pjaukra text

š, ŋ, and ɣ in this document are supposed to be s with hachek, eng, and gamma, respectively.

raje mu xaumene

xaumene an ar gweika, ra snagala ɣawi tari an jere sleme an jere wile.
xaumene an ar awa, ra ju atwara gweilje.
xaumene an ar piki asda an xreiwa skali megjairfulai.
kir ka res mi xanjekje per fesgaita ap kaikekweu linui ja an bera kriste,
elnaru ra tereme ja ar arŋau ɣejara.
ap mi teremeu, era mlaje rei ren paŋeste, ma kalakte krat glutanagju rei wegeste.

pjaukra glossary

an (1)	and
an (2)	(gnomic particle)
ap	to (spatial)
ar	is (irregular verb)
arŋa	ground, earth
asda	sharp
at	(negative particle) (written joined to the following verb)
awa	rock, stone (count noun)
ber-	carry, bring
elnara	period of time
era	sun
fesg-	play
fula	bird
glutanagu	footprint
gweika	large ferocious animal (generally; _not_ a specific species)
gweil-	inhabit, dwell in
ɣauja	animal
ɣej-	dance
ka	from
kaikekwe	top part
kalakta	flower
kir	therefore, for this reason
krat	around (static)
kriši	spring (root )
linu	mind
ma	and then
megj-	hunt
mi	this (both nominal and adjectival)
mlaje	mother
mu	about, concerning
paŋ-	protect, watch over, guard, tend
per	(habitual particle)
piki	beak
ra	(relative clause marker)
raj-	think
raja	thought (n)
snagal-	steal
skali	agile, nimble, lithe
slemi	sick
tara	old
tereme	purpose
war-	be able to, can
weg-	grow
wile	new, young
xanja	child (young person, not offspring)
xaumene	winter
xreiwa	claw

pjaukra grammar notes

There are four declensions of the noun and adjective, depending on the final vowel in the nominative singular (the citation form). Nouns inflect for case and number, and adjectives agree with nouns they modify.

            sg   pl       sg   pl       sg   pl       sg   pl
nominative  -a   -e       -e   -i       -ji  -wi      -u   -i
accusative  -u   -i       -i   -e       -e   -we      -a   -e
genitive    -ai  -ei      -ei  -ja      -ja  -wa      -ui  -ja
locative    -au  -eu      -eu  -ju      -ju  -u       -u   -ju

For certain consonants, the following j is realized as palatalization (though the orthography doesn't always show it).

tj > š, kj > kj, dj > gj, gj > gj, sj > š, xj > š, ɣj > j, nj > nj, ŋj > ŋj, lj > lj, jj > j

If the combination ji remains it is written as i.

There are also some changes involving clusters with w.

pw > w, bw > w, mw > m, tw > sw, ww > w

Pronouns decline irregularly. These pronouns appear:

            1pl   3sg   3pl
nominative  res   i     jeri
accusative  ren   ju    jere
genitive    rei   ja    jerja
locative    reu   ju    jerju

There is one conjugation of the verb. Verbs inflect for TAM only.

present           -a
past imperfective -anu
past perfective   -u
future            -este
imperative        -i
infinitive        -je

(j in the infinitive ending has the behaviour described above.)

'be' is irregular. The only form appearing here is present .

The present is the least marked form and is used with most TAM particles like .

These derivational affixes appear. If any of them is attached to a vowel-final base, this final vowel is deleted.

-aire       agent nominalization
-aita	active participle
-ara	action nominalization
-ekje	diminutive

There is productive compounding. Compounds are head-last. The final vowel of the first element of the compound is deleted.

The causative formation that occurs in this text is analytic. It is formed by including the causer in nominative case as the object of the preposition in the phrase describing the caused event.

Basic word order is NA, NG, PN, and both SOV and SVO. SVO is more common when the object is indefinite, SOV when the object is definite. Any of the nominal arguments can be omitted.

Prepositions modify either the nominative or the locative. The distinction in meaning is unimportant.

Noun phrases can be put in apposition by placing them side by side without any special marking.

In a relative clause the relativized noun phrase is zero if it is the subject of the restricting phrase. Otherwise a third person pronoun appears and is fronted.

<ber- ap kaikekweu linui> is the idiom for 'be reminded of'.

Smooth English translation

Thoughts about winter

Winter is a ferocious animal that steals old and sick and young animals.
Winter is a rock which cannot be inhabited.
Winter is the sharp beak and nimble claw of a bird of prey.
Therefore, we remind that small often-playing boy of spring,
the time whose purpose is to dance on the earth.
For this purpose the sun our mother will protect us, and then flowers will grow around our footprints.