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8. Asha'ille by Arthaey Angosii

Texts | Grammar Guide | Glossary
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Asha'ille

"Ven'Pajhúm"

Pas kemavni vilo'caruman 'sa esecon cashaev dovae'das k'. Pas movni ven'pajhúm 'sa cchishaevon doyeg aejírith k'. Vo ven'om 'sa ghya krith'tanijo k', t'ves veni 'yu chipal'grelle. Esni odhílev n'edh nom: pas movni ven'krith tanijo pajhúm k'. Vek'doyáldaevon domasheivon pajhúm k', én'i ne mlec aejilórid. Sholdavni ne kénon don'o doyeg kilésh, t'vet pas movni ven'pajhúm.

Smooth English

"Into the Waves"

I sat near the ocean, which was crashing all around. I went into the waves, which broke forcefully. I went into the uncontrollable waves, and it pleased me somewhat. I am dreaming all this: I went into the uncontrollable waves. When the waves advance and recede, I feel their strength. I want to see it far out, so I went into the waves.

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Grammar Guide

Website: http://www.arthaey.com/conlang/

The rules below describe only the Asha'ille grammar exemplified in the relay text above. Where possible, I have "lied" about the grammar rules to simplfy the discussion to just what is necessary to translate the relay text. If you want more details, visit my website.

Orthography Notes

Asha'ille uses apostrophes for several different purposes:

contractions (like in English)
glottal stop
joining prefixes or suffixes to base words (acting like a hyphen)
marking a sonorant consonant as long (|n| /n/ vs |n'| /n:/)

If the word |ne|, which precedes the object of a sentence, is followed by a word which begins with an |n|, the two words combine with an apostrophe:

|haláin| = "tree" (subject of sentence)
|ne haláin| = "tree" (object of sentence)
|nagá| = "rat" (subject of sentence)
|n'agá| = "rat" (object of sentence)

Only one apostrophe is allowed per contigous string of letters. "Extra" apostrophes are replaced with spaces:

|nagám'da| = "all rats" (subject of sentence)
|n'agám da| = "all rats" (object of sentence)

Nouns

Nouns are only marked for number: singular or plural. A plain noun is singular, while one with |-im| suffixed is plural. If the noun ends in a vowel, the suffix is simply |-m|.

Word Order

Asha'ille is a fairly strict VSO language.

Adjectives of exactly one word come before the word they modify, otherwise they come after and are usually marked for which word they modify. Note that the "adjective" category includes adverbs -- an adverbizer is simply prefixed to the adjective.

Subject and object(s) are separated by |ne|. The |ne| is required before all objects, even if the subject is only implicitly given:

|kén nagá ne haláin| = "the rat sees the tree"
|kén ne haláin| = "(something) sees the tree", or "the tree is seen"

Verbs & Persons

Asha'ille verbs can be marked for tense and person, among other things. If no tense information is given, present tense is assumed.

Asha'ille's system of persons is quite complex, but this text happens to showcase only a small portion of it. Verbal conjugations are suffixed to the verb, while nouns follow the verb as the verb's subject. For example:

|-(e)ni| = "I" (first-person conjugation)
|nagá| = "rat" (noun)
|nagov| = "to eat" (unrelated to the word |nagá|)
|nagov nagá| = "the rat eats" (noun)
|nagovni| = "I eat" (conjugation)

|kénillev| = "to see"
|kénilleveith| = "my friend sees" (full verb)
|kéneith| = "my friend sees" (dropped |-illev|)

Thus, after dropping |-illev|, the verb now ends in |n| in this example. If the next suffix happens to begin with another |n|, the |n| is contracted. This is written as an apostrophe after the |n|:

|kénillevni| = "I see" (full verb)
|kén'i| = "I see" (dropped |-illev|, contracted |n|)

Neither |*kénni| nor |*kéneni| are allowed.

This same contracted happens when a word beginning with |n| follows the word |ne|. For example:

|kénillevni ne no| = "I see it" (full verb, no contraction)
|kén'i ne no| = "I see it" (dropped |-illev|, no contraction)
|kén'i n'o| = "I see it" (dropped |-illev|, with contraction)

The dropped |-illev| and |n| contractions are very common in Asha'ille.

Tense and Aspect

Past tense is shown by either |pas| before the verb or with the suffix |-p-| between the verb and any conjugations. For example:

|pas nagovni| = "I ate" (particle)
|nagovpeni| = "I ate" (suffix)

Progressive aspect uses |-s-| or the auxilary verb |esv|, which is one of the only Asha'ille verb that drops its final |v| when taking a conjugation. |Esv| is also unique in its requirement of a conjugational suffix (which can only be the subject). It comes directly before the main verb, which cannot take the subject's conjugation because it is already marked on |esv|. For example:

|nagovni| = "I eat"
|esni nagov| = "I am eating"
|*es nagovni| = must put conjugation on |esv|

Adverbial Phrases

Any number of adverbial phrases may be included after the core VSO sentence structure, and one single-word adverbial phrase (not counting the adverb itself) may precede the verb. |Eg| heads the generic adverbial phrase that further describes the action of the sentence:

|ejheth| = "happy"
|kén nagá ne haláin eg ejheth| = "the rat happily sees the tree"

Besides |eg|, most other adverbs (which have more specific meanings than |eg|) begin with a |v|:

|vilo'-| = "near"
|aimenad| = "village"
|vilo'aimenad kén nagá ne haláin| = "the rat sees the tree near the village"

If the adverbial phrase is more than one word long (not including the adverb itself), then a "closing adverb" is also required at the end of the phrase, and the entire adverbial phrase must occur after the core VSO structure:

|kilo| = closing adverb for |vilo'-|
|mleith| = "my friend's"
|kén nagá ne haláin vilo'mleith aimenad kilo| = "the rat sees the tree near my friend's village"

Note that in the first example above, the adverbial phrase precedes the verb, whereas in the second it follows the verb. This is because, according to Asha'ille word order rules, only one-word modifiers may precede their heads.

A very common word that starts descriptive phrases is the contraction |'sa|, which heads a phrase that further describes the word immediately preceding the |'sa|. (This is a large simplification of this word; the details end up not being important for this text.

Subordinate Clauses

Nested sentences take the object slot of the matrix sentence. The embedded verb is nominalized via |-on|, after which follow any other conjugations of that verb. For example:

|shav esa| = "my friend speaks"
|kén'i ne shavon esa| = "I see that my friend speaks" or "I see my friend speaking"

If the subordinate clause would have normally had a |ne| in it, it becomes |done|:

|shav esa ne asha'ille| = "my friend speaks Asha'ille"
|kén'i ne shavon esa done asha'ille| = "I see my friend speaking Asha'ille"

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Glossary

aejilórid n. strength
aejírith adj. strong, fierce
áldaev v. continue, move forward, advance
caruman n. ocean
cashaev v. crash
cchishaev v. break over
chipal n. half, partial, somewhat
das adj. all, every
do- conj. (subordinate clause)
do- adv. re- (repeated action)
-ec prsn. (3rd-person singular neuter)
edh adj. this
eg mi. (heads an adverbial phrase)
énillev v. feel
esv asp. (progressive)
ghya adj. (focus)
-ijo adj. -able
-im pl. (plural)
kek adv. (closing adverb for |vek'|)
kemav v. sit
ken adv. (closing adverb for |ven'|)
kénillev v. see
kilésh adj. far
kilo adv. (closing adverb for |vilo'|)
krith- adj. -less, un-
masheiv v. recede
ml- poss. (intangible possession)
mov v. go
ne art. (precedes object of verb)
-ni prsn. (1st-person singular)
no pron. it
odhílev v. dream
-on n. (nominalizer)
pajhú n. wave
pas tns. (past tense)
'sa mi. (heads a phrase describing previous word)
sholdav v. want
tan n. control
te conj. and
vae'- adv. where
vek'- adv. when
ven'- adv. within, through
veni...grelle phr. I like ...
t'ves conj. and
t'vek conj. thus, therefore, so
vilo'- adv. near
vo pro. (pro-verb, refers to previous verb)
'yu pro. (refers to previous clause)

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