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Mesak by Sascha

Mesak

English

Ko tenarnos ehitnoi mbúre tȿunot kañmesittohperkko, tétoñ zundot gindnaros. Dɀáns ñ-imesittohnys dɀányt zútyt indésnihieko iȿoɀheeko? Ko ȿoɀeo, darperepyo. Geñ inarnos núot zútot tehaȿnos: ȿykperkko.

If you haven't used / don't use your sword to harm another person, then you have a strong sword. Do one hundred people often try to think of you? If you do so, then you will succede. You now know the way of the sword: to kill.

Ko	te-nar-no-s	e-hit-he-no-i	mbúre	tȿun-o-t	kañ<mesittoh>perk-ko	tét-o-ñ	zund-o-t	gind-nar-o-s
if	2POSS-sword-SG>SG-ABS	2ERG-use-NEG-SG>SG-3ABS	to	other-SG-ESS	hurt<person>-INF	2-SG-DAT	strong-SG-ESS	be-sword-SG-3ABS

dɀán-y-s	ñ=i-mesittoh-ny-s	dɀán-y-t	zút-y-t	i-ndés-nihi-e-ko	i-ȿoɀ-he-e-ko
100-PL-ABS	ERG=3POSS-person-SG>PL-ABS	many-PL-ESS	moment-PL-ESS	3ERG-think.about-try-2ABS-PL>SG	3ERG-do.so-NEG-2ABS-PL>SG

Ko	ȿoɀ-e-o	darper-e-py-o
if	do.so-2ABS-SG	succede-2ABS-FUT-SG

geñ	i-nar-no-s	nú-o-t	zút-o-t	te-haȿ-no-s	ȿykperk-ko
way	3POSS-sword-SG>SG-ABS	this-SG-ESS	moment-SG-ESS	2ERG-know-SG>SG-3ABS	kill-INF

LEXICON

A hyphen has been placed between root and derivational affixes. This is merely intended as an aid to the reader and is not reflected in the text.

dar-per	v-mom.	to succede
dɀán	adj.	one hundred, many
geñ	n.	"the way" (as in, that weird poetic concept. this root may or may not actually exist, I just needed it here)
gind	v-gnom.	to be
haȿ	v-gnom.	to know
hit	v-cont.	to use
kañ-per	v-mom.	to become damaged, harmed, hurt
ko	conj.	if
nar	n.	sword
ndés	v-cont.	to think about
nú	adj.	this
mbúre	prep.	about, to ("with the intended effect of")
mes-ittoh	n.	person
ȿoɀ	v-any.	to do so
ȿyk-per	n-mom.	to die
tét	pn.	2nd person pronoun
tȿun	adj.	other
zund	adj.	strong
zút	n.	moment

-nihi	suff.	to try to X
-k	suff.	causative

GRAMMAR

The basic word order of Mesak is APXV. Noun phrases are also head-final. However, subordinate clauses follow their head. Every structure that appears in this text behaves in an ERG/ABS fashion.

VERBS:

The verbal complex takes on the following form:

Ergative agreement - ROOT - Incorporation - Derivational Affixes - ABSOLUTIVE (1st and 2nd) - Tense & Mood - NUMBER - ABSOLUTIVE (3rd)

Verbs appear in three aspects: Momentane, Continuous and Gnomic. The aspect determines the personal inflection affixes:

GNOM	ERG	ABS	\| CONT	ERG	ABS	\| MOM	ERG	ABS
1	ga-	-k	\| 1	a-	-a	\| 1	ga-	-a
2	te-	-t	\| 2	e-	-e	\| 2	te-	-e
3	i-	-s	\| 3	i-	-i	\| 3	i-	-s

Number is inflected for separately, with the following affixes:

SG	-o
PL	-y
SG>SG	-no
SG>PL	-ny
PL>SG	-ko
PL>PL	-ky

The following tense/mood affixes appear in the text:

Indicative	unmarked
Infintive	-ko	no agreement affixes
Negative	-he-
Non-Future	unmarked
Future	-py-

NOUNS:

Nouns inflect for four cases and two numbers, as well as for (if applicable) person and number of their possessor. Nouns can be countable or uncountable and behave differently based on that, but all nouns in this text are countable, so I'll only explain those.

Nouns function quite similarly to verbs. They take roughly the same affixes, but additionally inflect for case. Morphologically, a noun is structured as follows:

Possessor - STEM - Number - Case

The possessor affixes are identical to the ergative affixes of a verb in the momentane aspect. Number is also marked identically to how it is marked on verbs, with the ergative part of the number referring to the number of the possessor, and the absolutive part to the number of the noun itself.

The case affixes are:

Absolutive	-s
Ergative	-s	The particle ñ is possessed by the noun. This particle is treated as singular.
Dative	-ñ
Essive	-t

Next to their obvious uses, the dative is additionally used for possession (to be + dative = to have). The essive is used as a "default case" for many constructions; importantly it is used for agreement if the head noun is incorporated (see below). It is also used for temporal statements.

Possessed nouns generally show up unmarked, except if they are further possessed (doesn't appear in this text)

ADJECTIVES:

Adjectives agree in number and case with their head noun. They take identical affixes as the nouns.

INCORPORATION:

Indefinite patient nouns are incorporated into the verb. In this case, the rest of the noun phrase is moved to immediately before the verb. Nouns are incorporated as bare stems. Incorporation decreases the valency of a verb - if the patient of a transitive verb is incorporated, the verb becomes intransitive and the actor appears in the absolutive. Definite nouns cannot be incorporated.