A recipe for nut balls

I first posted this recipe on the conlang mailing list (for constructed languages) in June 1994. To join it, send a message with "subscribe conlang Your Name" in the body to the listserver. To read messages, try the archives. You may need a graphical browser.

More about constructed languages can be found on the Constructed Human Languages site, or on Boudewijn's constructed languages page.

Linguists may like to peruse the glosses; cooks may like to try the recipe itself.

Biryinin tacholsenan da folay fere

Biryinan nestyenan sa hyrnena custay ali so myray az dayen sa sumen datay dayan hostea cul brythea lea chalet. Byren li denay. Cyne samina nadayenan crinena li denay so rustei so ostenin crosei ersinin irashean. Lhasea dilynay dustie sa chelie so carisinen. Ayali meray datay bruvie gori. Rhisay tacholsenan so folay.

To make nut balls

Take almonds or other nuts and grind them with water or wine until the liquid looks white like milk. Put it in a pot. Then put in dried fruit, cut up small, and enough bread crumbs and sponge cake crumbs. To make it taste good, add sugar or honey and spices. Simmer until it's nice and stiff. Let cool and make little balls.

Use ground almond paste (like peanut butter only made from almonds, from a health food shop) diluted with about double the volume of white wine. Bring it to the boil in a thick saucepan; the original recipe doesn't mention this, probably because whoever wrote it down assumes that simmering implies having boiled first. As soon as it boils, thicken it with fresh breadcrumbs and/or cake crumbs; if you started with half a jar of almond paste you'll need a good double handful. Keep stirring or it will stick to the saucepan. Flavour with demerara sugar, ground ginger and cinnamon. It's a traditional Valdyan sweet.

The text taken apart

biryinin  ta.cholsenan   da        folay       fere
nut-gen-p DIM.ball-acc-p in-order- make-2s-PRS -to
                         da V fere: "in order to V", "so that V" 

biryinan  nestyenan  sa hyrnena     custay      ali    so  myray
nut-acc-p eye-acc-p  or other-acc-p take-2s-PRS P3pN-O and grind-2s-PRS
(eye-nut = 'almond')                            "them"

az            dayen       sa sumen      datay dayan        hostea
together.with water-dat-s or wine-dat-s until liquid-acc-s white-acc-s 

cul  brythea    lea chalet
like milk-acc-s LEA look-3s-IRR
                Impersonal construction: lea is an "empty pronoun",
                only there because the verb needs a subject. The 
                logical subject dayan is in the object form.

byren     li     denay
pot-ill-s P3sN-O put-2s-PRS
          "it"

cyne samina      nadayenan crinena       li     denay
then fruit-acc-c dry-acc-p divided-acc-p P3sN-O put-2s-PRS
                                         "it"

so  rustei      so  ostenin   crosei     ersinin     irashean
and bread-gen-s and egg-gen-p cake-gen-s crumb-gen-c enough-acc-s

                irashen is a numeral really; it means "a count of
                twelve" (raich "six" + -sen "thing", with
                dual prefix i-)

lhasea           dilynay      dustie      sa chelie
taste.nice-acc-s cause-2s-PRS sugar-ins-s or honey-ins-s

so  carisinen
and spice-ins-c

ayali      meray         datay bruvie          gori
everything simmer-2s-PRS until look.nice-ins-s stiff-nom-p

rhisay    tacholsenan    so  folay
cool-2s-s DIM.ball-acc-p and make-2s-PRS

Abbreviations:

2	second person
3	third person
acc	accusative case
c	collective plural number
dat	dative case
DIM	diminutive prefix
gen	genitive case
ill	illative case
ins	instrumental case
IRR	irrealis aspect
LEA	pronoun "lea" in context where it can't be translated
N	neuter
nom	nominative case
O	object form of pronoun (oblique case)
P	pronoun
p	plural number
PRS	present tense
s	singular number

Last updated: 07-Sep-2002