Rokbeigalmki
by Steg Belsky
The Text
1. ta'tout ga'balghm sa'davihnp-a uhmzá uzú.
2.
^darishei^gwãz ooloi-daguvdhab uhmzu-dathab, uhmzu-dahoi, i uhmzu-hail
sha'^thesn^ahya-a elikaa-tub elikaa-kaun nga'ilzao yu.
3. yeli tu, haildhm uhmzu-dahoi ush elikuh-ghadããd sa'uhmsh.
4. yeli tu, tazao ozu-guvdhab wa'^darish^gwãz:
"eze-guvdhab wa'amsh la'davihnp-a!
balghm uhmza-shus wa'khezã sha'davihnp-a fa'waur hoi!"
5. akh ^darish^gwãz-a uhzu-guvdhab: "dhrous ezoi-yed sha'ilu."
6. yeli tu, balghm-a uhmzu-daog zad, akh ^darish^gwãz uhzu-mwe dhrous wa'taur davihnp-a.
English version
1. it was a time when evil people were at the prayerplace
2. teachers of ritual who storytold trusted, hid, and protected the book of holiness better and more able than anyone else
3. then, guards hid it together with them.
4. then, someone male said to a teacher of ritual:
"speak to us about the prayerplace!
evil people want to inspect the prayerplace in order to hide!"
5. but the teacher of ritual said: "you already know everything"
6. then, the evil people became very furious, but the teacher of ritual already went into the prayerplace
Vocabulary
| = affix connects with no orthographic marker
-, ' = orthographic connection markers
-A = the
(|)A- = [present immediate tense]
AHYA = holiness
AKH = but
AMSH(|) = [1st person plural object pronoun]
BALG = evil (abstract, moral badness), do evil
DA| = [causative prefix]
DA|GUVDHAB = story, recount, tell a story
DAOG = fury, much anger, become furious, become very angry
DA|RIS = teach, teaching, lesson
DA|THAB = trust, rely, believe, belief
DAVIHN = prayer, pray
|DH = [agentive noun suffix]
DHROUS = already
(|)E- = [imperative tense]
|EI| = [construct plural]
ELIKAA- = [comparative adverb prefix]
ELIKUH- = [adverb prefix]
EZ(|) = [2nd person singular subject pronoun]
FA' = for, on behalf of, in order to
GA' = that, which
GHADÃÃD = together, togetherness, join, combine, combination
GUVDHAB = speak, say, statement
GWÃZ = ritual, ceremony, formal act, perform a...
HAIL = guard, protect, guarding, protection (protect from outside forces)
HOI = hide, hiding, concealment
ILU = all, every, each
ILZAO = everyone, everybody, everything
KAUN = ability, be able
KHEZÃ = gaze, look at, look, stare, notice, inspect, actively see
LA' = on, on top of, about
|M = [plural]
MWE = movement, move, go
|N = [semi-archaic singular suffix; used for units and unique examples]
NGA' = from, than
(|)OI- = [present routine tense]
OOL| = [adjective-verb prefix]
OZ(|) = [3rd person male singular subject pronoun]
|P = [place]
RIS = learn, study, learning
SA' = with, next to, at, nearby, alongside
SHA' = [direct object]
SHUS = want, desire
TA' = in, inside
TAUR = [long form of TA'], inside area, contents
TAZAO = someone, something, somebody
THAB = trustworthiness, be trustworthy, reliability, be reliable
THES = write, writing
TOUT = time
TU = then
TUB = good, beneficial (practically, not morally)
(|)U- = [past tense]
UHMSH(|) = [3rd person epicene plural object pronoun]
UHMZ(|) = [3rd person epicene plural subject pronoun]
USH(|) = [3rd person neuter singular object pronoun]
UZ(|) = [3rd person neuter singular subject pronoun]
WA' = to, towards
WAUR = [long form of WA'], direction, destination
YED = know, knowledge
YELI = so, then, so then, and so, well, eh
YU = other, an other, different, else, someone/something else
ZAD = very, much, a lot
Grammar
1. Many (or most) Rokbeigalmki words are based on 'Verb-Noun Roots'.
These roots can be plain (GHALUB 'rise'), causative (DAGHALUB 'raise'),
passive (GHALUB-AD 'rise without intent'), or causative-passive (DAGHALUB-AD
'be raised'). As you can see, sometimes the exact relationship between
the different forms is subject to varying idiomatic understandings.
But their basic forms, these words are nouns. So properly, GHALUB is
'a rising'. To turn them into proper verbs, you need to add a Subject-Tense
Complex.
2. Subject-Tense Complexes are made up of a pronoun (IZ 'she') and
a vowel representing tense (II 'future'). This complex is then prefixed
to the verb: IZII-GHALUB 'she will rise'. However, Subject-Tense Complexes
can also appear on their own. When this happense, the (final, in compounded)
tense vowel will be marked with an accent: IZÍÍ. This
verbless complex can serve a a pro-verb representing a known verb,
or it can represent one of the verbs TEZAT 'be', TZAT 'exist', NETZ 'be located
at', MWE 'go', or WAZ 'do'. But whatever it means, it always comes
at the end of the sentence.
3. To create Agentive Nouns from verb-noun roots, the suffix |DH is
added. However, this suffix merges with many final consonants, for
example: GHALUB becomes GHALUV 'riser', KOT 'hostility' becomes KOTH 'enemy',
and WAZ 'do' becomes WAZH 'doer'.
4. Rokbeigalmki makes use of Construct Compounding. Instead of
having to say WAJHWA-A TZA'DAGHALUV-A 'home-the of'raiser-the' for 'the home
of the raiser', you can say ^WAJHWA^DAGHALUV-A which means the same thing.
The circumflexes are just orthographic marks for the compound; in spoken
Rokbeigalmki the last vowel of each part is lengthened.
5. Rokbeigalmki has a part of speech known as the Adjective-Verb. Adjective-Verbs
represent a time-bound description. Unlike normal adjectives, they
cannot agree with their noun and they cannot be co-opted to act as nouns
themselves. With a normal adjective, for instance
SUDDAMET 'deadly' (SUD|DA|MET), you can say SLYITHL-A SUDDAMET-A 'the deadly
snake'. With an Adjective-Verb, however, you'd say SLYITHL-A OOLOI-DAMET
'the killing snake' (OOL|OI-DA|MET).
6. Word order is generally free.
7. Case-prefixes (marked with apostrophes) can be doubled-up on each
other. However, when this happens, they separate from the noun they
were attached to, and the second prefix assumes its independent 'long form',
which also serves as a related noun. For example, NGA'WAJU-A 'from
the house' and NA'WAJU-A 'under the house', but NGA'NAUR WAJU-A 'from under
the house'.
8. When adjectives are used as verbs, they generally mean 'to become...'.
For example, LIIYU 'greenness', SUDLIIYU 'green' (adjective), and IZII-LIIYU
'she will become green'.