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7. Suraetua by Lars Finsen

Texts | Grammar | Lexicon
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Suraetua

Olubik agaur

Ade andeke age lemusa garan ja. Agaure ande jasju ja ini jaen: Akuloni, tun ade kodimi tiu! Ure tate welawema ewe junjira. Welawe Jurin asue tiu! Kinisuan tate!

Andeke usi ja aga kaka jaen: Gid welawe Jurin asue liut? Kinisuan iltat?? Weajo jut ara jekama sure tala ere ini tat.

Agaure initi ja: Jekasi ini ta. Ara musi iltat? Surae jat kinisuan giula. Jinitisi ekidi liu?

Andeke initi ja: Jinitima eki ju!

Ylegi agaisanike has ja ako ijuen. Mynu agani usien suni ja. Mynuke age heam eljami ja usien ini jaen: judainiun iltiu?

Smooth English

The loud goatie

A beautiful woman crossed a river on a bridge. A goatie stopped the woman and said to her: "Good heavens, how pretty and graceful you are! When I look at you, my eyes are happy. You look like the eyes of the moon! I want to marry you!"

The woman heard and laughed at the goat: "So I look like the eyes of the moon? You want to marry me?? I guess you don't know my name, yet you speak to me."

The goatie replied: "You are talking of your name. Don't you listen to me? I told you that we would marry. What is your answer to that?"

The woman replied: "This is my answer!" Her very sharp knife cut him and killed him. She quickly cut off the goat's head. The head fell into the river at the cultivated field while she quickly said: "Do you agree completely?"

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Grammar

In Suraetua, the unit of narration is the verb. A statement is made up of clauses of which each must contain one and only one verb. This verb though is most often composite, consisting of a main verb and an auxiliary following it. The main verb and the auxiliary always conclude the clause. The auxiliary contains information about the agent and patient of the verb, its tense, mood and the relationship between clauses. The main verb is marked only for aspect. Rather a lot of verbs function both intransitively and transitively, and you must check the auxiliary to find its exact meaning.

There are two auxiliaries, the transitive a and the intransitive ju. Their translation is 'be', 'do', 'have' or 'yes' depending on the content of the clause and the choice of auxiliary. The subject and object of the sentence may or may not be specified inside the clause. If the object is not specified, another following (subordinate) clause could play the object role, or indeed a whole string of sentences if a dialogue is described. If any participant is missing, the form of the auxiliary specifies them, and they may be translated with the corresponding pronouns.

In a sentence, attributes generally precede heads. Adjectives precede nouns and adverbs precede verbs. An adjective can follow a noun only when it plays an object role in a clause with an intransitive auxiliary and no main verb. Example: Keson il ju - the man is dead. Adverbs will precede the whole clause if it affects the whole of it, otherwise it precedes only the main verb.

The intentional aspect denotes intention or readiness for an action. The completive aspect denotes completion, totality.

Nouns, pronouns and adjectives are marked for benefactive, which denotes the target or benefactor of an action, ergative, which denotes the subject of a transitive clause, augmentative, which confers a strengthening sense, genitive, which denotes possession, locative, denoting location, comitative, denoting association (used in place of "and"), instrumental, denoting means to an end, and plural. Unmarked are singular and absolutive, which denotes the subject of an intransitive clause or the object of a transitive clause.

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Lexicon

Abbreviations:

1-3p - 1st-3rd person plural
1-3s - 1st-3rd person singular
a - adjective
av - adverb
i - interjection
n - noun
p - pronoun
v - verb

Words:

ade (a) beautiful
aga (n) goat
agaisa (n) knife
agaur (n) mythological goat, that is the speaking kind you encounter in fables
age (n) river
ako (v) kill
akuloni (i) good heavens
ande (n) woman
ara (av) not, no
asue (v) look like, mirror
eki (p) this
eljami (v) fall into
ere (av) yet, still, but
ewe (v) happy
garan (v) go/walk over/through
gid (i) so, thus
has (v) cut
hea (n) cultivated field
ini (v) talk, speak to/about, say
jasju (v) stop
jeka (n) name
jiniti (n) answer
judaini (v) agree
Jur (n) the Moon
kaka (v) laugh
kinisu (v) marry
kod (a) graceful
lemu (n) bridge
musi (v) listen
mynu (n) head
olubik (a) loud, noisy
suni (v) cut off
surae (v) tell
sure (v) know
tun (p) how
ure (v) look, see
usi (v) hear
usien (av) quickly
weajo (v) guess, suppose
wela (n) eye
yl (a) sharp

Auxiliaries used:

intransitive:

present:

giu: 1p
ju: 3s
junji: 3p
jut: 1s
tiu: 2s

past:

iju: 3s

interrogative:

iltiu: 2s
liu: 3s
liut: 1s

transitive (subject>object):

present:

ta: 2s>3s
tat: 2s>1s
tate: 1s>2s

past:

ja: 3s>3s
jat: 1s>3s

interrogative:

iltat: 2s>1s

Morphology:

-an intentional
-di benefactive
-e ergative
-egi augmentative
-en comitative clause (while doing - and does/did)
-in genitive, 3s possessive
-ke ergative
-la subordinate clause
-m locative
-ma 1s possessive
-mi comitative
-ra causal clause (action caused by main clause)
-sa instrumental
-si 2s possessive
-un completive
-we plural

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