11. Tariatta

Text

Kalisheth Utte Say

Kesu tia unne kalisheth utte lo ossaliu ar shenariu na ashirith siurinneth le lea noa nusseth.

Perualiu na ashirith fe yassaliu. Uta onniliu sieriliu no yoesha ilu fe ta yu ashiri ara fe inusa unne noa tenna lishi kesa ila noa ta. Uteasa unne ar ilu rosha siurisseth, fe shamasa ar na ena yettaliu.

Shamaliu ar as aliu nika noa nusseth sewasse. Shenaliu we lushasseth to fe po luasseth Ayshtatte eraliu no shemath me retasa tennath lishi pese.

Oli nikalia noa nusseth siorasa say fe al ishurisa.

English Translation

My Good Father

My father said to me “I want you to take the horse up to the mountain and check on the goats.”

I mounted the horse and left. While travelling, I met a group who had many horses and showed me the sweet fruits they had found. They told me there was a lion on the mountain, and they feared that I would be hurt.

I feared that my horse would not reach the goats in time. We rode all night, and by moonlight I saw where the sweet fruit grew.

When we reached the goats they were all right, and had given birth.

Grammar and Vocabulary

Grammar

Tariatta sentence structure is fairly strictly VSO. The language has inflections, although not all cases are present, and verb tenses are minimal, supplemented with particles and auxiliaries. Verbs generally inflect for person and number, although a second “conjugation” of sorts simply has a form that covers everything but the 1st person plural, plus one that covers that. Tariatta also uses a narrative present, where the first verb in a text may be past tense to show the time frame, and everything else will be in the present even though the time frame has not changed. This is to bring life to the story, in the eyes of the native speakers.

Noun case endings are attached directly to the noun, and the definite article is suffixed to the noun plus its ending, if any. The article is -th, and is not generally repeated on every noun in a noun phrase, thus oru yonetteth is either “a bank of the river” or “the bank of the river”. Plurals are indicated either by context such as verbs or pronouns referring to the noun, or words indicating plurality such as “ara” (much, many), or by the particle “yu” preceding the noun. Generally if anything else shows the noun’s plurality, “yu” is not used.

Case endings you will see in this are:

-tte	genitive
-nne	dative
-sse	locative

Tariatta avoids prepositions unless you need to be specific, so the dative handles to/towards for direction as well as indirect object, the ablative handles from, and the locative handles any sort of in/on/etc. unless you have to specify the exact relationship.

Adjectives follow the noun, and do not inflect. One way to form adjectives from a noun is to attach the ending -tta, thus Taria (the island continent where Tariatta is spoken) becomes Tariatta (what English might call “Tarian”).

Personal pronouns are only used if the verb doesn’t show the person, but one special use they have is in forming the accusative. The pronouns you will see in this text are u (I), o (it), and oa (they, neuter). These form their cases just like nouns, but also have an accusative case formed by *prefixing* an n- to the pronoun. Thus, nu, no, and noa. Since nouns have no accusative form, this is simulated by simply inserting the appropriate pronoun, which in this text is exclusively no (it[ACC]). Thus, “kaliliu no sekath” is “I fetch the water” and literally “I-fetch it[ACC] water-the”.

Verbs, as I said, do not generally show tense, but only person and number, and for some verbs almost only person, not number. The endings are suffixed directly onto the verb stem, which doubles as an infinite (and also a noun…), and are as follows:

1st. sing.	-liu
2nd. sing.	-riu
3rd. sing.	-su
1st. plur.	-lia
2nd. plur.	-ria
3rd. plur.	-sa

To make up for the lack of tenses, Tariatta either uses particles or auxiliaries. The partical al indicates a past tense, although its usage is fairly formal. An old, irregular form of the verb “to do”, which is essentially a stem of “ke” plus the personal endings, is used to form a past tense as well, and an old, irregular form of the verb “to go”, which essentially has a stem of “a” plus the personal endings, is used to indicate a future tense.

Finally, a word about word order. As I said, Tariatta is pretty strictly verb-subject-object. This also applies to the placement of question words and relative pronouns, which do not come at the beginning of the phrase as in English, but rather fit into their normal position in a declarative sentence in whatever case might be needed. Thus, “Kirariu pesho kali no sekath du ta yonesseth?” is “Why have you come to fetch the water that is in the river?”, or literally “You-come why to-fetch it[ACC] water-the is that river-in-the?”

Glossary

a / as

negative particle

a

she, her (Accusative: na)

al

past perfect particle

aliu

I go, am going (used to make future tense)

ar

that (conj.)

ara

much, many

ashiri

unicorn

Ayshta

the moon

ena

passive particle, precedes verb

era

to see

fe

and, with

ila

to find

ilu

there is/are

inu

to show

ishuri

to give birth

kalishe

father

kesu

he did

kesa

they did

le

in order to

lea

to check on, check the status of, find, review

lishi

sweet

lo

a particle that works like an opening quotation mark, indicating speech etc.

lua

light

lusha

night

me

where

na

conditional particle, would, might

nika

to reach, achieve

nusse

a small antelope with long fur, kept for shearing and milk

o

it (accusative: no)

oa

they, them (neuter) (accusative: noa)

oli

when (conj., not question), then

onni

to travel

ossa

to want, desire

perua

to mount, get on

pese

there, in that location

po

under

reta

to grow

rosha

sabre-toothed large cat

say

good

sewa

timely, used with locative to indicate “in time” or “on time”.

shama

to fear, be afraid

shema

place, location

shena

to ride upon

sieri

to meet, come upon

siora

to be (status, health, etc.)

siuri

mountain

ta

relative pronoun, that, which

tenna

fruit, vegetable

tia

to say, tell

to

entire, whole

u

I, me (accusative: nu)

uta

to continue, duration, while, during

utea

to tell, narrate, bear witness

we

during, while

yassa

to leave, depart

yetta

to hurt, harm, damage

yoesha

group of people, tribe

yu

plural marker, precedes noun but only if no other indication of plurality