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:

Powers of ten are treated the same way as ten and form compounds with basic numerals. Compare:

8.1 Al kuka tiso  

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:

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

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:

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:

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:

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:

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:

Another prefix much like it, i-,  turns words to nouns as well, but these nouns describe states:

Compare the difference between the a- and i- prefix:

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:

Then there is a prefix -u turning words into nouns denoting an animate being, such as a human being or an animal:

And lastly there is the prefix wo- denoting an animate being having undergone or undergoing some action:

8.3  Tiro hiwi le?

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:

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:

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:

8.4  Adauva