"Silu Imeya ki yu Nase"Teya ki yu sasapa.
O somatayko oki yu omeno heye. Eni ki yu wanu wa sa k'elu yu lususu'ni u.
Si paka, o law oki yu nayakamasi.
Nima otoke ki yu wanu wa lawoko isayka.Osu o awko yu o asiyasa oki okuwa'ma i.
Te ki kesi ki yu awana paysi, heya ki yu li ma yu kele.
I law manako ki yu nayakamasi milu.Su ki lisa sa ki numayasa wa'ni luweya, heya ki yu hele milu sitoweya.
asiyasa (n.) dragon (der. "fire" + "lizard")
awana (v.) to play
awko (n.) nail
elu (part.) indicates the conditional tense (often used in a sentence with a phrase-final /u/, which indicates the irrealis. This conditional construction is used in imbedded clauses when the imbedded clause is a hypothetical situation set up by the matrix clause, so you don't need to necessarily translate it as "if" or "would".)
eni (pron.) third person singular pronoun, she, he, it (this is elided to /-'ni/ when it's the direct object of a verb or preposition)
hele milu (v.) to come back, to return
heya (pron.) that one, those ones (this is used as a resumptive pronoun. So, if you have a relative clause, such as, "The man I saw is tall", then in Kelenala, you would say [to be complete], "This man I saw him, that one is tall" [and, of course, you'd have /ki/ right after "that one]) (der. "that" + "one")
heye (adv.) there, at that place
i (conj.) and (then); (adv.) at that time, then
ima (pron.) we (first person plural) (this is elided to /-'ma/ when it's the object of a verb or preposition)
imeya (n.) sky
isayka (v.) to be sharp; (adj.) sharp
kele (adj.) joy-inducing; (v.) to enjoy, to like; (n.) enjoyment, amusement
kesi (n.) child
ki (1) (adj./specifier) this, these (a noun that is about to be the topic of a relative clause is preposed by /ki/)
ki (2) (part.) predicate marker (when the subject of the sentence is a third person subject, the verb phrase must be preposed by /ki/. /Ki/ is elided to /k'/ before a word beginning with a vowel, and can have the negative marker /o-/ attached to it)
law (n.) plant
lawoko (n.) scythe (der. "plant" + "cutter")
li (v.) to give to (this verb is used in a causative construction. The prototypical causative construction, where the theme is adjectival, goes thus: X li Y yu Z, where X is the causer, Y is the causee, and Z is the theme)
lisa (v.) to rain; (n.) rain; (adj.) rainy
lususu (v.) to steal (der. "take" + "bad")
luweya (adv.) for a long time; (n.) long period of time (der. "time" + "large")
ma (pron.) I (first person singular)
manako (adj.) broken (think of this as, "being in a state that one would ordinarily consider detrimental, or less than ideal for X". So, if X is a car, then the definition would be "broken". If X is a book, though, then the definition could be "torn up" or "illegible" or "marked up". Something like that. You can't define the word on its own: It must be defined in relation to what it modifies)
milu (adv.) again, once more, another time (der. "two" + "time")
nase (v.) to open; (adj.) opened
nayakamasi (v.) to grow, to start to grow; (n.) growth (der. "start" + "to be tall")
nima (n.) rock
numayasa (v.) to wait (for "to wait for", prepose direct object with /wa/) (der. "to stop" + "to stand")
o (part.) no, not (negative particle. Precedes anything that's being negated. A note: In a negative phrase in Kelenala, there must be agreement. So, you can't say "Everyone doesn't eat", or "no one eats", you have to say "no one doesn't eat". And an object, and you get, "No one doesn't eat no apple.")
o- (pref.) attaches to /ki/ make a negative sentence when the subject is third person
okuwa (v.) to stab (der. "to cut" + "deep")
omeno (v.) to be alive, to live; (adj.) alive; (n.) life
osu (conj.) however, though, yet (der. "no" + "reason")
otoke (v.) to reveal, to expose; (adj.) exposed; (n.) exposure (der. "no" + "to cover")
paka (n.) mountain(s)
paysi (adj.) giggly, elated; (v.) to be giggly, elated; (n.) elation
sa (pron.) this is a third person pleonastic that sits in subject position when the intended meaning is passive (e.g., "Sa ki yu maka poma" =3D "The fruit was eaten", or "(Somebody) ate the fruit")
sasapa (v.) to be barren, to be desolate; (adj.) barren (der. reduplication of "dry")
somatayko (n.) wild boar (der. "hair" + "pig")
si (prep.) this is a general locative preposition, and its translation varies: in, at, on, around, about, etc.
silu (adv./conj.) when, at the time that (der. "at" + "time")
sitoweya (adv.) finally, at last (der. "at" + "end")
su (conj.) because
te (adj./specifier) all, every, each
teya (pron.) everything, all (der. "all" + "one")
u (adv.) maybe (placed sentence-finally to indicate the irrealis mood)
wa (prep.) with, for (some verbs will require this to prepose their direct objects)
wanu (v.) to be like, to be similar to, to be as if (the direct object, whether it's a noun, adjective or sentence, is preposed by /wa/) (der. "no" + "other")
yeni (pron.) they (third person plural) (this pronoun elides to /-'ni/ when it's the object of a verb or a preposition)
yu (1) (part.) indicates the past tense
yu (2) (prep.) with respect to
yu (3) (prep.) of (genitive preposition)
When translating this, the first thing to understand is that Kelenala is supposed to be a creole. Therefore, it's grammar is fairly analytic, and most of the words are derived. Most derived words have been defined, since they're more than the sum of the parts, but those that are fairly transparent I've left as separate entities in the wordlist below.Kelenala word order is SVO, mandatorily, with adjectives following nouns, relative clauses following nouns, adverbs coming sentence finally, and adverbial-conjunctions coming sentence initially. One important note: There is *no* plural marking of any kind in Kelenala, or any distinction between mass and count nouns. Use this to your advantage (i.e., make things as plural as you want).
I'm not exactly sure yet how I'm going to present this. The principle behind Kelenala is that it's a language created from a word list. This word list can be seen at:
http://dedalvs.free.fr/kele/wordlist.html(You can also get some info on the TMA system there from the main page.)Every morpheme and word that's not on that list will either be covered by one of those words, or a combination of some of them. Ideally, since this is a creole, I should just be able to give you the word list and nothing else. That's not going to work, though.
The whole point of telling you all this is that if something *seems* difficult to understand, it's probably not, and is probably more analytical than what you're thinking of.
All right, I think that's it for grammar. This isn't all you need to know, but everything else you will need to know will be listed in the wordlist.
"When the Sky Opened"All was barren.
No boars lived in this place, as if someone had stolen them.
In the mountains, no plants grew,
(And) the exposed rocks seemed like sharp scythes.Yet, at that time, no dragons' nails stabbed us.
All the children played gigglingly, and that gave me joy,
And the crushed plants grew again.For the long awaited rains had finally returned.