One day, a fox saw a crow with a piece of cheese in her beak sitting on a branch of a tree. Eia hess, seileva vōs toruma lemgin atonuma, krodzes keriporuma karhon salende.
one day, fox-nom mouth-dat be.inside-att cheese-accipf-have-att branch-dat sit-cmpd-be.above-att crow-acc see.pst
ei(a) numeral ’1’, also used for emphatic indefiniteness
hess ’day’ (temporal words just go unmarked in Kymna)
seile ’fox’, nom. aff. seileva
vō ’mouth’, dat. of location vōs
toruma ’being inside’ (attrib.)
lemge ’cheese’ (clearly a loan, of unknown origin), acc. neutr. lemgin
He thought ’Let me get that cheese for myself’ and walked up to the foot of the tree. ”Terma lemgin midzas satonūmene” malon tevne, koppa-takes tenganende.
that cheese-acc self-datvr.st-ipf-have-cohquot think.pf-iccl tree-stem-dat go.to.point.pf-pst
terma ’that one’
mis reflexive pronoun, dat. midzas ’for myself’
satonum ’to gain, come into possession’ (S.a.s paradigm), coh. satonūmene
malon – general quoting particle
tëvnum ’to think’ (A paradigm), inconcl. tevné
koppa ’tree’
take ’stem, stalk’, dat. of location takes
tengonum ’go up to the point’ (T paradigm), p.t. tenganende
’Good day, oh crow!’, he said, ’How well you are looking today! How shining are your eyes, how glossy are your feathers! ”Salidzon, karha!” malon, ”Veness ālaneidze nemon akonum! Nei nemon salmi hymnōn! Nei nemon hëymi alëym!
greetings crow! quot today good-adv you-gen.affipf-appear! mp.praise you-gen.aff eye-pl bright-pred! mp.praise you-gen.aff feather-plipf-shine!
salidzon – greeting, literally acc. of salis ’happiness’
veness ’today’
ālana ’good’, adv. ālaneidze ’well’
nemon gen. aff. ’your’, marking a stative/patient-like subject at the first occurence, then unalianable possession of eyes and feathers
nei – initial affective particle expressing praise
sal ’eye’, nom. pl. salmi
hymna ’bright’, predic. hymnōn
hëy ’feather’, nom. pl. hëymi
alëym ’to shine’ (A.a paradigm)
Your voice must surely surpass the voices of other birds, just like your form does’ Īlin nemon nasan mīna tossemin atyruhëyrum, ālin nemon roume umnetyrūm.
as you-gen.aff shape every bird-pl-accipf-surpass so you-gen.aff voice suppose-be.beyond.ipf
īlin …, ālin ’as …, so’
nasan ’shape’
mīna ’all, every’
tosse ’bird’, acc. pl. neutr. tossemin
atyruhëyrum ’surpass’ (A paradigm), lit. ’travel beyond’
roume ’speech, voice’
umne- preverb expressing that something is supposed to be in a certain state
tyrūm ’be out, be beyond’ (P paradigm)
Oh crow, could you sing me a song so that I can call you the queen of birds!’ Karha, nadzan ei toutoman lanëssu, e tossemīa perinda-mal taliþon edze amas tyðriðëssum.”
crow, me-dat.aff one song-res.aff sing.pf-imp, so.that bird-gen.pl queen-called name-acc I-nom.aff you-dat give-cmpd-be.able.to.pf
nadzan – dat. aff. ’for/to me’
touta ’song’, res. sg. toutoman (the song is not in existence yet, so it stands in the resultative)
lonum ’sing’, imp. lanëssu
e – marks following sentence as a consequence following from the preceding one
tossemīa – gen. pl. neutr. of tosse ’bird’
perinda ’queen’
…-mal ’called …’
taliþa ’name’, sg. acc. neutr. taliþon
edze – nom. aff. ’I’
amas – dat. neutr. ’to/for you’
tyðrum ’to give’, compound tyðri-
dëssum ’be able to do’ (S paradigm), tyðriðëssum ’be able to give’ (the non-past perfective expresses future perfective)
The crow lifted her head in order to sing, but as she opened her beak, the cheese fell down and was taken by the fox. Karhava lonuma patas poruchon ny sorue, lemge ndo hyrue, s’seiles tachnidzuende.
crow-nom.aff sing-att wish-dat head-acc on.one.hand raise.pf-iccl cheese on.other.hand fall.pf-iccl and fox-dat take-cmpd-be.done-pst
karhava – nom. sg. aff. of karha ’crow’
lonuma – attrib. form of lonum ’to sing’
pata ’wish’, dat. sg. neutr. patas
poruch ’head’, acc. sg. neutr. poruchon
sorūm ’to rise/raise’, inconcl. sorué
…ny, …ndo – shows contrast, placed after the appopriate words; similar to Greek δε/γαρ
hyrūm ’to fall (if initially detached from the ground)’, inconcl. hyrué
se ’and’, shortened to s’ before p, t, k, s and vowels
tochnum ’to take away, seize’, passive tachnidzūm, past passive tachnidzuende ’was taken away’
’That’s right, that’s what I wanted’, said the fox, ’In exchange for the cheese I shall give you a piece of advice for the future: Do not trust flatteres.’ ”Ālana-ālanōn”, malon seile tālende, ”Vënumaton im’ āþinende. Lemges tëyrue ei devin nedzon ganimos tyðrum: Līsalirmis dovnironëssu.”
good-good-predquot fox say.pf-pst this.very-acc me-genipf-wish-pst. cheese-dat exchange.ipf-iccl one advice-acc you-dat.aff future-dat give.pf: flatterer-pl-dat trust-cmpd-not.do-imp
toulum ’to say’ (T paradigm), p.t. tālende
vënumat(a) emph. ’this very thing’, acc. vënumaton
ima – gen. sg. neutr. ’my’, here marking a stative/patient-like subject, shortened to im’
