Mërèchi

by Amanda Babcock

Notes about orthography

The mërèchi love diacritics. The diacritics are mostly meaningless (they encode vowel pronunciation as well as stress, but stress is not usually important and vowel pronunciation is rarely other than standard). If you cannot read them, the interlinear is presented diacritic-free, and the vocabulary includes diacritic-free versions of all the words.
The apostrophe is written by convention to indicate where certain prefixes and suffixes have been attached to a word. It is not pronounced. All the vowels in the text presented have the standard values:
a, à /A/
ë, é /e/ (the è in mërèchi is /E/, but isn't in the text)
ö, ó /o/
i, í /i/
ú /u/
Additionally, y in some contexts (and ý always) is /i/.
Consonants also have IPA values except:
c /k/
ch /x/
sh /S/
y /j/ (except after t, when it is /i/)

Notes about the text

The first line is the title. The changes in tense and 3rd/1st person are probably an artefact of the Relay; they are preserved from the previous version.

The text, with accents

à clítaf, lítac dóni pëàma të'týpatatëp'ë na-rishidàp'të t'àrtdatëp'të aniléfia'c. týsin pëàman të'lídëp'të, ke àn téfian t'ésöp'n tyàli, hró t'àpatvërn'të të të'néyëp'të. pësímöfam, héra ki'néyëp'fa, hró fàli ki'nëyëdàsap'fa dà'c. éfi të'tép'n ëàmliö'c: à na-rishidàp'r dö'typatatësadàp'r fà'c. ki'týpatatëp'fa, hró à dóni pëàma k'àpatvërn'ë të ki'néyëp'ë. ni na-rishidàp'r tëtép'r ëàmliö'c: àn tylchàn tétë të'pàtav'të yirí na-tëfàv'n. à dóni pëàma agyúli t'àpatvërn'ë, hróvin na-rishidàp'r tétë të'týpatatëv'r.

English Version

The time when an evil person prayed
The teachers told a story. Good people thought that the words were true, so they fled and hid.
(Naturally, we'll be hiding also, so we can hide you with us.)
Someone said this: the teacher should give us the ability to pray! We will pray, and thus the evil person will flee and hide!
But the teacher said this: the Gods already have heard all that was said.
The evil person fled with rage, because the teacher had already prayed.

The interlinear, without accents

a clitaf, litac doni peama te- typatate -p -e
ART N REL.PR ADJ N PT- V IMP PRON
na- rishida -p -te t- artdate -p -te anilefia -c
NOM V IMP PRON PT V IMP PRON N ACC
tysi -n peama -n te- lide -p -te
ADJ PL N PL PT V IMP PRON
ke a -n te -fia -n t- eso -p -n tya -li
NOM.PR ART PL V NOM PL PT V IMP PRON N POST
hro t- apatver -n -te te te- neye -p -te
REL.PR PT V IMP PRON CONJ PT V IMP PRON
pe- simo -fa -m hera ki- neye -p -fa
GER V PASS GER ADV FT V IMP PRON
hro fa -li ki- neye -da -sa -p -fa da -c
REL.PR PRON POST FT V CAUS POT IMP PRON PRON ACC
efi te- te -p -n eamlio -c
N PT V IMP PRON DEM.PR ACC
a na- rishida -p -r do- typatate -sa -da -p -r fa -c
ART NOM V IMP PRON MOOD V POT CAUS IMP PRON PRON ACC
ki- typatate -p -fa
FT V IMP PRON
hro a doni peama k- apatver -n -e te ki- neye -p -e
REL.PR ART ADJ N FT V IMP PRON CONJ FT V IMP PRON
ni na- rishida -p -r te- te -p -r eamlio -c
CONJ NOM V IMP PRON PT V IMP PRON DEM.PR ACC
a -n tylch -an tete te- pata -p -te yiri na- te -fa -v -n
ART PL N PL ADV PT V IMP PRON ADJ NOM V PASS PERF PRON
a doni peama agyu -li t- apatver -n -e
ART ADJ N N POST PT V IMP PRON
hrovin na- rishida -p -r tete te- typatate -v -r
SUB NOM V IMP PRON ADV PT V PERF PRON

Key to symbols/Glossary

ACC (accusative)
-c after vowels
ADJ (adjectives)
dóni (doni) dark, evil
týsi (tysi) good
yirí (yiri) all
ADV (adverbs)
héra (hera) also
tétë (tete) already
ART (articles)
à (a) definite article
CAUS (causativizer)
-dà (-da) make someone do X
CONJ (conjunctions)
ni but
të (te) and
DEM.PR (demonstrative pronouns)
ëàmliö (eamlio) this
FT (future tense)
k'- before vowels
ki'- before consonants
GER (gerund, for lack of a better name)
pë--m (pe--m) circumfixed to a verb X, means "the act of X'ing"
IMP (imperfective)
-ip after consonants
-n after liquids
-p after vowels
MOOD (modals)
d'- obligative mood ("should"), before vowels
dö'- (do'-) obligative mood ("should"), before consonants
N (nouns)
agyú (agyu) rage
aniléfia (anilefia) story, song (from anílë to sing)
clítaf (clitaf) time
éfi (efi) someone
pëàma (peama) person
týa (tya) light (idiom: "with light" == true)
týlch (tylch) god/dess
NOM (nominalizers)
-fia changes verb X to noun "that which is X'd, the X'd"
na- that which, he/she/they who; one who does
NOM.PR (nominal clause header)
ke that, as in "that we did it"
PASS (passivizer)
-fà (-fa) makes the verb passive
PERF (perfective; have/had/will have done)
-ë (-e) after consonants
-v after vowels
PL (plural)
-àn (-an) after consonants
-n after vowels
POST (postpositions)
-li with
POT (potentializer)
-sa be able to do X
PRON (pronouns; can be suffixed or standalone)
-da second person, singular
-ë (-e) third person, singular, male
-fa first person, plural
-n third person, singular, neuter or unknown
-r third person, singular, female
-të (-te) third person, plural
PT (past tense)
t'- before vowels
të'- before consonants
REL.PR (relative pronouns)
hró (hro) for which reason, why
lítac (litac) when
SUB (subordinating conjunctions)
hróvin (hrovin) because
V (verbs)
àpatvër (apatver) go away (from àpat, far, and vér, go)
àrtdatë (artdate) tell (something) (from art, about, and té, say)
ésö (eso) be (copula)
lídë (lide) think
néyë (neye) hide (intrans.)
pàta (pata) hear
rishidà (rishida) teach (from ríshi, wise, and -dà, causative suffix)
símö (simo) understand (idiom: pësimöfàm == "clearly, of course")
té (te) say
týpatatë (typatate) pray (from tý, holy, and pàtatë, ask)

Grammar notes

The grammar defaults to English-like unless otherwise specified. Note, however, that "hró" in this text is used only in a way that English "why" is not, and which is best translated by "for which reason, ..." (Unlike "hróvin", which is just the opposite and means "because".) Mërèchi features postpositional phrases (just like prepositional only backwards). Verbs take a tense or mood prefix, an aspect suffix, and a pronoun/agreement suffix. Pronouns can either be suffixed to verbs (if they are the subject of the sentence or are agreeing with a noun in subject position) or can occur elsewhere with an accusative or postpositional suffix. If the sentence appears to have no subject, the subject is the pronoun on the verb. Derivational suffixes in verbs should be read from the inside out. -da means "makes someone do X". -sa means "can do X". -fa means "is X'd". If we have a word "el", to see, various combinations of the above give us:
elda: make someone see
eldafa: be made to see
eldasa: be able to make someone see
elfa: be seen elfada: make it be seen (show it)
elfasa: be able to be seen (be visible)
elsa: be able to see
elsada: make someone able to see

Tecàpia (The End)