Lesson 2: Meeting an Acquaintance

Now that you know how to pronounce most of what you read, and you've learned some Transemilian words, let's put you into a real world situation. In the dialogue below, two acquaintances, Maya and Mefêya, see each other while shopping in a grocery store. You have already learned a few of the words below; new words appear after the dialogue.

Ма́я: Ға́я!
Мэфе́я: Каянзе́нве ғла́ве, дӭ́лка!
Ма́я: Ші́нве лі́ва іл?
Мэфе́я: Лі́ва кра каӭлка́нцове.
Ма́я: Здэл кра эібана́нцове. Тэі іл цэ́уцове?
Мэфе́я: Цу цэ́уцо щенту́рці.
Ма́я: Аха, тэі кра цэ́уцове.
Мэфе́я: Тема́на.
Ма́я: Тема́на.

Vocabulary

кра "I"	тема́на "goodbye"
іл "you"	ға́я "hello"
цэу "he, she, it"	янзен "morning"
банан "banana"	аха, а́ха "oh, aha"
цу "be"	щенту́рці "over there"
лі́ва "buy"	тэі "see"
дӭ́лка "comrade"	шін "what"
здэл "look for, seek"

There is a lot going on, even in this short dialogue! Given the vocabulary listed above (plus the two words in the dialogue that you have already learned in the previous lesson, ғла and ӭлкан), you should be able to figure out most of what the characters are saying, even if you don't get everything. The dialogue also helps us learn new forms.

Affixes

One of the words you learned in Lesson One was ӭлкан "apple". This word appears in the dialogue, but you may not recognize it at worst, because it has a number of prefixes and suffixes attached: ка-ӭлкан-цо-ве. Prefixes and suffixes are called affixes, and Transemilian uses them very frequently. We will learn about the meaning and uses of these affixes throughout this book.

An important thing to keep in mind is that, with very rare exceptions, the stress pattern of the original word (called the "root") remains the same no matter how many affixes are attached. The word ӭлкан is pronounced yel-KAN, and the stress remains on the KAN syllable even when numerous affixes are attached: каӭлка́нцове ka-yel-KAN-tso-vê. Because of this, we will not indicate stress in words containing suffixes you have already learned.

Plurals

In English, we usually mark the plural of a noun by adding -s or -es: "dog" becomes "dogs", "cat" becomes "cats", "house" becomes "houses". In Transemilian, a word becomes plural by adding -цо: ӭлканцо "apples", бананцо "bananas". In English, nouns sometimes change their pronunciation for plurals (e.g. "wife" becomes "wives", "mouse" becomes "mice"), but in Transemilian the word root always stays the same.

Practice:

Fill in the blanks with the plural forms of each word.

• banana: банан — bananas: ____________
• morning: янзен — mornings: ____________
• comrade: дӭ́лка — comrades: ____________
• girl: каі — girls: ____________
• brother: џунсе — brothers: ____________

Pronouns

Transemilian pronouns are much simpler than in English. There are three basic pronouns: кра, which means "I"; іл, which means "you"; and цэу, which means "he", "she", or "it". All of these words are singular, and are used regardless of the gender of the person or thing you may be talking about; there is no difference between "he" and "she". The эу in цэу (or in any other word that contains this combination) is pronounced with the two vowels spoken clearly, but running into each other; it is one syllable, much like the diphthongs in English words such as fly or toy.

The plural versions of these pronouns is simply the basic pronoun with the same plural suffix as nouns. "We" is крацо, plural "you" is ілцо, and "they" is цэуцо. (Remember that the accent does not shift to -цо!)

Accusative

You may have noticed the suffix -ве, which appears at the end of a number of words in the dialogue. This suffix indicates the object of a sentence. The subject is the person or thing "doing" the verb, and the object is thing that the verb is being done to. For example, in the sentence "She is reading a book", the subject is "she"—she is the one who is reading—and the object is "a book"—a book is what is being read. In English, we indicate the object by putting it after the verb. In Transemilian, however, the verb comes before both the subject and the object. Instead, the object is indicated by attaching the suffix -ве. This is called the accusative suffix, and is one of a number of case suffixes which attach to nouns and pronouns to indicate how they are used in relation to each other. (The subject of a verb is said to be in the nominative case, and does not use a suffix.)

The first time you see the accusative suffix in this dialogue is when Mefêya says Каянзенве ғлаве, which means "good morning". This phrase doesn't have a verb. This may seem odd at first, but the phrase is short for "have a good morning", which would clearly require an accusative suffix. Thus, the phrase has accusative suffixes even though there's no verb.

Greetings

Transemilian greetings are used when meeting someone or beginning a conversation. A general "hello" is ға́я. This can be used any time of day or night, and can be said to the same person multiple times a day.

There is also a group of phrases that are used the first time you meet someone in a day. The first you have already learned: каянзенве ғлаве, which means "good morning". This is used between sunrise and about midday. Катэндове ғлаве, which means "good day" (тэндо "day"), can be used any time the sun is out, including during the same period one might also say каянзенве ғлаве. After sunset, кашулэрве ғлаве is used instead. This literally means "good night" (шулэр "night"), but it is only used when greeting someone, not when leaving or going to bed!

The word тема́на is often translated as "goodbye", but it is used in a wider range of situations than in English. People say тема́на not only when leaving one another, but when going to bed (where an English speaker would say "good night") or when ending a conversation. For example, when two students are sitting at a table talking about their schoolwork, they will say тема́на when they stop talking and go back to individual study, even if they both remain at the same table! This can seem amusing or rude to English speakers, but it is simply the way Transemilians talk.

Articles

In English, many nouns are preceded by words like "a" or "the", which are called articles. In Transemilian, these are prefixes instead of separate words. The prefix meaning "a" or "an" is ка-: "an apple" is каӭлкан, "a banana" is кабанан. Unlike English, however, Transemilian also uses this prefix on plural nouns: каӭлканцо "(some) apples", кабананцо "(some) bananas".

The prefix for "the" is эі-: эібанан "the banana", эібананцо "the bananas". However, if the noun starts with a vowel, the prefix changes form to эім-: эімірсе "the father". This form is also used in front of "soft" vowels: эімӭлкан "the apple".

These articles are part of a larger group of prefixes called "determiners". We will learn more of them later. Nouns—even people's names—are almost always required to have a determiner, so you will see these prefixes frequently.

Direct Address and Vocative

In the dialogue, Mefêya addresses Maya as дӭ́лка, which translates as "comrade". This is a common form of address, whether on its own or in conjunction with someone's first or last name.

Prior to the end of World War II, when the Communist Party of Transemilia rose to power, the standard terms of address were сэрэл, which means "sir" or "Mr.", and лірін, which means "miss", "Mrs", or "ma'am" (there is no distinction between a married and an unmarried woman). Nowadays, these words are mostly used when Transemilians interact with foreigners; both the foreigner and the Transemilian will call each other сэрэл or лірін.

In the preceding section on articles, you learned that nouns are usually required to carry determiners. The major exception to this is direct address, or vocative case. This is what is used in Mefêya's first line in the dialogue, which translates as "Good morning, comrade." Though regular nouns such as дӭ́лка are commonly used for address, the most frequent vocatives are of course people's names. Nouns in the vocative case have no determiner prefix and no case suffix. As such, they are the form used in dictionaries and vocabulary lists.

Verbs

One thing that may have surprised you about the dialogue is the fact that the verb was at the beginning of many of these sentences. This is the normal placement in most Transemilian sentences. Where English would say "I see you", Transemilian would say "See I you".

In questions with question words (like "what", "who", or "where"), the question word comes first. This helps signal that the sentence is a question, and also what type of answer is expected. These are normally the only types of sentences where the verb does not come at the beginning of the sentence, and even here the verb comes immediately after the question word, preceding everything else in the sentence.

You may also have noticed that the verb лі́ва does not change depending on the subject. In English, verbs must match the subject of the sentence: I am, you are, she is. Transemilian verbs do take certain affixes, but none of them are connected to the subject in any way: лі́ва can mean "am buying", "are buying", or "is buying".

Review

Now that you've learned some of Transemilian's grammar, let's review the dialogue. How much can you translate this time?

Ма́я: Ға́я!
Мэфе́я: Каянзенве ғлаве, дӭ́лка!
Ма́я: Шінве лі́ва іл?
Мэфе́я: Лі́ва кра каӭлканцове.
Ма́я: Здэл кра эібананцове. Тэі іл цэуцове?
Мэфе́я: Цу цэуцо щенту́рці.
Ма́я: Аха, тэі кра цэуцове.
Мэфе́я: Тема́на.
Ма́я: Тема́на.