Rooaa haro aine assoa ago einceHaro aine assoa ago eince mo mopoa troihhe pat craua hau cele hau sono.
Haro aine assoa ago eince mo iaho savaua tteo noa tonca neusia uane.
Haro aine assoa ago eince tiap uonno voe teme, oua pposo hau ntarre ot euas.Mpreu, neco peie, neu sono hoale.
Om hem neusia ntuepa assoa uanai haro aine lese.
Tuer te, neusia vate, mehem polo ppou seeva cala neusia.Savau tteo saime, reo ouhat neusia.
|ago| n. "leaf"
|aine| n. "sky; weather"
|assoa| v.a. "witness, see happening; SWAP: there be, happen"
|cala / calaa| v.a. "serve, benefit, do a favor / for, for the benefit of", can act like a dative or benefactive preposition
|cele \ celema| v.s. "old, aged"
|crau \ craua| v.s. "sick, ill, diseased \ be sick, suffer from a disease"
|eig / eince| v.a. "fall; topple, trip; SWAP: fell, drop, take down"
|euas| n. "hawk, eagle"
|haro| n. "period of time, age, season"
|hau| conj. "and"
|hem / hema| v.a. "cause, make (... do ...); create; father"
|hoale / hoalea| v.a. "play, have fun, be careless"
|iaho| n. "rock"
|lese \ lesea| v.s. "cold, cool"
|me(m)-| pref. inverts the verb's parsing order from SVO to OVS, pseudo-passive
|mo / oua| v.a. "be, be a ... / being, as a ..." (attributive "be")
|mopua| n. "bear (the animal)"
|mpreu| conj. "but, however"
|neco| n. "whole, entirety"
|neu| n. 3rd person categorical "they all, the ...s in general"
|neusia| pron. 1st person categorical, "we all"
|noa \ noag| v.s. "identical, same \ be the ..., be identical with" (identitive "be")
|ntarre| n. "paw, talon, clawed extremity; barbed weapon"
|ntuepa / ntuepaa| v.a. "dig up, tap (resources), unpack, bring to light"
|om| pron. 3rd person plural
|ot \ oteh| v.s. "of, pertaining to \ belong to, be associated with"
|ouhat| n. "grave, tomb, monument"
|pat| n. "animal, creature"
|peie| n. "world, universe"
|polo| n. "sun"
|pposo| n. "tooth; beak"
|ppou / ppoua| v.a. "give, hand over; relinquish"
|reo / reua| v.a. "hide, keep secret; obscure, cover; SWAP: be hidden, invisible
|rooa / rooaa| v.a. "discuss, talk about, contemplate / about, concerning"
|saime| n. "flower, bloom"
|savau / savaua| v.a. "grow, raise, cultivate; SWAP: grow (on ..., in ...'s field)"
|seeva| n. "life"
|sono| n. "child, juvenile"
|te| pron. "this, this here"
|teme \ temea| v.s. "up high, on the top \ be above, be over..."
|tiap / tiappa| v.a. "hunt, prey upon"
|tonca| n. "food, nutrition, livelihood"
|troih / troihhe| v.a. "catch, seize, capture, claim"
|tteo| n. "plant, esp. low ones, undergrowth as opposed to trees"
|tuer| n. "time, point in time; time at which..., when"
|uane \ uaneh| v.s. "downstream; upcoming, future"
|uanai| n. "rivermouth, end, completion, goal, destination"
|uon / uonno| v.a. "put, place"
|vate / vatea| v.a. "dance"
|voe| n. "whip, scourge; judicial power"
Here are a few quick and dirty rules of Oro Mpaa grammar, but it's strongly recommended to check out the website, especially the grammar section:- Noun phrases are parsed from left to right, i.e. the first noun is the phrase head, and all immediately following nouns modify it. This is also used for genitive constructions: |ama sia| {mother I} "my mother".www.cinga.ch/langmaking/orompaa.html - Basic syntax is SVO.
- Every verb has exactly two forms: a finite ("strong") one and a non-finite ("weak") one. The former is usually translated as a finite verb, while the latter ends up as a participle, infinitive or relative sentence: |ttou mpa| "the man talks" (finite); |ttou mpaa| "the talking man, the man who talks".
- One distinguishes action verbs (v.a.) and state verbs (v.s.). The former are usually translated with a verb in English, the latter with "be" + adjective. There is no separate word class for adjectives in Oro Mpaa, they all come bundled in state verbs. Since the non-finite form of action verbs is usually derived from the finite form, their forms are given as strong / weak in the dictionary, while state verbs are given as weak \ strong:
|mpa/mpaa| "talk" -> |ttou mpa| "the man talks" (finite), |ttou mpaa| "the talking man, the man who talks"- A verb can never have more than two arguments in Oro Mpaa (a subject before and an object after it), so more complex events must make use of serial verb constructions. A verb always takes the noun phrase preceding it as a subject, even if it is the object of the previous verb: |Ttou tovea mbao iop.| {man kick dog run} "The man kicks the dog, who in turn runs."
|lote\loteh| "wet" -> |iaho loteh| "the rock is wet" (finite), |iaho lote| "the rock being wet == the wet rock"- The duty of prepositions is fulfilled by special idiomatic serial verb constructions: |Ttou ppou tacce ee mbao.| {man give bone go_to dog} "The man gives a bone to the dog.", |Tamen len rooa olo.| {guy sing discuss love} "The guy sings about love."
- Complex verb actions are often described with several simple verbs: |Ttou ppac uel penia.| {man hit fish die} "The man beats the fish dead.", |Sono toc crau.| {child eat be_ill} "The child overeats, the child eats so much that it ends up ill."
- Oro Mpaa verbs don't mind having no subject. It's an easy way to make passive or impersonal sentences: |Sel.| {rain} "It rains.", |Asso ttou.| {witness man} "There is a man.", |Toc uel.| {eat fish} "Fish is eaten."
- The prefix |me(m)-| makes a verb switch from SVO to OVS. |Uel metoc.| {fish SWAP:eat} "(Somebody) eats fish == fish is eaten", |Metoc ttou.| {SWAP:eat man} "Man eats (something) == something is eaten by the man". It is not the same thing as a passive mood, since it also works on intransitive and impersonal verbs: |Ttou memasso.| {man SWAP:witness} "There is a man." Better consult the website about his topic if it gives you a headache.
Idioms
weather-age == season (of the year)
lower the whip == have mercy
unpack witnessing == remember
About autumn[1].Autumn is a bear who claims sick, aged and juvenile animals.
Autumn is a rock on which plants grow, which will be our food [2].
Autumn hunts mercilessly[3], as the beak and talons of a hawk.
But in the whole world, the children play.
They make us remember[4] the end of winter[5].
At this moment, we dance, for the sun gives us life [6].Flowering plants grow, and hide our graves.
[1] Lit. "the season that witnesses falling leaves". Something hard to imagine for a jungle dweller.
[2] The orginal has two independent clauses, but it doesn't make sense that way. "Autumn is the rock" has no defined meaning. The relative construction seems more sensible. I had a hard time circumscribing "off of which we shall be living", too.
[3] Lit. "holding the whip high", idiomatic.
[4] Lit. "dig up witnessing", idiomatic.
[5] Lit. "the cold season"
[6] How else to circumscribe "the sun sustains us"?
About Autumn[1]Autumn is a bear who takes ill animals and aged animals and juvenile animals.
Autumn is the rock, we shall be living off it[2].
Autumn hunts mercilessly[3], a hawk's beak and talon.
But the children play all around the world[4].
They make us remember the end of the winter.
Right now we dance [5] because the sun[6] sustains us.Flowering plants grow and hide our grave[7].
[1] Lit. "stormy season"
[2] The glossary would also have allowed "next to it", but that would have been a pretty bland metaphor, right?
[3] Lit. "hunts, with negative empathy,...". I assumed this was an accidental translation of a vocabulary gloss "to hunt (with negative emphasis)". Wondering what negative connotations would befit hunting most, I came up with "merciless" (since Oro Mpaa doesn't just have a grammatical tag designating negative context).
[4] Lit. "about the planet"
[5] Lit. "the very the point_in_time is we_dance" -- WTF?
[6] Lit. "the star"
[7] Lit. "final place_of_residence". This could also have meant "retirement home", but I guess the people of Tao Ttoua don't have those. =P