mërèchi text

lyín kabàlëki ésöp'n ròg na-vítip'n àn líaclianic, àn kàlicianic,
   të àn yiàlaclianic
lyín kabàlëki ésöp'n khàdelü nàcash ka'shírsap'n làma
lyín kabàlëki ésöp'n nícnöm dóvi të bóltëcan níkin

hró týpatatëp'fa dà'c, na-ésöp'da à níllip cilitàlapi füshínnö ciliditàpi,
   yt'píhlcüp'da dèlchëmëa
hródi enèd na-ésöp'n dàgë tymàmr ki'büralóhlp'r fàcash
të lúthian ki'cilishíhlrap'të dàgë talàfiaba.

mërèchi interlinear

lyin kabale -ki    eso -p  -n   rOg na- viti -p  -n   an  liacli -a  -n -ic
N    N      D.ADJ  V   IMP PRON N   NOM V    IMP PRON ART ADJ    D.N PL ACC

an  kalici -a  -n -ic te   an  yialacli -a  -n -ic
ART ADJ    D.N PL ACC CONJ ART ADJ      D.N PL ACC

lyin kabale -ki   eso -p  -n   khadelu na     -c  -ash 
N    N      D.ADJ V   IMP PRON N       REL.PR ACC POST 

ka- shir -sa -p  -n   lama
NEG V    POT IMP PRON N

lyin kabale -ki   eso -p  -n   nicnom dovi te   boltec -an niki -n
N    N      D.ADJ V   IMP PRON N      ADJ  CONJ N      PL  ADJ  PL

hro    typatate -p  -fa  da   -c  na- eso -p  -da  a   nillip cilitala -pi  
REL.PR V        IMP PRON PRON ACC NOM V   IMP PRON ART N      V        PART 

fushin -no  cilidit -api yt-  pi[hl]cu -p  -da  delche -mea
N      POST V       PART MOOD V.OPT    IMP PRON N      POST

hrodi ened na- eso -p  -n   da   -ge  tymamr ki- buralo[hl] -p  -r 
SUB   N    NOM V   IMP PRON PRON POSS N      FT  V.OPT      IMP PRON

fa   -c  -ash
PRON ACC POST

te   luthi -an ki- cilishi[hl]r -ap -te  da   -ge  talafia -ba
CONJ N     PL  FT  V.OPT        IMP PRON PRON POSS N       POST

mërèchi glossary

Notes about orthography:

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.

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/
	hl	/l_0/
	sh	/S/
	y	/j/ (except after t, when it is /i/)

Key to symbols/Glossary:

ACC (accusative)

-c			after vowels
-ic			after consonants

ADJ (adjectives)

dóvi (dovi)		cruel
kàlici (kalici)		sick
líacli (liacli)		old
níki (niki)		sharp
yiàlacli (yialacli)	youngest

ART (articles)

à (a)			definite article, singular
àn (an)			definite article, plural

CONJ (conjunctions)

të (te)			and

D.ADJ (derivational adjectivizers)

-i			-like, -ish; follows consonants
-ki			-like, -ish; follows vowels

D.N (derivational nominalizers)

-a			someone who/something which is X

FT (future tense)

k'-			before vowels
ki'-			before consonants

IMP (imperfective)

-ip, -ap		after consonants
-n			after liquids
-p			after vowels

MOOD (modals)

yt-			may it be (with optative infix)
-hl-			optative infix, goes after stressed vowel

N (nouns)

bóltëc (boltec)		a bird's claw, a fingernail, a talon
dèlchë (delche)		the ground, the earth
enèd (ened)		the Sun
füshín (fushin)		a mild, equinoctial season
  füshín ciliditàpi	Spring
kabàlë (kabale)		coldness
  lyín kabàlëki		Winter
khàdelü (khadelu)	a rock
làma (lama)		living things, plants, growing life
lúthi (luthi)		a flower
lyín (lyin)		a time
  lyín kabàlëki		Winter
nícnöm (nicnom)		a bird's beak
níllip (nillip)		a boy
ròg (rOg)		a wolf
talàfia (talafia)	one's footsteps, the path one has taken
tymàmr (tymamr)		a mother

NEG (negation)

ka-			not

NOM (nominalizers)

na-			that which, he/she/they who; one who does

PART (participles)

-api			active participle (after consonants)
-pi			active participle (after vowels)

PL (plural)

-an			after consonants
-n			after vowels

POSS (possessive)

-gë (-ge)

POST (postpositions)

-ash			on (takes accusative)
-ba			from
-mëa (-mea)		over
-nö (-no)		of

POT (potentiative)

-sa			be able to do X

PRON (pronouns; can be suffixed or standalone)

-da			second person, singular
-ë (-e)			third person, singular, male
-fa			first person, plural
-n			third person, singular, neuter or unknown
-r			third person, singular, female
-të (-te)		third person, plural

REL.PR (relative pronouns)

hró (hro)		for which reason, why
nà (na)			which
   nàcash		on which

SUB (subordinating conjunctions)

hródi (hrodi)		so that

V (verbs)

büraló (buralo)		to look down, to watch something below
cilidít (cilidit)	to rise
  füshín ciliditàpi	Spring
cilishír (cilishir)	to grow up, to spring up
cilitàla (cilitala)	to go bounding along (from tàla, to walk)
ésö (eso)		be (copula); subject & object both take nominative
shír (shir)		to grow
  shírsa (shirsa)	to be able to grow
pícü (picu)		to dance
víti (viti)		to take, to snatch
týpatatë (typatate)	pray (from tý, holy, and pàtatë, ask)

mërèchi grammar notes

The grammar defaults to English-like unless otherwise specified. Note, however, that "hró" in this text is used only in a way that English "why" is not, and which is best translated by "for which reason, ..."

Mërèchi features postpositional phrases (just like prepositional only backwards). Overall sentence structure is SOV, and adjectives follow the noun.

Verbs take a tense or mood prefix, an aspect suffix, and a pronoun/agreement suffix. For optative mood, the -hl- infix follows the stressed vowel. Pronouns can either be suffixed to verbs (if they are the subject of the sentence or are agreeing with a noun in subject position) or can occur elsewhere with an accusative or postpositional suffix. If the sentence appears to have no subject, the subject is the pronoun on the verb.

The relative pronoun na, if it is the subject of the subclause, becomes a prefix to the verb; otherwise it stands alone and can take case suffixes and postpositions.

Smooth English translation

Winter is the wolf that takes the old, the sick, and the very young
Winter is the hard rock on which nothing grows
Winter is the cruel beak and the sharp talon

And so we beg you, bounding boy of spring, dance over the earth
So that the sun your mother will look down upon us
And flowers will spring from your footsteps.