Okaikiar text

N'nzal relkerd rir, kilkerd rir, yrkøm rir m'rkoz.
Zenkom d'ndom dydom m'rkoz.
Omom, ziun d'ldal zulan lyzoz zik, m'rkoz.
Akend nyldald yrøm zik m'rkoz.
Møm døerd dyrøm, møldiøm d'ndin.
Riru kald memdez:
"Nø larkuz nimdund?
Markiurd rumduz
Z'mand komom nimdon rir zazuz
Zian kirierd elzøm kiroz."

Okaikiar glossary

akan            (n)     tooth
d'ldal          (n)     moss
d'ndan          (v)     to hunt
døar            (n)     claw
dydan           (v)     to be great, large, big
dyran           (v)     to be sharp
elzan           (v)     to be green
kal             (pron)  he/she/it
kilkan          (v)     to be ill, sick
kiran           (v)     to drop, leave behind
kiriar          (n)     track, trail
koman           (v)     to love
larkan          (v)     to be generous
lyzan           (v)     to be able to; can
markan          (v)     to rule over (as king)
markiar         (n)     kingdom
memdan          (v)     to ask, to (pose a) question
møldan          (v)     to bear (a burden), carry
møm             (conj)  or
m'rkan          (v)     to resemble, to be like
nimdan          (n)     spring, springtime
n'nzal          (n)     winter, wintertime
nø              (part)  interrogative marker
nyldal          (n)     shame
omo             (n)     stone, rock
relkan          (v)     to be old, aged
rir             (det)   definite article (the)
riro            (pron)  that, that thing (in causative case riru = "because of
                        that thing" = "therefore")
rumdan          (v)     to wander
yrko            (n)     child
yran            (v)     to have
zazan           (v)     to greet
zenko           (n)     cat
zian            (pron)  that, which, who(m) (used in relative clauses)
zik             (adv)   not
z'man           (n)     god     
zulan           (v)     to grow

Okaikiar grammar notes

Okaikiar has a general word order of SOV. Actually, it's more like (EverythingElse)V; the verb usually comes last. It's a highly-inflected language; there are a large number of noun cases so that many adverbial concepts which require prepositional phrases in English are a noun in some case in Okaikiar.

Instead of adjectives, Okaikiar has verbs - e.g. "dydan" which means "to be great/large". But there's an "attributive mood" so that these verbs can be used as adjectives without circumlocution; in fact, an attributive verb form can often replace a relative clause.

Morphology: Nouns

Nouns come in two declensions. Nouns in the first declension have a nominative singular ending in -aC, where C represnts one of the consonants l, n, or r, and decline like this:

                Sing            Pl
Nom		-aC             -eC             subject of verb
Acc		-aCd            -eCd            direct object of verb
Dat		-aCk            -eCk            indirect object of verb
Cau		-iC             -iC             reason for action
Ins		-iCd            -iCd            method of action
Abl		-uC             -yC             movement away from
Loc		-uCd            -yCd            action located at
All		-uCk            -yCk            movement toward
Gen		-oC             -øC             possessive relationship

Nouns in the second declension have a nominative singular ending in -o, and decline like this:

                Sing            Pl
Nom		-o              -ø
Acc		-om             -øm
Dat		-on             -øn
Cau		-u              -y
Ins		-um             -ym
Loc		-im             -im
Abl		-i              -i
All		-in             -in
Gen		-e              -i

Morphology: Verbs

Verbs end in -an in the infinitive, which is also a noun (of the first declension with C=n) referring to an occurrence of the action or the action in the abstract, like the English gerund. If you replace the -n with an -r, you get another first-declension noun referring to a doer of the action. This is also how you get a noun out of an adjective: "dydar" means "someone or something which is great", or just "a great one". "The meek" in "The meek shall inherit the earth" is "dumker rir" - "the ones-who-are-meek."

The attributive is formed by replacing the -an with -o, yielding an adjective which is declined, like a second-declension noun, to agree with the word it modifies.

Inserting a -i- between the verb stem and the ending results in a passive construction, flipping the meaning of the verb. Thus lilkan means "to break"; lilkar means "breaker, thing which breaks"; "lilkiar" means "breakee, thing which is broken"; and "lilkio" is the adjective "broken".

In the indicative, subjunctive, conditional, and imperative moods, the verb ending also indicates person and number of the subject.

Infinitive = stem + an

Drop the -an and add:

        -i       to indicate passive voice
        -r or -l to indicate progressive or perfective aspect, respectively

The mood ending:

        -an     infinitive
        -o      attributive
        -az/-uz/-oz/-ez/-yz/-øz indicative (1s/2s/3s/1p/2p/3p subject)

Then comes tense, but all the verbs in the relay text are in the present, which has the zero tense marker.

Punctuation Note

In the Roman transcription, descriptive clauses (whether formed with an attributive verb or relative pronoun) are often offset with commas.

Smooth English translation

Winter resembles the old, the sick, the children.
It resembles a great hunting cat.
It resembles [a] stone, over which moss cannot grow.
It resembles shameless teeth
Or sharp claws borne for hunting.
Therefore we ask it:
"Are you generous in springtime?
You wander through the kingdom;
You greet the loving god of spring
Who leaves behind green tracks."