Next (Limciela)

Glossary

Alphabetization Notes:

'ae' is treated the same as 'æ', which follows 'a' alphabetically.
Accents are ignored in alphabetization, but if 2 (or more) words differ only in accent, the following order is used: no accent (a), grave (à), acute (á), circumflex (â).

The Latin words in the etymologies are given in ALL CAPS. The forms used for inflected words are infinitive and accusative singular (even in derivations from other cases), and adjectives will be *masculine*. Plural and non-accusative forms may occur for pronouns.

à (prep) AD
àgeudar (vt/vi) ADJUTA:RE
ai (xxxx) exclamation (see gofrê)
àjàjai (xxxx) exclamation of pain, despair, etc.
al < à + definite article
ales < à + definite article
assotar (vt) ASSULTA:RE
atentzón (nf) ATTENTIO:NEM
cantar (vt/vi) CANTA:RE
casa (nf) CASAM
causa (nf) CAUSAM
ciarta (a) CERTUM
con (prep) CUM
congle < con + definite article
de (prep) DE:
dègeitar (vt) DEJECTA:RE
dentra (prep) DE: + INTRA:
dever (va) DE:BE:RE
dez (artp) < de + definite article
dijar (advb) DIEM + HERI:
duærm(e) (vi) = 1PS present indicative of DORMI:RE
dunuæv (advb) DE: + NOVUM
è (conj) ET
èbian (conj) è + BENE
ed (conj) ET
el (pper) ILLUM
ella (pper) ILLAM
elles (pper) ILLO:S
engla < IN + definite article
est (vc) EST
esto (adem) ISTUD
fâer(e) (vt) FACERE
fege (vt) 3PS preterite indicative of fâer
fenestra (nf) FENESTRAM
formosa (a) FO:RMO:SUM
gatinh(e) (nm) < CATTUM + -INIUM
geogar (vt) JOCA:RE
geuæg (nm) JOCUM
gofrê (xxxx) slang, etymology unknown;
'Ai, gofrê' can express exasperation, indignation etc.
ill (pper) ILLUM
infant(e) (a) INFANTEM
ir (vi) I:RE
jo (pper) EGO
l (pper) ILLUM (either gender)
la (artd) ILLAM
la (pper) ILLAM
laitant (a) LACTANTEM (compare to Italian lattare)
las (artd) ILLA:S
lò (artd) ILLUD
loi (pper) ILLUM, influenced by CUI
mais (conj) MAGIS
mancear (vt) MANDUCA:RE
ment < ME:NTEM
miarda (nf) MERDAM
non (advb) NO:N
nos (pper) NO:S
nuæstra (apos) NOSTRUM
on (pper) HOMINEM
passar (vi) PASSA:RE
pausar (vt) PAUSA:RE
pella < PER + definite article
piatza (nf) *PETTIAM
plus (advb) PLU:S
poder (va) POTE:RE
pole < PRO: + definite article
porquè (conj) < PRO: + què
profonda (a) PROFUNDUM
puæd (va) 3PS present indicative of poder
puæs (advb) POST
què (prel, conj) QUID
qué (pint) QUID
questa (adem) < ECCE + ISTUM
quezzón (nf) QUESTIO:NEM
rèmaniantza (nf) RE:MANENTIAM
sejons (vi) 1PP present indicative of SEDE:RE
silent (a) SILE:RE
sob(e) (prep) SUPER
(e)star (vi) STA:RE
(e)stota (a) STULTUM
sufigiant (a) SUFFICIENTEM
talhar (vt) TALEA:RE
tanta (a) TANTUM
tener (va) TENE:RE
tiampes (nm) TEMPUS
tod (nm) TO:TUM
tonc (conj) TUNC
una (arti) U:NUM
vâmes (vi) 1PP present indicative of ir (VADERE)
værgen (nf) VIRGINEM
ven (vi) 3PS preterite indicative of VENI:RE
vìlant (a) VIGILANTEM
voj (va) 1PS present indicative of VELLE
volontæra (a) VOLUNTA:RIUM

Abbreviations

(a) Adjective
(adem) Adjective, Demonstrative
(apos) Adjective, Possessive
(advb) Adverb
(artd) Article, Definite
(arti) Article, Indefinite
(artp) Article, Partitive
(conj) Conjunction
(nf) Noun, Feminine
(nm) Noun, Masculine
(pper) Pronoun, Personal
(prel) Pronoun, Relative
(prep) Preposition
(vi) Verb, Intransitive
(vt) Verb, Transitive
(va) Verb, Auxiliary
(vc) Verb, Copula
(xxxx) Interjection, Expletive, Exclamation
1PS 1st Person Singular
1PP 1st Person Plural
3PS 3rd Person Singular

Vallés (*)

Jeff Jones

Ring Q

Atentzón Al Infant!

       Ai, gofrê! Qué est passad?
       Èbian, dijar una værgen formosa mais estota ven-t à nuæstra casa, è teneva què cantar pole laitant. Ella fege lò tod què podeva porquè geogar congle laitant: ella geogau dez geuægs con loi, loi cantau "duærme, gatinhe, duærme", ed esto àgeudava. Mais tonc, el infante l assotau è la talhau à piatzas! Ill la manceau è puæs dègeitau las rèmaniantzas pella fenestra. Qué on puæd fâere nos?
       Àjàjai, dunuæv sejons profonda ment engla miarda! Qué vâmes à fâer?
       Èbian, dentra tante tiampes vâmes à dever estar silent sobe questa causa. Jo, lò plus de tod, non voj ir ales vìlantes volontæres!
       Ciart! Elles pausan dez quezzons sufigiantissmas.

Attention to the Infant!

       Oh, no! What the heck has happened?
       Well, yesterday a good-looking but foolish young woman came to our house, and was having to sing for the baby. She did everything she could in order to play with the baby: she played some games with him, and sang "Sleep, Kitten, Sleep", and this was helping. But then, the baby assaulted her and cut her to pieces! He munched on her and threw the remnants through the window. What might they do to us?
       Aarrgghh, once again, we're sitting profoundly in excrement! What are we going to do?
       Well, at a time like this we'll have to be silent about this matter. I, more than anything, don't want to go to the police!
       Of course! They pose most sufficient questions.

Notes on grammar

Note: Some things typical of romance languages will be assumed.

General

There is a phenomenon called Mobile E, where 'e' can be added to a word form according to the circumstances. It can be added at the beginning, before sp, st, squ, or x, and at the end after any consonant.

Nouns

There are 2 genders: masculine and feminine.
There are 2 numbers: singular and plural.
Plurals are formed by adding -es if the singular ends in 2 consonant letters and by adding -s otherwise. The singular forms are listed in the Glossary. In most cases, an acute accent in the final syllable is dropped when forming the plural.

Adjectives

Adjectives agree in gender and number with their nouns, although some adjectives have the same form for both genders. If the feminine form ends in -a, it is dropped to give the masculine, otherwise the genders are the same. Consequently, the feminine singular will be the form of adjectives listed in the glossary.

Comparison is analytic. However, there's an absolute superlative formed by adding -issma (which is also adjectival, so this gives the feminine singular form) to the masculine singular form.

Adverbs

Most adverbs are formed by placing ment as a separate word after the feminine singular. Some have the same form as the masculine singular, and some aren't derived from adjectives.

Articles

Articles also agree in gender and number with their nouns. The definite article also has an "abstract" form lò. The other regular forms are:

        l(e)    masculine singular
        los     masculine plural
        la      feminine singular
        las     feminine plural

el may occur for masculine OR feminine singular before some vowels.
Certain combinations of preposition + definite article become single words. Prepositions ending in -n change this to -ng. Those ending in -r drop it. Sometimes the l- of the article becomes ll-. Masculine plural articles change their endings from -os to -es.

The indefinite articles occur only in the singular: un, una. However, there's also a plural partitive article: dez.

Pronouns

Pronouns are the only words which distinguish case. The cases are: subject, direct object, indirect object, object of preposition, and possessive, the last of which may be an adjective.

Verbs

Verbs are conjugated according to person, number, tense, mood, and aspect. There are also compound verbs. The infinitives will be the forms listed in the glossary The regular endings which occur here are:

    STEM + -r   Infinitive
    STEM + -d   Past/Passive Participle
    STEM + -va  3ps Imperfect Indicative
    STEM + -u   3ps Preterite Indicative
    STEM + -n   3pp Present Indicative

After this it gets tricky, so the relevent information will be given in the glossary. For some 3rd person verbs, a -t is appended in certain situations.

Translator's notes

(not sent to the person next in line)

The smooth translation above isn't perfectly smooth. This is partly because I wanted to keep close to wording of the Vallés text, and partly because the Vallés text itself isn't perfectly smooth, reflecting apparent rough spots in the Silesian source. Of course, I'm not a native speaker of Vallés, either.

Some of the phrases chosen for the Vallés text may warrent some explanation.

        "Ai, gofrê"

Although ai can occur by itself, this is really a set phrase. It's rather slangy, but still good vallés.

There is little or no consensus concerning its origin. Just to give you an idea, I'll mention one theory. It claims that gofrê, or perhaps the whole phrase, comes from the dark jungles of the New World, and relates to an arcane native ritual wherein a temple or shrine is burned to the ground, perhaps as a sacrifice to a dog-deity. You can see why not everyone agrees.

        "vìlantes volontæres"

Literally, those who are voluntarily vigilant, referring to a group of people who are neither paid nor coerced and perform this task in their spare time. I considered translating this as polidzía or guardia. However, the former is used mainly for foreign civic officers who are payed salaries (I think "Professional Law Enforcement" is used by some) while the latter is dedicated to a particular station or task. Thus, to give the story a better local context I chose the above term. I should also note that the more enthusiastic members of the VV are sometimes called "los violentes volontæres".