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12. Proto Central Mountain by Jeff Burke

Texts | Grammar | Interlinear | Abbreviations
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Proto Central Mountain

ki˙manoata˙no.

noistiata˙mata. situhpošo˙manki:ta.
onu:mašikohitunko:ta noata˙pita
"sokae:me! pemopanki:tu ti:ku!"
hetanipakinkitma "ki:manoata˙noho˙?"
noistiata˙mata "a:ha
ki:manoata˙no ni: noata˙nki okepitenki:ma."
ni: pakinkita:ma "še:no ka˙ka:makaukaoto˙me?"
noistiata˙mata "tokikapoto˙me? ontekapti:me
moktinkipti:ma." umesimea:tesi kinu:ma
ušahšimette:nko hi: nu:mahimohošo˙manki:ta.
i:si kinumata:si nomonkoata˙matanki.

Smooth English

"The Stone Who Speaks"

Long ago he spoke. I was walking down at the lake. As I kicked a stone, I heard him say, "Stop! I don't like that!" I took hold of him and asked, "Stones speak?" He said, "Yes, stones speak, but I speak only if I remember to." Then I asked him, "How have you lived your life?" He said, "Will you listen? If you'll agree, I'll tell of it." The words of the stone made me angry, so I threw the stone into the lake. Since then, stones don't speak to me.

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Grammar

Primordial Proto Central Mountain (PCM) does not distinguish morphologically between nouns and verbs; there is a single word class, members of which can act syntactically like either verbs or nouns. Aside from full-fledged words are lesser elements called particles; particles are usually functional in nature. Words that refer to things ("syntactic nouns") can be incorporated into larger words; when this is done, they have abbreviated forms, called initials; these abbreviated forms always appear as bound morphemes and never as stand-alone entities.

The basic structure of the PCM word is thus:

(PRIMARY INITIAL) + PRIMARY ROOT + (SECONDARY ROOT) + (SECONDARY INITIAL) + FINAL

Parenthetical elements are optional.

Explanation of the word elements:

PRIMARY INITIALS are usually the patient or direct object; but if no patient or object is present in the expression, the subject may be incorporated in this position.

PRIMARY ROOTS are the semantic cores or basic ideas of words; they're the general semantic fields around which words are built.

SECONDARY ROOTS modify a primary root in some way, often in an adverbial manner.

SECONDARY INITIALS give extra information about an act, beyond its basic participants (agent, patient, subject, object)--its location, manner, the means by which it is done, duration, etc.

FINALS are pronominals; they tell you who is doing what to whom. When a participant is incorporated into a word in initial form, it is not marked by or in a final. When there is only a subject and it is incorporated in initial form, a so-called "abstract final" is used on the word, either -on or -no; this abstract final does not impart pronominal information and is semantically empty.

There is no tense per se; there are two moods (manifest, unmanifest) and three aspects (continuative, perfective, imperfective). Mood and aspect are obligatorily shown on all words; the manifest-continuative combination is unmarked, while all other combinations are shown via infixes (or suffixes) on the final. Certain combinations of moods and aspects roughly approximate English tenses:

English Past: Manifest perfective
English Present: Manifest continuative or imperfective
English Future: Unmanifest continuative or imperfective

Notions such as the imperative, hortative and interrogative are expressed with mood and aspect; these ideas are fused with and can be expressed by the modal-aspectual markers.

The third person is divided into two kinds: the proximate (third person proper) and the obviative (or fourth person). There is only one proximate/third person per expression, usually the agent or subject; all other third persons become obviatives (fourth persons).

Conditional or subordinate words (using "if", "as", etc.) have clitics prefixed to them; the most common is o-.

The interlinear gloss is given in two levels: the first level is purely semantic; the second identifies the morphological functions of morphemes present in the word, in the same order as the first level.

[Note: Short vowels are unmarked; ˙ marks mid-length vowels; : marks long vowels.]

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