Teo ai dadau - Seven and counting
In the previous chapter we encountered the basic numerals from one to ten. When the word for "ten" nini is combined with these basic numerals, the tens are formed:
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Basic numerals are placed directly after the tens:
11 - nini kwa 12 - nini sun 13 - nini yem 14 - nini pan 15 - nini jom 16 - nini vai 17 - nini teo 18 - nini dia 19 - nini sasta 21 - sunini kwa 22 - sunini sun 23 - sunini yem 24 - sunini pan 25 - sunini jom 26 - sunini vai 27 - sunini teo 28 - sunini dia 29 - sunini sasta 34 - yenini pan 45 - panini jom 56 - jonini vai 67 - vainini teo 78 - teonini dia 89 - dianini sasta 92 - sastanini sun |
7.1 Hala Yunus?
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hashi - how? like what? in what manner? yunkule - to look like wen - to be tall, high shau - like this fafau - close to, near, nearly, about chaido - teahouse lu - next to nukodo - post office chauta - just, right then nuchi - to leave, get out of a building lai - there parado - bank nuvu - to walk sintai - then, that very moment lara - to stay, keep deche - until nuno - road, way him - to listen lutum - to pass, go past, pass by kaudo - coffee house, café kizado - restaurant pekido - greengrocer's fanaila - train station nubo - to enter, take (a means of transportation) fanai - train podo - shop, store kele - to look for, search Nam - God jamia - to kill hachu - where from? |
As you see, a lot of words turned up ending in -do in the text above:
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Now please compare these words with the following:
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It looks like the -do suffix denotes the notion "buiding" or "house". In fact, it means "build, construct" and adding it to another root produces a compound word. Compare the following words containing the root do with the roots that were added to it::
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The entire Kah vocabulary is built with roots like these which are coined together in order to form words. Most words consist of two or three roots joined together forming a new semantic unit:
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7.2 Sankane nong tengi lara
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lera - to keep, hold on to dozua - to keep, tend meo - cat win - horse kokwo - chicken wiwinya - a "zillion", a whole bunch of, myriad yuyung - nobody, noone boyun - to notice tinki - to starve, die in need of food lia - worm ewe - even, still boi - dirt, smudge unga - animal nenje - smart, intelligent chele - to find, discover layo - everywhere munki - to feed bau - dog pesa - skinny, thin chumun - because, since nenju - to like, love nenyun - to be beautiful, pretty, handsome toyo - all the time, always, everytime mosone - pigeon, dove eom - or milulua - peacock kwita - ever, ever before tas - to be free, loose otinki - to be starved mia - to be dead lara - to stay, remain, keep dochu - to belong, belong to zachu - to take away, take from, remove from randun - to bite wanen - great, fantastic, wonderful |
This conversation contains a lot of words for domestic animals. Some more animals are listed below:
bau - dog wil - pig mul - cow kal - crow gau - donkey kwo - chicken win - horse goi - frog kal - crow mambau - wolf naim - rabbit |
When the word for "dog" bau is combined with the root -ka- for "speech" we get bauka meaning "to bark". There are quite some combinations of animal names with the root -ka- producing such compounds:
bauka - to bark wilka - to squeal mulka - to moo kalka - to crow gauka - to bray kwoka - to cluck winka - to whinny meoka - to meow goika - to croak (like a frog) |
7.3 Sankane mau weka Faransaka
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pon - to push, press dodil - doorbell tehau - to be ridiculous muhim - to sound, make heard, ring, play (a song, instrument etc.) gevu - to run ge - quick, fast jeho - to believe to - to happen jamil - to open doki - door pepye - to tremble, shiver odoi - in trouble le - to have, own, hold tiro - year tunti - than jejeng - dumb, stupid ahenje - idea, new conception hopu - honest, fair jetum - to be brilliant tontoshi - as if ujetum - to push eno - in order that, that, so mulara - to leave, leave behind tenum - sign, board wanen - great, splendid, wonderful, fantastic kaza - to speak, use a language chauku - just, just before weka - to speak, know a language Faransaka - French, the French language chechau - to nail it, hit the nail right on the head, to get it just right |
A new use for the word lo came up in the previous conversation. It seems to emphasize the word it was placed after:
Nur: Wa lo odoi.
Nour: It's me who is in trouble.
Nour: -Echu mama lo jamil doki ha?
Nur: -So it was mom who opened the door huh?
More examples of such emphasis are:
wa lo kiza shuki yo - it's me who ate all the candy
vuvu lo pepye it's my legs that are trembling
sankane lo kaza Faransaka - it was the parrot who spoke French
Yunus lo nong mulara unga - it wasn't Yunus who left the animal
upopo lo nong nuchi chaido - it wasn't the vendor who left the teahouse
Jan lo nenju Merih - it is John who loves Mary
This word lo can be placed after verbs too in order to form an imperative-like form. A sentence like gevu lo! can be translated as "run I tell you!".
gevu lo! - run!
yun lo! - look!
nuchi lo! - get out of here!
tustu lo! - let go!
nura lo! - sit down!
de lo! - come here!
Also, it can be combined with adjectives:
sus lo! - be quiet!
nunung lo! - sit still!
hopu lo! - be honest!
Or interjections:
eo lo! - am too! is too!
nong lo! - is not! not so!
hea lo! - watch it! attention!
ha lo! - huh? you don't say!
ho lo! - yes, really! I'm telling you!
Of course the translations presented are a mere description and not a literal translation, as there are no direct translations possible between two languages in many instances.
In the text, we also encountered the word Faransaka "french". It is coined together from the roots faransa "french" and ka speech to form Faransaka "French (language)". Compare the following words:
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The following words have been coined together from familiar roots:
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A very important root in the perspective of the numeral system, is -mbe designating "part". When combined with the word for "three" yem it looks like yembe "half", "a third part". Compare the combinations of a numeral with -mbe and their meaning below:
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And with these numbers, we can extend our vocabulary regarding telling the time. We already encountered round figures such as::
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And now we can expand this with:
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These are the short forms. A sentence like ata nini ku ajom (literally "the time is ten before five") can be specified as well: ata sirio nini ku rio na jom (literally "the time is ten minutes before the fifth hour"). Similarly the full forms of the phrases above are:
ata sumbe ze ayem (short form)
ata sumbe ze rio na yem (long form)
it's half past three
ata sumbe ze adia (short form)
ata sumbe ze rio na dia (long form)
it's half past eight
ata pambe ze ateo (short form)
ata pambe ze rio na teo (long form)
it's a quarter past seven
ata nini ze ajom (short form)
ata sirio nini ze rio na jom (long form)
it's ten past five
ata nini yem ze ayem (short form)
ata sirio nini yem ze rio na yem (long form)
it's three thirteen
ata sunini jom ze avai (short form)
ata sirio sunini jom ze rio na vai (long form)
it's twenty five minutes past six
ata pambe ku anini-kwa (short form)
ata pambe ku rio na nini kwa (long form)
it's a quarter to eleven in the evening
ata nini ku ajom (short form)
ata sirio nini ku rio na jom (long form)
it's ten to five
ata jom ku anini-sun (short form)
ata sirio jom ku rio na nini sun (long form)
it's five to twelve
AM en PM are obsolete terms as Kah uses a 12-hour clock which starts at dawn (6:00 AM according to the convention in most countries) and again at dusk (6:00 PM).
When a 24-hour notation is needed, dawn is set to 0:00, dusk to 12:00 and counting up to 24:00 / 0:00 at dawn again. This has the consequence a new date starts at dawn.
In the 12-hour system, the phrases la ninta for "in daytime" and la manta "at night" are added in order to specify which part of the day is talked about. Of course specifications like la ninku "in the morning", la baninta "in the afternoon" or la zekita "in the evening" can be used as well.
Now please make the following exercises:
1) Please translate the following lines to Kah: 1. Do you speak Kah? 2. Not at all. I think constructed languages are ridiculous. 3. Even smart animals do not really speak a human language. 4. Do parrots really understand French? 5. What does your mother look like? 6. I would like 68 grams of stuffed raisins. 7. Let's come to the tea house at three o'clock 8. Do you think you can run faster than me? 9. There are pigeons everywhere at the train station. 10. Do you speak Kah? 11. Not at all. I think constructed languages are ridiculous. 12. Even smart animals do not really speak a human language. 13. Do parrots really understand French? 14. What does your mother look like? 15. I would like 68 grams of stuffed raisins. 16. Let's come to the tea house at three o'clock 17. Do you think you can run faster than me? 18. There are pigeons everywhere at the train station.
2) Please finish the directions through the labyrinth: -Nubo nuno na kwa de zano -De yino ...
3) Please check the example below:
Now arrange the roots on the jigsaw pieces below in order in order to produce the Kah equivalents of the following words: -Hungarian (language) -school -gas station -bus station -to flatter
study speech
go vehicle house
long water speech
Hungarian house sweet place 4) Please translate the following times to Kah: 1. 5:30 2. 2:37 PM 3. 12:45 4. 1:25 AM 5. 17:59 6. 15:15 7. 3:30 PM 8. 9:15 9. 13:35 10. 0:01 5) Please translate the following lines into English: 1. Ata pambe ze ajom. 2. Ata sunini sasta ku asasta. 3. Ata sirio yem ze rio na pan. 4. Ata rio na sasta la manta, echu hamun nong zon ha? 5. Tinti wa tonzon la rio na dia 6. Om nuku kiza la rio na vai. 7. La Sastamaro na nini la sirio kwa ku rio na pan la zekita. |
