The Torch

la rhasal kuu taniesal. imetne tevhir kuu naketal vet tahekicha ali agan lekilet taete.

caal kuu sa veteviasa vitiveise varat sa nanalsaa ure gia rhimasaln cen eirasal salnae set lau. chimasa akanu cen hekesa eliis sienea cen iumaki nasen keit na hiuguraul marhsaln.

tharet testala sienea takau hekicha hei vheiki ea naaruun laruna hekicha. tharet var ete taseal lavanae.

ulmasa kuu et manet taseal eteul.

thiretat sul ete nakeit vetet ete kavh. mustal li ge nachiime ete agan kavhik takuris na hiutesvhir ete.

chaet hei veli ketal vet naaline akanu testala sienea agan manet kuu taseal.

erit keit taaline ete vemesaln var tavemesan na hiuguraul marhsaln agan agan tharet li kau kei.

Grammar

Teket Lau is a language in the Keit Lau language family, spoken by the Teket people on the island of Kuris. The language is VSO by default, VOS to draw more attention to the subject of the sentence. Subjects, objects, even clauses can be dropped if the information they convey is otherwise clear.

Turns-at-speech begin and end with honorifics describing the listener's relationship to the speaker's tribe, and the listener's relationship to the speaker. In casual speech, the primary honorific is often dropped, and the secondary honorific reduced.

There are three kinds of verbs in Teket:

• Transitive verbs take a minimum of two and a maximum of three arguments ^{1 2 17}
• Intransitive verbs take a maximum of one argument ^{9 11 14}
• Clausal verbs take two arguments, one of them being a clause. A determiner is used to link the clausal verb with the following clause. ^{4 13 20}

While verbs can be left unconjugated, they are in most registers conjugated to agree with one of four noun classes.

• Intransitive and clausal verbs agree with the subject ^{4 11 13}
• Transitive verbs agree with the target: the direct object, or the indirect object if there is one ^{16 17 18}

The noun classes are:

• Holy, often referred to as the first class, which contains gods and things belonging to the gods' domains ^{11 12 20}
• Hunter, often referred to as the second class, which contains ketal and things that are dangerous to ketal ^{10 20 21}
• Edible, or Animate, often referred to as the third class, which contains most animals and food ^{2 7 18}
• Inedible, or Inanimate, often referred to as the fourth class, which contains everything else ^{13 22}

Most class categorizations are intuitive, but some must be memorized.

The lexicon contains a list of conjugations with each verb. They are listed in order, so the first in the list is Holy, the second is Hunter, and so on.

Sentences with multiple clauses are linked by a dummy pronoun agreeing with the subject in the following clause ^{5 21}, or by a conjunction. ⁶

Adjectives and adverbs follow the word being described ^{9 11}, except in compound words in which case ¹² the adjective precedes the noun. Determiners precede the word they refer to. ⁹

Verbs can be turned into adjectives or adverbs by following the descriptee with a pronoun in agreement with itself, and then the verb being used as a descriptor in its non-conjugated dictionary form. ⁸

Nouns in the first and fourth classes are considered uncountable and do not take a plural marker. Nouns in the second and third classes can be made plural by appending the pluralizing suffix ¹, this is expressed in the lexicon after the word's classification.

Modifiers can change the class of the noun they're modifying. ¹¹

Tense is indicated in one of two ways, referred to as the Clausal Method and the Adverbial Method. The clausal method uses the ascending or descending (for past and future, respectively) clausal verb with a tense term ¹³. This sets the entire scene within a time frame, and can be considered to be promoting the time frame to the topic of the sentence.

The adverbial method uses the tense term as an adverb modifying the verb. ¹⁴

Progressive tenses are expressed by appending -vhir to the tense term ¹⁴:

• Vhanvhir, tevhir: had been doing (occurred during the time being referenced but now finished)
• sulvhir: have been doing (occurred at the time being referenced and now ongoing)
• varatvhir, velivhir: will have been doing (will occur during the time being referenced but has not yet begun)

Hypothetical tense terms cannot be used in this form.

Possessions are marked with an alienable ¹⁵ or inalienable ^{2 18} prefix, and followed by the object's possessor. If no possessor is stated, the speaker is implied to be the possessor. Adjectives describing the thing being possessed will follow that thing, and not the possessor.

In sentences with a direct object and no indirect object, the direct object takes an object marker. ^{1 16 22}

In sentences with an indirect object, the indirect object takes the object marker and the direct object is marked as a possession. ¹⁸ If the possessions' owner is unknown or ambiguous, the object is said to own itself. ²

Adpositions come in two categories:

• Dynamic adpositions imply movement and append to the verb ¹⁷
• Static adpositions do not imply movement, and append to the noun ¹⁶

In a sentence with an adpositional phrase acting on that sentence's object, the noun in the phrase will follow that object. ^{17 18}

In sentences with an intransitive verb and an adpositional phrase, the adpositional phrase is usually promoted to the subject ¹⁹, comparable to the passive form in English. If necessary, the actor can be introduced as the topic. ²⁰

Another construction uses a helper verb in a secondary clause ²¹, most often the verb for "to move" for dynamic adpositions and "to be" or locative verbs for static adpositions. This construction puts emphasis on the information in the adpositional phrase, but is more often used for artistic or aesthetic purposes than semantic ones.

If an affix would create a word with three vowels in a row, the terms are kept separate and an "h" is inserted at the beginning of the second term. ²²

Words can be intensified through reduplication with vowel raising. ²³

Examples

1. la huthen keit tacheineal kei
   HON hear.ANIM keit OBJ-bird-PL HON

   The keit hears the birds

2. la rhivan keit nacheineal ene takuu kei
   HON give.ANIM keit INAL-POS-bird-PL it.ANIM OBJ-1SG HON

   The keit gives the bird itself to me

3. la iusat keit kei
   HON sit.HUNT keit HON

   The keit sits

4. la chilat keit et iusan cheine kei
   HON think.HUNT keit this-visible sit.ANIM bird HON

   The keit thinks this: the bird sits

5. la iusat keit ene iusat cheine kei
   HON sit.HUNT keit 3SG.ANIM sit.ANIM bird HON

   The keit sits, the bird sits

6. la iusat keit cen iusat cheine kei
   HON sit.HUNT keit and sit.ANIM bird HON

   The keit sits and the bird sits

7. la vhathen taug kei
   HON walk.ANIM dog HON

   The dog walks

8. la heken ene tataug ene vhath kei
   HON is.ANIM 3SG.ANIM OBJ-dog 3SG.ANIM walk HON

   It is a walked dog

9. la iusat vira ki keit esa kei
   HON sit.HUNT intentionally that-invisible keit tall HON

   That tall keit sits intentionally

10. la iriset vhieg kei
    HON swim.HUNT monster HON

    The monster swims

11. la irisal vhieg isaln kei
    HON swim.HOLY monster water kei

    The water monster swims

12. la irisal isaln vhieg kei
    HON swim.HOLY water monster kei

    The water-monster swims

13. la echit te en iusat keit kei
    HON ascend.INAN past that-visible sit.HUNT keit HON

    In the past: the keit sits

14. la iusat tevhir keit kei
    HON sit past keit HON

    The keit had been sitting

15. la huthen keit ancheine kuu kei
    HON listen.ANIM keit AL-POS-bird 1SG HON

    The keit listens to my bird

16. la huthen keit tacheine rheminer kei
    HON hear.ANIM keit OBJ-bird tree-near HON

    The keit hears the bird near the tree

17. la chathaser keit tarhemin kei
    HON climb.HOLY-near keit OBJ-tree HON

    The keit climbs near the tree

18. la rhivan keit nacheine ene rheminer takuu kei
    HON give.ANIM keit INAL-POS-bird 3SG.ANIM tree-near.ANIM OBJ-1SG HON

    The keit gives the bird near a tree to me

19. la irisalne isaln kei
    HON swim.HOLY-in water HON

    The water is swam in

20. la cet keit et irisalne isaln kei
    HON topic.HUNT keit this-visible swim.HOLY-in water HON

    As for the keit, this: the water is swam in

21. la irisetne keit set vhasal isaln kei
    HON swim.HUNT-in keit 3SG.HOLY exist.HOLY water HON

    The keit swims in, the water exists

22. la seki keit ta haa kei
    HON watch.INAN keit OBJ cloud HON

    The keit watches a cloud

23. la cast cest keit kei
    HON strong strong keit HON

    The keit is very strong