narethanaal

by Nicole Dobrowolski

The Text

ranrana tanaden froge yehik sathepothabe to nolean… mamam tanaden froge imso to spike djalor… ranrana tanaden froge dolor to nolean: froge yehik thare froge dolor kube thare thepothabe ithar… froge dolor nehfoforase derol: to nolean hetan sasathepothabe ishtala klatura emel afek volesasathepothabe klatura imso sunos ajo to spike djalor… nehranrana tanaden afek tanaden tiot klatura thare afek to inarat semo sunos afek klatura ajo sunos vole afek… sefa lablara froge liath tather djalora froge imso sunos ajo sokraa… froge tlor nolea…
torza sathepothabe spike djalor

Interlinear

ra-nrana tanaden froge yehik sa-thepothabe to nole-a-n… ma-mam tanaden froge imso to spike djalor… ra-nrana tanaden froge dolor to nole-a-n: froge yehik thare froge dolor kube thare thepothabe ithar… froge dolor neh-fo-forase derol: to nole-a-n hetan sa-sa-thepothabe ishtala klatura emel afek vole-sa-sa-thepothabe klatura imso sunos ajo to spike djalor … neh-ra-nrana tanaden afek tanaden tiot klatura thare afek to inarat semo sunos afek klatura ajo sunos vole afek… sef-a la-blar-a froge liath tather djalor-a froge imso sunos ajo sokra-a… froge tlor nole-a…
torza sa-thepothabe spike djalor

English version

When an Evil Person Prays
The teachers told a story. Good people believed these speeches and they went away to hide. Unsurprisingly, we can help hide you with us because we will be hiding too. Someone said, “We should be taught how to pray by the teacher and the evil person will go hide because of our praying.” Surprisingly, the teacher said, “The Powers That Be already heard everything said.” The evil person went angrily. Surprisingly, the teacher had already prayed.

Vocabulary

afek            we
ajo             and (before a noun phrase)
ajo             too/also (before a verb)
blar            to speak/to talk to
derol           being (noun)
djalor          person
dolor           to say
emel            to be taught
forase          to specify
froge           past tense
hetan           by (prep)
imso            to go (away/elsewhere)
inarat          ability
ishtala         should
ithar           hearing(noun)
klatura         future tense
kube            everything
liath           to believe
mam             so angry all you want to do is scream at the top of your lungs
and break things
neh             not
nole            to teach
nrana           to surprise the speaker/writer/audience/etc. (not someone
referenced in the sentence)
sa-             to request (prefixed to whoever the request is being made to)
sef             this
semo            to help
sokra           he/she/it
spike           evil (adj.)
sunos           to hide
tanaden         with
tather          good (adj.)(opposite of evil)
thare           possessive marker—of the form “thare [possessor] [possessed]”
thepothabe      the powers that be
tiot            you
tlor            to tell a story
to              the
torza           when/while
vole            because
yehik           before/already

Grammar

stories in narethanaal are backwards so the last line is the title and the second to last line is the first line of the story and so on until the first line of the narethanaal version is the last line of the English version
word order: OVS
postpositional phrases come at the beginning of the sentence
reduplication of the first vowel and the consonant preceding it prefixed onto a verb or adjective make it into a noun
conjunctions come before the subject of the second conjoined clause
suffix an “-a” onto a verb to make it the plural doer of that verb.
suffix an “n” after that to make it a singular doer or that verb
idiom: unspecified being=someone
idiom: to request of the powers that be=to pray
idiom: we possess the ability= we can
because-prayer=because of praying
x possesses someone’s hearing=someone hears x