Next (Rhean)

Vocabulary

a! - Lo! Behold! Hwaet! :)
aca - know
acau - teach
aku - there is
atau - tell
atawahmihau - formula introducing an oral story
bi- - adj or adv prefix (V -> Adj/Adv)
buku - rip, tear, peel
caku - kill
cantan - sing
cirip - swamp
dasai - be happy
haihai - female
ihai - like, similar to (nga ADJ ihai N = as ADJ as N)
imi - make, do
ingi - fast, quick
jilak - bad, evil, nasty, salty
ka - which (often introduced adjective)
kandatau - answer
kandau - to give
kasar - negative particle for verbs of thinking and cognition
kisui - life (the state of being alive, not the span of life)
ku - that which
lish - question
lo - male
lung - locative preposition (in, at, around, by, near, on, etc)
maga - dance
mashuk - friend
mau - ought to, should
mihau - long ago
ming - listen
miumiu - beautiful
mo - and; but
musai - story
nga - so, thus, so then, well then
ngam - negative particle for verbs of speaking, telling, and writing
pasar - skin
pingkandau - giver
Pingkandauturu - proper name (Law Giver -- not a native Atas name, clearly)
piu - child
salam - real, true, valid
salas - play, sport
salisu - cover up, hide, bury; dress up SO; glaze with sugar
samau - see
samasamau - watch
saung - for, because
sho - person (formally, he/she)
sotos - dead body, corpse
silish - guts, intestine and stomach
tea - you
turu - law
umau - eat
-wah - imperative or emphatic
wapingu - throw, cast off
ya - he, she
-ya - his, her, the
yi- - one
ying - then, after that

Atas

Patrick Dunn

Ring A

Aku yimusai nga salam ihai kisui.
A! Mashuk-mashuk ea, ming-wah!
Pingkandauturu acau ku ya aca.
Atawahmihau: aku piu lo ka jilak mo sho haihai ka miumiu. Piu samasamau sho cantan. Piu maga bisalas mo bicantan, mo ya dasai.
Mo piu caku sho haihai!
Ingi, ya buku pasarya, ya umau silishya, ya wapingu sotosya lung cirip.
Nga, eaea kasar mau aca ku ea imi ying.
Saung ea salisu ku ea aca, ea ngam kandatau lish-lish tea.

There is one story that is as real as life.
So: my friends, listen!
Pingkandauturu (Law Giver) teaches what he knows.
Once upon a time there was an evil boy and a beautiful woman. The boy watched the woman sing. He danced, singing and playing, and he was happy.
Then he killed her. Quickly, he skinned her, and ate her guts, and threw her corpse in a swamp.
So then: we should not know what I did then.
Because I hide what I know, I will not answer your questions.

Grammar notes

Atas is SVO, with modifiers following their heads. Sentential adverbs always come before the sentence. Personal pronouns following nouns indicate possession, except for the third person suffix -ya, which can also indicate definiteness. The third person is suffixed and causes phonological weirdnesses that aren't reflected in the orthography, so you can ignore them. Some prefixes (notably piN-) have an underlying nasal, but that shouldn't cause you much problem. Reduplication of nouns indicates plurality. Reduplication of verbs can indicate intensification or reciprocity (among other things).