Text
“Numathos lysseae”
Ari absolessa, sonomne kasi emerē
hēne figētame ena dēnai libittai rivenē.
Par pindēn velessānēn, takserai
ita ōiou faiōm, eraithider ta fienai.
Dagerena falaia talia foue herrai,
sina semīō fāvrine dumum keneiō obtonai.
Isō zukē diā inae oldur dīkthoi
dīmai kurai, tam hekthē olīmī dege iris
nassoi vobuloi.
English Translation
“Descent into insanity”
I have wasted my life, always trying to
fulfill my quirky predilections, like in a long sleepwalk.
About my goals which I have failed to achieve, I surmise
(logically, I hope) that it’s all a trick of the mind.
I attempt to discover my place, where I fit in,
but the maps are false and the road signs wrong.
So let me create, that I may live for eternity,
my own rules, and let nightmares guide me into
the deepest darkness.
Grammar and Vocabulary
GLOSSES (n.b. “n.” refers to nominal class; “v.” to verbal class)
ab-, pref. verb intensiviser
aria, n. life
dagerai, v. to house; to contain; to fit in, to feel comfortable in a place
diā, pron. 1psg vocative case, used with the imperative to convey “let me …”
dīkai, v. to live, alive
dīma, n. rule
duma, n. road
-e, suff. essive case
-e, suff., verb gerund, which can be used in string a series of verbs in chronological or causative order
-ē, suff. adverb-forming suffix
emerēs, n. everyday [conjugation I]
ena, postp. like, as though
eraithos, n. logic
fae, n. irr. mind [conjugation I, stem fai-]
falaios, n. supposed to, meant for, expected [declines for all declensions]
fāvrinai, v. fake, forged
fienai, v. to hope
figētamos, n. lit. “dream-wandering”
fouēn, v. to discover
hekthēn, v. to guide
hēnos, n. long
herrai, v. to try to ~ (follows verb gerund)
inae, prep. so that, for the purposes of (takes genitive)
iras, n. the inside of
isō, interj. so, thus, therefore
ita, prep. marker of reported speech/thought etc. [see also “meta”]
-itt-, suff. diminutive or humble, with connotations of undesirability or awkwardness (in the social sense)
kasi, adv. always, constantly, continually
kena, n. sign
kus, kur-, n. own, proper, personal, private [declines for all declensions]
meta, postp. marker of reported speech/thought etc. [see also “ita”; sometimes shortened to “ta”]
-(i)mnai, suff. habitual/nomic aspect
-n-, suff. adjective-forming suffix
nassos, n. deepest, innermost
obtonai, v. wrong
ōios, n. all, entirety
oldur, adv. forever
olīmir, n. nightmare
par, prep. about (takes abl.)
pindos, n. goal, aim
rivēn, v. to follow, to accord with
-sa, suff. perfect aspect
semia, n. map [conjugation V, minor irregularities in declension pattern]
sina, conj. but
solerēn, v. to let flow; to waste, to abandon
sononai, v. to live daily life [stem: sono-]
tam, conj. and (connects clauses)
takserai, v. to surmise, to conclude
talias, n. place/seat/position in society
velerēn, v. to fail at
vobulos, n. darkness
zukēn, v. to create
BACKGROUND INFO
The text is written in a traditional Arithide hexameter—6 stressed syllables per line.
Arithide is a highly inflectional language. Typical word order is SOV, but the inflections allow considerable free variation in word order. There are 2 word classes: “nominal”, which decline, and “verbal”, which conjugate.
Arithide words sometimes undergo phonological changes as morphological boundaries, so keep an open mind when matching words to glosses and the reference grammar below—you’re welcome for the extra fun 🙂
Nominal class
The 11 cases of Classical Arithide are:
- Nominative, which marks the subject of a verb
- Topical, which marks the topic of a sentence
- Accusative, which marks the object of a verb
- Genitive, which marks possession by
- Dative, which marks motion towards, and by extension benefaction to etc.
- Locative, which marks location (with places) or indicates shift of grammatical focus (with objects and people)
- Ablative, which marks motion away or existence apart, and by extension is used with prepositions such as parō“about, regarding” or etel “by (agentive)”
- Instrumental, which marks instruments, and by extension accompaniment, using the preposition syn“with”
- Vocative, which marks direct address
- Connective, which is an open-ended stem form to which certain affixes or other nouns are appended, e.g. salumos“heaven” + innos “top” > saluminnum “in heaven” (lit. “on heaven”; innos is in the locative) and allas“city” + dolō “around” (from dolos “surroundings”) > alladolō “around the city”
- Essive, which marks existence as, or substitutes for the copula
Here is a chart of the declensions:
And for pronouns:
Verbal class
Each class is conjugated for five voices, three basic aspects, four derivative aspects, seven moods but no tenses (except the future):
- Voices:active, middle, passive, causative, potentive
- Aspects:imperfective, perfective, perfect; habitual/nomic, inceptive, frequentative, protractive
- Moods:indicative, subjunctive, volitive, optative/desiderative, jussive, imperative, negative
- The interrogative mood is marked by a following particle “da”.
- Tenses:Only the future tense is explicitly marked, independently of aspect.
Note that each verb conjugation has its corresponding verbal adjective, e.g. serēn “to write” vs. serenos “…that writes”. Each of these adjectives can decline to agree with any noun class, even though in the PDF attached they are only listed in the declension I nominative case. E.g. sessānera mābera “the mother who has written (a letter etc.)”
Classical Verb Conjugation of Classical Arithide (PDF of sample conjugations).
Adjectives
Adjectives in Arithide straddle both the nominal class and the verbal class—predicative adjectives follow the verbal class, while substantive adjectives fall into the nominal class. There are regular translation rules between the two, but that goes beyond the purpose of this relay. For declension/conjugation, refer to the same charts as above.
Do not rely on FrathWiki … those pages are old and need updating.