Here is the unglossed version, in parallel text with a short explanation.
Note: All unmarked nouns and adjectives in the glosses (also possessive adjectives) are nominative singular.
Shen vestyn anin. Rheis buzin The Light is our source. Trust is our anin. Tain duyen Anshen foundation. The great god Anshen is nafalan anin. our protector. shen vestyn anin rheis buzin anin tain duyen Anshen light source Poss1p trust foundation Poss1p god noble Anshen na.fal.an anin NEG-danger-Ag Poss1p
Ag: agentive suffix; not grammatical agent, but denotes a person who does something habitually or by profession.
anin "our" is made up of:
Semte rychinan alea duchat, A gifted person honours all living
tainena hune lea sovinat. beings, because they are an image of
the gods.
semte rychinan alea duchat
gifted-person breath-Ag-acc-p 3p-C honour-3s-PRS
semte is a person with gifts of the mind, able to use the senses and "virtual limbs" of the ethereal body (anie) to perceive, communicate and manipulate. This is not thought of as "paranormal"; it's a perfectly normal gift of the gods that about one in fifteen people is born with (though it isn't always discovered, let alone trained and used).
rychin, literally "breathers"; people and animals (who have anie), not plants. Plants are considered alive but non-sentient.
alea consists of the prefix a- and the third person common-gender pronoun lea; it has only one form (only first and second person pronouns have separate subject and object forms) and can mean "they", "them", "everybody", and also "all", "every". In that last sense, it's often used attributively.
tainena hune lea sovinat god-acc-p because LEA image-3s-PRS
hune is derived from hun "cause, reason"; it's an old dative form, lost when the dative and the illative were conflated. The locative also exists as an adverb: hunie "rightly, for good reason". A conjunction that joins two clauses comes after the first constituent.
tainena lea sovinat is an impersonal construction: sovina "to portray, to visualise" from sovin "image, portrayal", lea sovinat with both the logical subject and the logical object in the accusative: "to be an image of, to symbolise". No subject is needed in the subordinate clause, because it's clear that it refers to rychinan.
Semte rastinan dilat alea cul A gifted person treats all thinking
le dilayt puret. beings as he would like them to treat
him.
semte rastinan dilat alea cul le dilayt
gifted-person think-Ag-acc-p do-3s-PRS 3p-C how refl do-3p-PRS
puret
want-3s-IRR
rastin "thinkers": people, as a subset of rychin. rasta "to reason, to use one's brain" contrasts with ansina "to contemplate, to use one's mind"; both can be translated with "think".
dila "to do"; with an animate object, it's usually "to do unto [someone]".
le, the resumptive (reflexive) pronoun, is used when the object is identical to the subject of the same clause (Rava le cylat "Rava washes [herself]") or when the subject of the main clause is the object of the subordinate clause. It has only the one form for common and neuter gender in all object cases.
puret is irrealis: "he/she would want". This is a wish, not a command; a command would be cul le dileyt purat "as he wants them to treat him". In that case, dileyt is irrealis because it's not sure that the command would be obeyed.
Semte semsinan ryshat da A gifted person uses his gifts to shylat fere lea shylea help those who need help and to teach velinat so da farnat fere those who want to learn. lea orna purat. semte semsinan ryshat da shylat fere gifted-person gift-acc-p use-3s-PRS in order.. help-3s-PRS ..to
semsen is a gift of the mind, from the stem semt and the suffix -sen, from sein "thing". It's usually used in the plural and has the specific meaning of psychic gifts which have been trained and are being used.
da ... fere "in order to", "so that"; with the present tense the action has immediate result ("use one's gifts to help", also in recipes: ... da folay fere "in order to make ..."), with the future tense it has a certain result in the future, with the irrealis the result is uncertain but desired (sorynuyt rhinlena da custyneyt fere "they went hunting to catch ducks"). It's slightly formal, mostly used in written language; one would say sorynuyt rhinlena custyna, with the infinitive instead of the da ... fere construction.
lea shylea velinat so da farnat fere rel-C help-acc-s need-3s and in order.. teach-3s-PRS ..to lea orna purat rel-C learn-INF want-3s-PRS
lea is the third person common-gender pronoun, here used as a relative pronoun. Masculine and feminine subjects also take lea as the relative, neuter subjects take li.
Salea hernea falen menet Whoever endangers another without navelien, nalunie dilat. need, does an unjust deed. salea hernea falen menet na.velien ind-3s-C other-acc-s danger-ill-s give-3s-IRR NEG-need-instr
salea "whoever", perhaps even "whosoever" in this context; the prefix sa- "any" is the indeterminate pendant of a- "all". Originally, it must have been salea lea "anyone who..." but the second lea always disappears (except when it's part of an impersonal construction), even if the first one has a prefix. The indeterminacy of salea causes the irrealis in the verb. Once it's established that the deed is done (by "whoever"), it's a fact that it's unjust: no need for the irrealis.
herne "other" is only used for people; "another thing" is hyrn.
falen mena, literally "to give into danger", has the connotation of either abandoning someone to a dangerous situation, or knowingly pushing them into it.
na.lunie dilat NEG-just-instr do-3s-PRS
lun "just", "justice"; not the law as written, but the rules laid down by the gods; nalun is its contradiction "injustice". The instrumental case makes an adverb: nalunie dilat "acts unjustly".
Salea ania rodet lea le rina Whoever attacks a person who
naverat, nalunie dilat. can't defend himself, does an
unjust deed.
salea ania rodet lea le rina
ind-3s-C person-acc-s attack-3s-IRR rel-C refl defend-INF
na.verat na.lunie dilat
NEG-can-3s-PRS NEG-just-instr do-3s-PRS
anie is a person's ethereal body, used here to mean the person as a spiritual being, because members of the Guild of Anshen are mostly concerned with danger to that part of a person.
Salea hania rodet, Nafurei Whoever attacks an apprentice, even
fel, nalunie dilat. one of the Nameless One, does an
unjust deed.
salea hania rodet Na.furei fel
ind-3s-C apprentice-acc-s attack-3s-IRR NEG-name-gen-s even
hanie "adolescent" (about 11-15, no longer considered a child but not fully adult yet) is also used for apprentices in a craft guild, the Guild of Anshen or the Guild of the Nameless. In the vocative (also hanie, the vocative case ending is -e like the nominative of this noun class) it means "lad", "lass", "kid".
Salea tarie arne razia rodet, Whoever attacks a journeyman, being
nalunie dilat. a master himself, does an unjust
deed.
salea tarie arne razia rodet
ind-3s-C master self journeyman-acc-s attack-3s-IRR
na.lunie dilat
NEG-just-instr do-3s-PRS
tarie arne here modifies the missing lea that's the subject of rodet.
Salea ania rodet lea ni Whoever attacks someone not yet
razein sa tarsein namuy na recovered from a journeyman's or a
lhynenat, nalunie dilat. master's trial, does an unjust
deed.
salea ania rodet lea ni razein sa
ind-3s-C person-acc-s attack-3s-IRR rel-C NEG j.trial-abl-s or
tarsein namuy na lhynenat na.lunie dilat
m.trial-abl.s not-yet NEGV recover-3s-PERF NEG-just-instr do-3s-PRS
ni is the negation for anything except the verb; razein sa tarsein is one constituent so it needs only one ni (ni razein ni tarsein would mean "neither the journeyman's trial nor the master's trial", which doesn't make sense here).
na is the negation for the verb. It is mandatory when anything else in the sentence is negated, even if there's something like namuy "not yet" present.
Salea imustyen falean Whoever treats his adversary in a
nacodinet, nalunie dilat. duel unfairly, does an unjust
deed.
salea i.mustyen falean na.codinet
ind-3s-C d-fight-loc enemy-acc-s NEG-be.fair-3s-IRR
na.lunie dilat
NEG-just-instr do-3s-PRS
imustyn has the dual prefix i-, indicating a fight between two people, i.e. a duel. I don't know whether there ever was a set of dual inflections to match the singular or plural ones; nowadays duals are only distinguished by the prefix and take singular inflections. Anyway, the dual prefix in imustyn doesn't mean that the word itself is dual, it's not "a pair of fights" the way ibest is "a pair of tights".
Salea anea, semtea sa orea Whoever uses psychic power, skill or ryshet da le tiset fere, force to serve his own ends, does an nalunie dilat. unjust deed. salea anea semtea sa orea ryshet ind-3s-C energy-acc-s skill-acc-s or force-acc-s use-3s-IRR
anea is living energy, the stuff the ethereal body is made of; semta is the fact of being gifted (and trained); orea is mastery that gives power.
da le tiset fere na.lunie dilat in order.. rel serve-3s-IRR ..to NEG-just-instr do-3s-PRS
le tisa "to serve oneself" is in the irrealis because the self-serving is only the aim of "whoever", not a certain result of the misuse of power in any form. The whole phrase da le tiset fere could also have been between orea and ryshet (Ilaini is firmly SOV, with the verb sentence-final almost without exception), but that would have made the sentence so unwieldy that it's been pushed out. This also gives it slight emphasis.
Salea anea, semtea sa orea Whoever uses psychic power, skill or ryshet hernen vur, nalunie force against another, does an dilat; dilynet liz mustyen unjust deed; except when it is in codien. a fair fight. salea anea semtea sa orea ryshet ind-3s-C energy-acc-s skill-acc-s or force-acc-s use-3s-IRR hernen vur na.lunie dilat dilynet liz other-dat-s against NEG-just-instr do-3s-PRS happen-3s-IRR except
vur "against" is a postposition with the dative. There's a shift from prepositions to postpositions going on; a notable example is az "(together) with" that's still a preposition, except with pronouns where it's even become a suffix -ez: az taten "with father", but liez (from lei-ez) "with him", aniez "with us".
liz used with nouns is also a postposition: "except", "without"; with verbs it means "except when", "unless".
mustyen codien fight-loc-s fair-loc-s
mustyn: this time the fight is not necessarily between only two people.
Salea hernei anea ryshet Whoever uses another's power without
naperie, donalunie dilat; his permission does a very unjust
ayali soli nusen mena malat. deed; he should give it back in
double measure.
salea hernei anea ryshet na.perie
ind-3s-C other-gen-s energy-acc-s use-3s-IRR NEG-permit-instr
do.nalunie dilat ayali soli nusen mena malat
very-NEG-just-instr do-3s-PRS p-3p-N twice back give-INF must-3s-PRS
do- augmentative prefix; there's also a diminutive prefix ta- and an "equalizing" prefix a- (probably related to the "generalizing plural"): moy "large", domoy "larger", tamoy "smaller", amoy "the same size".
ayali "everything", the neuter plural third-person pronoun ali with a generalizing a- and the anti-hiatus -y-.
soli "twice" is composed of the neuter singular third-person pronoun with the prefix so- "... times". Numerals are not declined, except chan "one"; "two" is expressed by the dual third person pronouns ilea for animates and ili for inanimates.
nusen "back (where it came from)", "backwards" is originally the dative of nus "reverse side", "a person's back".
Salea shean tisenat nashean Whoever has served the Light and
so tiseset purie, lodyinan willingly goes to serve the Dark,
dynat aniez so le lea nysat loses his rights and is banned from
nafarei datay nusenet. among us until he returns from the
error of his ways.
salea shean tisenat na.shean so tiseset
ind-3s-C light-acc-s serve-3s-PERF NEG.light-acc-s and serve-3s-INC-IRR
tisenat "has served": the perfective aspect, marked by -en-, implies that one is no longer doing whatever the verb indicates.
so follows the first constituent of the clause, nashean.
tiseset has the inceptive aspect marker, -es-, indicating that serving the Dark is about to begin; the sanction comes into effect as soon as one defects.
purie lodyinan dynat aniez so le lea nysat will-instr right-acc-p lose-3s-PRS 1p-with and refl 3s-C send.away-3s-PRS
Note aniez "with us". Older texts have az ani. The temptation to read lodyinan dynat aniez / so le lea nysat is great, but aniez belongs with nysat: "is sent away from our midst".
The anaphoric le refers back to "whoever", the grammatical object of lea nysat. This is the closest to passive voice that Ilaini has.
na.farei datay nusenet NEG-goal-abl until return-3s-PERF-IRR
nafar "error, wrong way" both literally and figuratively.
datay "until" takes the future if the outcome is certain ("cook until it's done"), the irrealis (as in this case) if it's uncertain. The perfective marker makes it clear that one is not received back until after repenting.
Last updated: 07-Sep-2002