Xara
by Jim Taylor
The Text
jilib muniravertorar
haopejol ha oras gur kagan xeye romero muniravertor si ha toreyalas. ha
magaras xe muniraveranme galeder fajalan ha xulasme xeyer si ha felimas.
gur uvaj teyekanur ha semelas. folol muniravertorer si ha delevoras muniraveraner
ha sumisas xeye si ha roxumas. ha milonas ‘esir jilibe na koxis.’ xeon
goru teminoj veyer kinojan sean si ha delevoras gemex ha felimas seon muniraveran
ha tokolas ‘jiliber ri ha xulas.’ Teyekan ha oras rumiran tolix xu seyen
muniraveran muniravertorer ha xumeyedas basujur rijileyedan.
English version
The Monastery Key
Once there was a wicked man who lived near a
monastery. He believed that the monks had a great treasure and he wanted
it. The man began working as a guard. One day as he was cursing the monastery
he stopped a returning monk. He said, ‘I’ll give you my key.’ To discover
what this criminal who was cursing could possibly want to hide, the monk
answered, ‘You have no key.’ The guard was very angry, and so the monk entered
the monastery through an unlocked door.
Vocabulary
basuj noun door
delevor verb curse
es pronoun you
fajalan adjective great
felim verb want, desire
felim verb want
folol adverb on (a) day
galed noun treasure
gemex verb hide, conceal
goru conjunction in order to
gur noun man
haopejol adverb at (one) time
jilb noun key
jileyedan adjective open
kagan adjective evil, wicked
kinojan noun criminal
kox verb give
magar verb think, believe
milon verb say
muniraveran noun monk
muniravertor noun monastery
or verb be
ri particle, prefix not
romero preposition near
roxum verb go back, return
rumiran adjective angry
sean demonstrative pronoun this, that
semel verb begin
seyen conjunction so, accordingly
sumis verb stop
teminoj verb discover
teyekan noun guard
tokol verb answer, reply
tolix particle very
toreyal verb live, dwell
uvaj verb work
veye interrogative pronoun what, who
xeon… seon conjunction when… then
xeye relative pronoun who, what
xu conjunction and
xul verb have
xumeyed verb enter, go in
Grammar
Xara is an inflected language, using regular case and verb endings:
Singular Plural
- -me Nom.
-er -meyer Acc.
-ar -meyar Gen.
-ir -meyir Dat.
-ur -meyur Abl.
-is -isme 1st pers.
-es -esme 2nd pers.
-as -asme 3rd pers.
Verbs are constructed using the stem (which also acts the infinitive) and
a personal suffix, preceded by a tense indicator and sometimes also preceded
by a mood indicator:
Tense Indicators
a Present
ha Past
na Future
The mood indicator ‘si’ has many uses, e.g.:
- to show continuous action
- with verbs in relative clauses
- in conjunction with certain constructions
Because of the inflections, word order is fairly flexible, although the usual pattern is subject-object-verb.
More details can be found in the grammar section of my Xara website www.xara.20.com