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#9Common Caber by Galen
Common CaberEnglish

Ba otgoć ơr ri ưtar ba cươc cưtar ćuư, ba soưsroc nuas. Ba ǧưm ćưa? Ba ǧưm ơ, ba madičbo ǧưm nuas. Ơr comostưtam ba cươca fe ơr ćuư, camnon ơr en bưbư en ba ǵơn nuas.

You are strong when you fight those who are skilled with the spear. Do you act? If so, you are right to. When they test their spears, show them that you will die.

Lexicon:

  • -a – sfx. PL (nouns ending in a velar consonant)
  • ba – prn. 2PL
  • ba – det. DEF
  • -bo – sfx. adverbializer (verbal referent)
  • bưbư – v. see, observe, witness
  • camnon – v. force, compel
  • comos – v. learn
  • cươc – n. spear
  • cưtar – adj. proficient
  • ćưa – adv. Q
  • ćuư – adv. when
  • en – prn. that (subordinator)
  • fe – prep. GEN
  • ǵơn – v. die
  • ǧưm – v. take action, act, do something
  • madič – adj. just, right, correct, with/for good cause
  • nuas – adv. then
  • -oc – sfx. PL (nouns not ending in a velar consonant)
  • otgoć – v. fight
  • ơ – adv. if
  • ơr – prn. 3PL
  • ri – prn. REL
  • soưsro – adj. strong
  • -tưtam – sfx. “EXCHANGE”

Glossary:

  • 2 – second person
  • 3 – third person
  • adj. – adjective
  • adv. – adverb
  • DEF – definite article
  • det. – determiner
  • EXCHANGE – theta-role-changing operator (q.v.)
  • GEN – genitive
  • n. – noun
  • PL – plural
  • prep. – preposition
  • prn. – pronoun
  • Q – question
  • REL – relative
  • sfx. – suffix
  • v. – verb
  • Word order is typically SVO.
  • Imperatives do not require an overt subject pronoun.
  • There is no copula; adjectives are simply used predicatively.
  • When an adjective is used predicatively, it agrees in number with its referent.
  • There is no person-marking on verbs.
  • Adverbs come before the word modified unless they either are subordinating adverbs (e.g., “if”, “then”) or are the question particle ćưa. Subordinating adverbs appear somewhere after the verb; ćưa appears utterance-finally.
  • The plural suffix for nouns has two forms, -a if following a velar consonant and -oc otherwise. The -o- of the -oc form is deleted after another -o.
  • Relative clauses typically are introduced with the appropriate pronoun followed by the relative word, which heads the clause.
  • To express possession, one uses the preposition fe with the appropriate noun phrase. This noun phrase may be a personal pronoun—that is, there is no separate possessive form of the personal pronouns.
  • The suffix defined as “EXCHANGE”, -tưtam, does something to the theta-roles of the verb. To a first approximation, one could say that it swaps the theta-roles of the subject and the object.
  • If a subordinated clause is counterfactual (using the term “counterfactual” to include “hypothetical”), the main clause must also use some sort of subordinating adverb (typically nuas).
  • If there is only one overt argument in an utterance, and that argument is either the subject of a verb or the direct object of an imperative verb, and that argument is also the subject of an immediately-subordinated clause, the subject of the subordinated clause may be omitted.