Teket Lau

Abridged Dictionary · Full Dictionary · Grammar · Examples

The Torch

la cet se ete chimet vhieg ete kaet tatrheivaircheine tema se. hevhen anviusa se. maan miraal vet agan ene tuaki iulmiraal anrhemin se a aniichie kuu kit erit ta hiiremarene. maan kuu tavia ene eren aniiremne se. lausa kuu set: imaln rhat kuu tarheminvia ene iulaan! mirhsa sul ki vemesan.

rhaten var kuu taene, chilat var ene ki ken sul via. chathit kuu. esak chihea vira ete nagarhim kuu tachihea hin ile chathetsa naeskeir iichie.

echiit kuu ta hiichie kit iuguret tavhikircat. hlaren kare anvia rhemin. tent lure vhieg ete sul iutes! hechik aniichie kuu ta hiirem kit kaaki rhemin set sal tathuu kit iulia kei.

Grammar

VSO word order
- VOS puts emphasis on the subject
Turns-at-speech begin and end with honorifics, the primary honorific (at the beginning of the utterance) describing the addressee's position within their family unit, and the secondary honorific (at the end of the utterance) describing the addressee's relationship to the speaker's family unit
- The primary honorific is dropped in some contexts
- Some honorifics come in sets, disregarding the usual position/relationship rules
All nouns belong to one of four noun classes
- Holy: Nouns relating to gods or their domains; noun¹ in the dictionary
- Hunter: Nouns relating to keit or dangerous animals; noun² in the dictionary
- Animate: Edible things, or otherwise relating to food; noun³ in the dictionary
- Inanimate: Inedible things; noun⁴ in the dictionary
Holy and inanimate nouns are uncountable, and their plurals go unmarked
Verbs conjugate to agree with the nouns' classes
- Transitive verbs agree with the subject
- Intransitive verbs agree with the object
- Conjugations are listed in order in the dictionary:
  - "trhesaln ('tɹɛ-sɐln), trhemet ('tɹɛ-mɛt), trhemen ('tɹɛ-mɛn), trhemeki (tɹɛ'mɛ-ki)"
  - When agreeing with an animate noun, this verb will appear as "trhemen"
Subjects and objects can be dropped when context and the verb's conjugation make them implicitly clear
Imperatives appear as the unconjugated dictionary form
The noun doing the possessing follows the possession
Objects are marked by "ta", unless they have a possessive marker
- Indirect objects are marked by a possessive marker; clauses with an indirect object must also state a direct object, so there is no confusion between the two
Adjectives and adverbs follow the noun or verb they are describing
- Nouns and verbs can be used as adjectives by following the noun being described with a pronoun in agreement with it, then the noun or verb being adjectivized (the verb in its unconjugated, dictionary form)
- In compound words, the adjective precedes the noun; "dog big" is a dog that is big, "big dog" is a kind of dog
Tense functions as an adjective following the verb; the present tense is habitually used for the habitual
Dynamic adpositions, implying movement, append to the verb
Static adpositions append to the noun
- These are not strict categories; whether an adposition is dynamic or static is entirely situational
Clauses are connected by a dummy pronoun, which appears in agreement with the subject of the following clause
"var" is a positivity marker; "iul" is a negativity marker
- In many cases the final consonant is dropped
When three vowels would appear in a row, an 'h' is inserted between the words/affixes, and the words are kept separate. vhra+ia would be realized as "vhra hia", not "vhraia"

Examples

HON	honorific
HUNT	hunter noun class
INAN	inanimate noun class
OBJ	direct object
AL-POS	alienable possession
3SG	third-person singular pronoun

la niethet keit kei
HON sleep.HUNT keit HON
The keit sleeps.
la trhemeki keit taniin kei · la trhemeki taniin keit kei
HON make.INAN keit OBJ.house HON · HON make.INAN OBJ.house keit HON
The keit makes a house.
la trhemeki keit anniin keit kei
HON make.INAN keit AL-POS.house keit HON
The keit makes their house.
la trhemeki keit taniin lin kei
HON make.INAN keit OBJ.house only HON
The keit makes one house.
la trhemeki keit talinniin kei
HON make.INAN keit OBJ.only-house HON
The keit makes the one house.
la trhemeki keit taniin kit svheit kei
HON make.INAN keit OBJ.house 3SG.INAN big kei
The keit makes a big house.
la tuakine keit taniin kei
HON come.INAN-in keit OBJ.house HON
The keit comes into the house.
la kaki keit taniinne kei
HON be.INAN keit OBJ.house-in HON
The keit is in the house.
la trhemeki keit tatrhemin ete niinne kei
HON make.INAN keit OBJ.craft 3SG.HUNT house-in HON
The keit makes crafts inside the house.