítacümdi yískesi;
lömetafàp'n líta lítali të l'accidödafàp'të;
lödisödafàp'të chàkapacümdi; löyihechidafàp'të tólic të'lahatýmisöv'të;
löhalafàp'n, lachàtian calëlómnö ki'siröfàv'të.
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Here is my smooth translation. I decided my people write recipes in the
conditional passive, which is rather weird but fun.
Thus may meat pastries be made:
If dough is made from white flour, oil, salt, and water, and set aside;
If cooked meat and onions are chopped, and mixed with spices and a little salt;
If the dough is formed into walnut-sized balls, and the balls flattened so
that they are made into circles the size of a spread hand;
If balls of the meat mixture are placed into each circle;
If circle with circle is covered and they are joined;
If they are placed in an oven; if they are cooked until they have become
golden;
If this is done, meat pastries will be made.
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The mërèchi love diacritics. The diacritics are mostly meaningless (they
encode vowel pronunciation as well as stress, but stress is not usually
important and vowel pronunciation is rarely other than standard). If
you cannot read them, the interlinear is presented diacritic-free, and the
vocabulary includes diacritic-free versions of all the words.
The apostrophe is written by convention to indicate where certain prefixes
and suffixes have been attached to a word. It is not pronounced.
Apostrophes in the text can be helpful in finding prefixes and suffixes,
although not all prefixes and suffixes are set off by apostrophes; however,
you can be sure that an apostrophe never occurs inside a word root.
All the vowels in the text presented have the standard values:
| a, à |
/A/ |
| e, è |
/E/ |
| ë, é |
/e/ |
| o, ò |
/O/ |
| ö, ó |
/o/ |
| i, í |
/i/ |
| ü, ú |
/u/ |
Additionally, y in some contexts (and ý always) is /i/.
Consonants also have IPA values except:
| c |
/k/ |
| ch |
/x/ or /tS/ |
| sh |
/S/ |
| y |
/j/ between vowels, /i/ next to consonants |
The grammar defaults to English-like unless otherwise specified. The
major differences are that mërèchi features postpositional phrases
(just like prepositional only backwards), and that adjectives (and all
other modifiers except the article) follow the noun. Adjectives do not
agree in case, number or postpositions with the noun.
The genre of the current text is usually written in the conditional
passive, for reasons best known to the mërèchi. As a result, this text
is entirely lacking in accusative case and in most pronouns. Word
order is SOV in declarative sentences, VSO in conditional sentences.
Verbs take an optional negative prefix, an optional tense or mood prefix,
optional derivational prefixes and suffixes (such as the causative,
passive, inceptive, abilitative, and equative), a mandatory aspect suffix,
and a mandatory pronoun/agreement suffix. If no tense or mood prefix
appears, the verb is in present tense. Perfective aspect is used for
simple past actions; imperfective is used in the past tense to show that
someone habitually used to do something, or was doing it for some time;
the present tense usually uses the imperfective.
Example
| ka'ki'tinidep'a |
| ka- |
ki- |
tinide |
-p |
-a |
| NEG |
FT |
remember |
IMP |
1P.SG |
| I will not remember |
Tense prefixes
| ki-, k- |
future |
| te-, t- |
past |
Mood prefixes
Aspect suffixes
| -p |
imperfective |
| -v |
perfective |
Pronouns can appear as verb suffixes, in which case they agree with
or are the subject of the verb, or they can appear elsewhere as
independent words with a case or postpositional suffix. If the
sentence appears to have no subject, the subject is the pronoun on
the verb. Otherwise, the subject will be the noun without a case suffix
or postposition, and will agree with the pronoun on the verb.
Derivational affixes are used heavily in verb formation. Affixes are
accretive; they build upon those already attached to the word.
Examples using the abilitative suffix -sa, the inceptive prefix la-,
and the passive suffix -fà (-fa):
| hàla (hala) |
to do |
I do it |
| hàlasa (halasa) |
to be able to do |
I can do it |
| halafà (halafa) |
to be done |
It is done |
| halafàsa (halafasa) |
to be able to be done |
It can be done |
| lahàla (lahala) |
to begin to do |
Some suffixes move the stress in a word (the causative and passive
suffixes steal the stress, for example; the passive participle -fi
also moves the stress, but to the previous syllable), which causes
different vowels to become accented.
The equative suffix -sö (-so) creates a verb meaning "to be X", where
X is the root to which it is affixed and is either a noun or adjective:
| èchi (echi) |
hot |
| èchisö (echiso) |
to be hot |
| lahèchisö (lahechiso) |
to become hot |
| echidà (echida) |
to keep hot |
| lahechidà (lahechida) |
to make hot |
| pàlit (palit) |
a ball |
| pàlitsö (palitso) |
to be a ball |
| lapàlitsö (lapalitso) |
to become a ball |
| lapalitsödà (lapalitsoda) |
to make into a ball |
The equative suffix can be omitted between an adjective and a causative
suffix, as illustrated above with echidà and lahechidà.
Postpositions
| -cüm (-cum) |
in |
| -cümdi (-cumdi) |
into |
| -di |
to (a place) |
| -li |
with |
| -nö (-no) |
of |
| -pë (-pe) |
made from, made of |
| -sü (-su) |
the size of |
Plural suffix
| -an |
after consonants |
| -n |
after vowels |
Nouns
| böltàn (boltan) |
a hand (collective plural of "finger") |
| calëlóm (calelom) |
meat |
| chàkapa (chakapa) |
an oven |
| fàla (fala) |
dough, batter |
| gàta (gata) |
a walnut |
| gürífia (gurifia) |
a mixture |
| kasàta (kasata) |
a spice |
| këràt (kerat) |
salt |
| kèshe (kEshE) |
flour |
| làcci (lacci) |
an onion |
| lachàtia (lachatia) |
a pastry |
| lièl (liEl) |
water |
| líta (lita) |
a circle |
| pàlit (palit) |
a ball |
| sàla (sala) |
oil |
Adjectives
| atými (atymi) |
golden |
| ëàmliö (eamlio) |
this |
| fúi (fui) |
white |
| hàri (hari) |
spread out, wide |
| lúpi (lupi) |
flat |
| nikèsi (nikEsi) |
a little, a small amount |
| yískesi (yiskEsi) |
every, each |
Pronouns (can be suffixed or standalone)
| -n |
third person singular suffix, neuter or unknown |
| -të (-te) |
third person plural suffix |
Verb prefixes
| l- (l-) |
conditional mood, before vowels |
| la- |
inceptive derivational prefix (before consonants) |
| lah- |
inceptive derivational prefix (before vowels) |
| lö- (lo-) |
conditional mood, before consonants |
| ki'- |
future tense |
| t'- |
past tense, before vowels |
| të'- (te-) |
past tense, before consonants |
Verb suffixes
| -dà (-da) |
causative derivational suffix |
| -fà (-fa) |
passive voice |
| -fi |
passive participle |
| -p |
imperfective aspect, after vowels, sonorants |
| -sa |
abilitative derivational suffix |
| -sö (-so) |
equative derivational suffix |
| -v |
perfective aspect, after vowels |
Verbs
| accídö (accido) |
to join, to come together |
| dísö (diso) |
to be located |
| gúri (guri) |
to mix, combine, stir |
| hàla (hala) |
to do (something) |
| kèsanik (kEsanik) |
to cut up, to chop |
| mèta (mEta) |
to cover |
| sírö (siro) |
to create, to make |
| tödisödà (todisoda) |
to set aside |
| yihechidà (yihechida) |
to cook |
Other words
| ëàlis (ealis) |
thus, by this method |
| hródi (hrodi) |
so that |
| të (te) |
and |
| tólic (tolic) |
until |
