Rata dadau - Still counting
In addition to the tens mentioned in the previous chapter, the powers of ten up til one billion are listed below:
mel - hundred pol - thousand dua - ten thousand wisti - hundred thousand bena - million nungu - ten million gos - hundred million kas - billion |
Powers of ten are treated the same way as ten and form compounds with basic numerals. Compare:
8.1 Al kuka tiso
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akuka - forecast, prediction titom - weather kuka - to predict tiso - rain bon - to fall shina - cloud kakwa - any, at all banin - noon tenza - useful tio - best, surpassing all pazanu - to shop, go shopping tau - now kai - to close hamun - why? |
Another phenomenon in Kah, is the absence of true passive forms. In the first conversation of this lesson, the following phrases occurred:
al kuka - it has been predicted
al kai podo yo - all shops are closed
al jampi podola - the mall has been set fire to
The word al in many instances it can be translated with the impersonal use of the word "they" as in "they say trainsurfing tends to be a bad idea" or "they said it could never be done". With this in mind, the phrases above can be read as:
al kuka - they predicted it
al kai podo yo - they closed all the shops
al jampi podola - they set fire to the mall
To understand the difference between an personal "they" and an impersonal one, compare:
Yunyo ka en rupunto la bandola
They (i.e. a specific group of people) say there are riots in the center.
Al ka en rupunto la bandola
They (i.e. rumours, reports, gossip) say there are riots in the center
The words al is more diverse than this however. It can be described as an "impersonal pronoun", meaning a pronoun not referring to a known or specific person or persons. More examples of it's use are:
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Take for example the proverb al nong tengi yun kochi jesa kaiko "you can't judge a book by it's cover". The basic pronoun for the English word "you" is li. Then, why isn't it used?
This is because the "you" in the proverb "you can't judge a book by it's cover" does not refer to someone or in particular, as is the case in a sentence like "You ate pie" (Li kiza kichi) or "Come here you!" (De lo, li!). The "you" in the proverb can be replaced by a word like "one" or "they" to express the same impersonal principle. This priciple causes Kah counterpart of the following saying to use al as well:
Al nong tengi mau nentoza mau tompale
one not can also feast also get rich
One cannot both feast and get rich
8.2 Titom
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In the snippet of conversation above, Dana uses the words tiso nong kwi bon to say "It is not raining yet". The more basic phrase tiso bon can be translated literally as "rain falls".
In an English sentence like "it's raining", it remains unclear what exactly is raining. The "it" does not refer to something in particular. Kah does not have so called "dummy pronouns". Compare the following phrases:
tiso bon - it's raining mwere bon - it's snowing tikos bon - it's hailing tihum fum - it's blowing nin dindi - it's sunny amam dindi - the moon is shining lai sham - it's hot (here) achi ven - it's cold outside mwere - snow tikos - hail tihum - wind fum - to blow nin - sun dindi - to shine amam - moon achi - outside, the outside |
Similary, the English phrase "it's five o'clock" is translated as ata rio na jom, or "the time is five o'clock". Also compare the following temporal expressions:
haya rio? - what time is it? ata rio na nini sun - it's twelve o'clock haya anin? - what day is it? anin Teota - it's Saturday haya ninka? - what's the date? ninka Vaimaro na sunini - it's June 20th haya tiro? - what year is it? tiro sumpol sasta - it's 2009 anin - day ninka - date |
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ahana - which one? hana - which? leza - to hold anyu - the orange one fifi - to play hen - new nyuvu - carrot nyu - orange afoyam - the pink one simbu - boy nentoza - to celebrate, feast senchuto - birthday simwana - girl foyam - pink asaska - the blue one yonen - perfect saska - blue tos - for, about, concerning usenchuto - person celebrating his or her birthday usita - the young or little one unaita - the old or big one |
A couple of words for colors came up in this section: nyu for "orange", foyam for "pink" and saska for "blue". More color terms in Kah are:
sol | bes | lam |
saska | susan | foyam |
pesan | rai | yam |
saska lam | jin | nyu |
The words saska lam literally mean "white blue" or "light blue". Similarly the word sol or "black, dark" can be added to saska in order to form saska sol or "dark blue". More of these combinations are:
pesan lam - light green pesan sol - dark green jin lam - light yellow jin sol - dark yellow yam lam - light red yam sol - dark red rai lam - light brown, beige rai sol - dark brown |
Color terms got marked by a prefix a- a couple of times in the conversation: anyu means "the orange one". The a-prefix makes a noun from the word it is added to. This noun denotes an object or an action:
saska - blue wan - big pya - to jump kuka - to predict la - to be at | asaska - the blue one awan - the big one apya - leap akuka - prediction ala - place |
Another prefix much like it, i-, turns words to nouns as well, but these nouns describe states:
saska - blue wan - big dia - free wi - much, many | isaska - blueness iwan - size idia - freedom iwi - quantity ihai - life |
Compare the difference between the a- and i- prefix:
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Furthermore we encountered the au- prefix in the previous lesson in the word audo. This prefix denotes a noun that is the result of an action or "thing that has been...". In order to show you what this means in practice, compare the following examples:
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Then there is a prefix -u turning words into nouns denoting an animate being, such as a human being or an animal:
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And lastly there is the prefix wo- denoting an animate being having undergone or undergoing some action:
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8.3 Tiro hiwi le?
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uhana? - which one? which person? lai - there, over there lilia - to quirm kwala - together kika - voice sil - shrill wanka - to yell, scream pya - to jump papya - to hop, jump up and down deka - to call, summon ahau - joke luba - uncle deza - to bring kuta - beginning la kuta - in the beginning, to start with, first pauza - to receive, get wanta - old him - to listen tato - time kwa ze kwa - one after another, in a row |
In the previous conversation Josh says:
Jash: -Tiro vai le tau.
Josh: -I'm six years old now.
Yet earlier a similar sentence regarding someone's age read:So apparently there are two ways to state one's age. What's the difference?
(wa) le tiro sasta - (I) am ten years old
tiro sasta (wa) le - (I) am ten years old
When it comes to the semantic load, both express pretty much the same. The only difference is the topic. In the first sentence the person is the main subject, whereas the second sentence focuses on the age.
This is called topic-marking. The element the sentence revolves around in meaning, what it is all about in the conversation, is placed in the beginning of the sentence. In the following sentences the topic is underlined:
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Please notice the difference in meaning between groups of sentences like:
uba paza wa fia - father bought me a toy
uba lo paza wa fia - it was father who bought me a toy
fia uba paza wa - father bought me a toy
uba paza wa fia lo - it was a toy father bought me
uba paza wa lo fia - it was me father bought a toy for
Just like anything in Kah, the earlier context is vital. Take the following sentences and context for example:
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Although topicalization is an aspect of the Kah language which requires a certain sensitivity to the feel of the language, not quite mastering in will not affect the comprehensability of the speaker. Whether one has the sense to answer a question tiro hiwi le? with the age topicalized (tiro sunini le) or not (wa le tiro sunini), the basic meaning will come through in most cases. The bottom line is word order in Kah is flexible as can be.
However, in cases where topicalization itself could confuse the meaning of a sentence, an additional marker be can be placed directly after the topic:
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8.4 Adauva
Adauva na Jash - Josh's sums
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mauza - plus, + tongi - equals, = tusi - minus, - munta - times, x jambe - divided by, : lonya - square fenya - squareroot |
1) Please translate the sums below into Kah: 12 + 7 = 19 8 + 7 =15 56 - 23 = 33 278 - 78 = 200 12 x 12 = 144 27 x 35 = 945 256 : 8 = 32 1513 : 89 = 17
2) Please read the manual of the translation device below and learn how to operate it: Yinkatal - Translation device 1) Jarano nuso bo silucha (A) 2) Yun yunum na nuso (B) en bobeo yobo 3) Pombo vaku (C) bo tipicha 4) Nuda ada (D) deche dinya (E) tori 5) Za kahinya (I) 6) Kum kumpe na kwa (F) 7) Nuku ka bo kahinya (I) 8) Eta kuri, kum kumpe na sun (G) 9) Kum kumpe na yem (H) en wehim ayinka chu kabeo (J) 10) Tara ayinka 11) Tara mau 12) Rata tara... 13) Koyun ayinka lau |