à tënéfiadi përàchimnö anílëp'fa à lyínart élatennö büraritàpià lyín élatennö büraritàpi
lítac kalicímia të liaclímia cílvëp'të à keprachéaty líri
lítac lashirdàp'fa róli'c fà'gë lómiraà përàchim kàliri à lyínnö
ësóli nóm líri dëlachónnö
ësóli bóltëc ganàkinö
à na-ràch'ë ka'lérip'ë píma'cà përàchim kàliri à lyínnö
lítac ka'éap'n bülàtë
të ka'éap'n à lyín kabàlëki
të à níllip làrap'ëpícüp'fa à përàchimic kàliri à lyínnö
të à trúbet màtarnö nëyëfàp'n à enèdba à lyínnö
a tenefia -di pe- rach -im -no anile -p -fa a lyin -art elat -En -no burarit -api ART N POST GER V GER POST V IMP PRON ART N POST N PL POST V PART a lyin elat -En -no burarit -api ART N N PL POST V PART litac kalici -mia te liacli -mia cilve -p -te a kEp- racheaty liri ADV ADJ D.N CONJ ADV D.N V IMP PRON ART PREP N ADJ litac lashirda -p -fa roli -c fa -ge lomi -ra ADV V IMP PRON N ACC PRON POSS N POST a pe- rach -im kaliri a lyin -no ART GER V GER ADJ ART N POST esoli nom liri delachon -no ADJ N ADJ N POST esoli boltec ganaki -no ADJ N N POST a na- rach -e ka- leri -p -e pima -c ART D.N V PRON NEG V IMP PRON N ACC a pe- rach -im kaliri a lyin -no ART GER V GER ADJ ART N POST litac ka- ea -p -n a lyin kabale -ki ADV NEG V IMP PRON ART N N D.ADJ te a nillip lara -p -te CONJ ART N V IMP PRON picu -p -fa a pe- rach -im -ic kaliri a lyin -no V IMP PRON ART GER V GER ACC ADJ ART N POST te a trubEt matar -no neye -fa -p -n a enEd -ba a lyin -no CONJ ART N N POST V PASS IMP PRON ART N POST ART 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/ u, ù /U/ 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) ësóli (esoli) like kàlici (kalici) sick kàliri (kaliri) last, final líacli (liacli) old líri (liri) great, large ADV (adverbs) lítac (litac) when ART (articles) à (a) definite article, singular CONJ (conjunctions) të (te) and D.ADJ (derivational adjectivizers) -ki -like, -ish; follows vowels D.N (derivational nominalizers) -mia -ness (shifts stress to preceding syllable) GER (gerund, for lack of a better name) pë--m (pe--m) circumfixed to a verb X, means "the act of X'ing" IMP (imperfective) -p after vowels N (nouns) bóltëc (boltec) a claw dëlachón (delachon) a dragon élat (elat) a leaf enèd (enEd) the Sun ganàki (ganaki) a clawed lizard (Komodo dragon?) kabàlë (kabale) coldness lyín kabàlëki Winter lómi (lomi) food lyín (lyin) a time, a season lyín kabàlëki Winter màtar (matar) death níllip (nillip) a boy nóm (nom) a mouth píma (pima) compassion rachéaty (racheaty) a predator róli (roli) barley tënéfia (tenefia) a campsite trúbet (trubEt) an omen, a sign NEG (negation) ka- not NOM (nominalizers) na- that which, he/she/they who; one who does PART (participles) -api active participle (after consonants) PASS (passivizer) -fà (-fa) makes the verb passive PL (plural) -en (-En) after consonants (irregular) POSS (possessive) -gë (-ge) POST (postpositions) -art about, concerning -ba from -di at -nö (-no) of -ra as, acting as, for (take him for a..., what do you take me for?) PREP (prepositions) kep- (kEp-) to, as in given to PRON (pronouns; can be suffixed or standalone) -ë (-e) third person, singular, male -fa first person, plural -n third person, singular, neuter or unknown -të (-te) third person, plural V (verbs) anílë (anile) to sing bürarit (burarit) to fall cílvë (cilve) to come éa (ea) to exist éap'n there is làra (lara) to laugh lashirdà (lashirda) to plant léri (leri) to feel (an emotion) néyë (neye) to hide nëyëfà (neyefa) to be hidden pícü (picu) to dance ràch (rach) to hunt
The grammar defaults to English-like unless otherwise specified.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. 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.
New words:
ténë, to camp, tënéfia, a campsite
ràch, to hunt
-(í)mi-, "ness"
rachéaty, predator
líri, great/big
la-, inceptive
róli, barley
-ra, postposition "as a, acting as, for a"
ganàki, some sort of clawed lizard
léri, to feel
píma, compassion
làra, to laugh
at the hunting camp we sing about the time of falling leavesthe time of falling leaves
when sickness and age come to the great beast
when we plant barley as our foodthe last hunt of the season
like the great mouth of a dragon
like the claw of a reptile
the hunter feels not compassionthe last hunt of the season
when there is no harvest
and there is no winter
and the boy laughswe dance the last hunt of the season
and the omen of death is hidden from the sun of the season
The hunting camp sings about the season of falling leavesThe season of falling leaves
When to the great beast comes sickness and age
When to the child we plant barley for our foodThe season's last hunt
Like a dragon's great mouth
Like a crocodile's claw
The hunter has no pityThe season's last hunt
When there is no harvest
And there is no winter
And the child laughsThe season's last hunt we dance
And to the season's sun is obscured the sign of death