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 níkinhró 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.
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
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:
Additionally, y in some contexts (and ý always) is /i/.a, à /A/ e, è /E/ ë, é /e/ o, ò /O/ ö, ó /o/ i, í /i/ ü, ú /u/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)
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.
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 talonAnd 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.