LCC11 Torch Annotated Gloss

This Middle Olgish text was created as part of the LCC11 Conlang Relays in Spring 2025, where it appeared as the twelfth step of the Conscript Relay. It was translated from Jonathan Kane’s Valya, ultimately based on the original UNLWS torch by Sai and Alex Fink. The following is the original gloss and interlinear translation provided in the extended relay materials, annotated for notable grammatical features.

Original text and clean translation

Ním ilisek kéla ahandärnek nauko. Dua té lárnur halne gelnau ráne dí kassa duat’ hern, nert elikún hárár. Binne eta wiss, eta Sosk, eta hína tér dua ilon. Duat’ lárnur kórek lár muin dé ilgib gissún kase gissún jeris gissún denwis närt bess jeskílár. Kondre nauko: Mort kínek idro dua Sosk. Gimmortik ilínare terg túrada bernet kassa eldírik nauda. Kéla ilínare kóris nau énos lár kassa ilis.

‘If all were well, I would be polite with you. Sometimes in the evening, I wonder why I work so hard preparing food at home despite so many other, more relaxing options; options like the inn, a Sosk, or all the things at the market. Tonight, the prospect of food with much salt and oil and sugar would make me happy, despite the greater cost. Let me tell you: It would be good if you went to the Sosk. A wise person remembers when their mother cooked the best food for them; and so also what pleasure good food is for the family.’

Gloss and interlinear translation

Ním	ilis-	e-	k	kéla	ahandärn-	e-	k	nau=	ko.
course.of.the.day	good-	sg-	subj	then	speak.politely-	sg-	subj	towards=	you
‘If things were well, I would be polite with you.’

Dua

té

lárnur

haln-

e

gelnau

rán-

e

dí

kassa

dua=

t’

hern,

närt

elik-

ún

hár-

ár.

in

some

evening

ponder-

sg

why

toil-

sg

for

feast

in=

def

house,

despite

alternative-

sup

comfortable-

comp

‘Some evenings [I] wonder why [I] work so hard to cook at home, despite so many other, more relaxing options.’

Binne

et-

a

wiss,

et-

a

Sosk,

et-

a

hína

tér

dua

ilon

option.pl

cop-

sg

inn

cop-

sg

Sosk

cop-

sg

stock

all

in

market

‘Options like an inn, a Sosk, or all the [foods] at the market.’

Dua=

t’

lárnur

kór-

e-

k

lár

muin

dé

ilgib

giss-

ún

kase

giss-

ún

jeris

giss-

ún

denwis

närt

bess

jeskíl-

ár.

in=

def

evening

rejoice-

sg-

subj

from

concept

about

food

with-

sup

salt

with-

sup

fat

with-

sup

sweet.juice

despite

price

big-

comp

‘Tonight I would be happy upon the thought of food with much salt and oil and sugar, despite the greater cost.’

Kondr-	e	nau=	ko:	Mort	kín-	e-	k	idr-	o	dua	Sosk.
tell-	sg	towards=	you:	good.comp	cop-	sg-	subj	approach-	2	in	Sosk
‘I tell you: I would be good if you went to the Sosk.’

Gimmortik

ilínar-

e

terg

túra-

da

bern-

e-

t

kassa

eldírik

nau=

da.

wise.person

reminisce-

sg

def

mother=

3sg

make-

sg-

past

feast

formidable

for=

3sg

A wise person remembers when their mother cooked the best food for them.

Kéla	ilínar-	e	kóris	nau	énos	lár	kassa	ilis.
hence	reminisce-	sg	joy	towards	family	from	feast	good
Hence, they know what a pleasure good food is for the family.

Notable constructions in the text

Conditional clause

The text’s very first sentence is a good example of a Middle Olgish conditional construction.

Ním ilisek kéla ahandärnek nauko.
‘If all were well, I would be polite with you.’

The condition is presented first, without a conjunction but the predicate in the subjunctive mood: ním ilisek ‘things would [be] good’.

This is followed by the conditioned action, equally in the subjunctive but introduced by kéla ‘then, therefore’, one of the few Olgish conjunctions: kéla ahandärnek nauko ‘I would speak politely with you’.

Morphological soft selection

A hallmark feature of all Ortûlékian languages, affixes in Middle Olgish show a great deal of flexibility with regards to the syntactic class of the host they attach to, moving fairly freely between nouns, verbs, and adjectives, and more rarely even pronouns and particles. This ‘soft’ host selection is very common and appears in multiple instances in the text above:

• ilisek ‘it would be good’ ← ilis adj ‘good’ + -ek (singular subjunctive ending)
• elikún ‘so many different options’ ← elik n ‘alternative, choice’ + -ún (superlative suffix)
• gissún ‘full of’ ← gis prep ‘with’ + -ún (superlative suffix)

The definite article

The definite article terg, obligatory in Fádin’s Liturgical Olgish, is used only sparingly in Middle Olgish, expressing a stronger sense of definiteness, and is in many instances subject to elision and cliticization, attaching either to the following noun or, more commonly, a preceding preposition.

The above text contains only three definite articles, two serving a demonstrative function and one used in a possessive construction with a pronoun:

• duat’ hern ‘at home’ ← dua terg hern lit. ‘at the house’
  

This expression uses def to refer to a specific hern ‘house’, implied to be the speaker’s home. The article is elided and cliticized, attaching to the preposition dua ‘in, at’.

• duat’ lárnur ‘tonight’ ← dua terg lárnur lit. ‘in this evening’
  

Similarly, here def is used to single out the lárnur ‘evening’ given as the hodiernal one. Again, terg is elided and attaches to dua.

• terg túrada ‘their (sg) mother’ ← terg túra-da
  

The third example marked differs from the previous two. Here, instead of a bare noun, def is associated with a possessive construction, and its presence is due to grammatical obligation rather than semantic nuance. Unlike in Liturgical Olgish, where pronouns functioning as possessors attach to the left of their possession, forming the equivalent of a right-headed possessive compound (so terg de-túnor ‘(def) your protection’), by the Middle Olgish period, possessively functioning pronouns attach to the right of the possessed noun; as in Liturgical Olgish, although the construction is (semantically) inherently definite, it is obligatorily preceded by the definite article. Uniquely in the text above, this instance of terg is not elided but realized in full.