Roko, roko, roko. Ai yonku. - Context, context, context. And pronouns.
Over the lessons, we gathered the six basic pronouns of Kah bit by bit. The complete set of basic pronouns is:
wa - I li - you (singular) yu - he, she wanyo - we linyo - you (plural) yunyo - they |
These can be placed directly in front of a verb in order to form a verbal phrase:
wa jo - I know li jo - you know yu jo - he knows wanyo jo - we know linyo jo - you (plural) know yunyo jo - they know wa keju - I want wa jam - I do wa weyun - I see wa tengi - I can li kiza - you eat yu nenju - he likes wanyo de - we come linyo wera - you sit yunyo de - they go/come keju - to want jam - to do weyun - to see tengi - to be able to kiza - to eat nenju - to like, love de - to come wera - to sit de - to go |
Paragraph 4.1 - Context
In Kah however, it is customary not to express things that are obvious from the context. In this context this means pronouns are omitted in many utterances. Compare the interpretation of the utterance nen in the following examples:
Now please note how verbs are rarely accompanied by pronouns in the following conversation:
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hea - hey! hey there! shau shai - "fine", "so-so" (literally: "like this like that") mau - also, too tatau - recently, lately reshi - sure, of course wehim - to hear nenju wehim - glad to hear that (lit: "I like to hear that") soi - please, "I politely request" kamai - to greet, extend one's greetings to (through another person) |
Paragraph 4.2 - More pronouns
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to - to happen, take place memea - sis, sister (intimate and informal) zai - dear yayang - nothing hamun? - why? lilo - yourself boboi - dirty, smudged ai ha? - so what? (lit: and?) shim - to wash, clean kemun - try haya lo? - excuse me? (lit: what!?) en - that, if, wether mama - mom, mommy (intimate and informal) nong lo - oh no! nooo! ka - to say, say to, tell walo - myself ha ho? - oh really? ho - real, really yoyong - not at all, nope, don't think so, none whatsoever mwenu - slow vivi - too, too much, too many yulo - himself, herself hiza - to catch (after chasing) eye - anyway, anyhow |
The conversation above shows some reflexive pronouns, which are a combination of a basic pronoun and the intensive marker lo. For example, the word for "I" wa is combined with lo to form walo"myself". The complete set of reflexive pronouns and some more Kah pronouns are:
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In the conversation above, Meili adresses her sister as memea, whereas the word for "sister" seemed to be mea a bit earlier. This is because there is a difference between informal terms as used between family members and the way to refer to these family members to the outside world.
For example, one would always talk about his father as uba when conversing with someone from outside the family, but would speak about him with his family members or adress his father directly as baba. In the same line of thinking spouses refer to one another as vava when conversing with each other, but in conversations with outsiders the words vabu and vawana for "husband" and "wife" respectively are used:
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The table below shows all words with a formal and informal equivalent:
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And the following table shows some superformal forms which are used to express official titles:
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Make the following exercises:
Translate into Kah: 1. I see Meili's father. 2. Nothing happened. 3. How is your brother lately? 4. My sister sure knows. 5. How is the child of the brother of the sister of your father? 6. I'm fine, thanks. 7. My mother knows everything. 8. Please eat! 9. Please greet him for me. 10. Mister Kocharian, please tell me how you are? 11. I want to eat. 12. I want to go to your family. 13. My husband does not want to clean himself. 14. Did you see my brother go? 15. Did you see it happen? |
