Salutations

Moikorí Kinig ya, a ítí kembí duen ya

Duen. Makorina ya, kembí aft baget alí, kodin?

Íe. Kembí aft baget alí, kodin?

Belem, yao a'bagetshim or Sonan yao a'

Four sentences this time. The first is straightforward, 'Mr Kinig, are you well?' or 'How are you' The second sentence is 'Well. Have you eaten, lady?' In English this would be an impertinent sentence. In other cultures this inquiry is considered courteous. Remember the original dialogue comes from a Chinese grammar. It seems ghostians think similarly, as the phrase literally translates 'Have you eaten rice'. Ghostian already had the word alí for rice. The word does not refer to rice plant, but cooked rice. Presumably rice in other contexts is a different word, I haven't checked.

The second sentence introduces two other new words: aft, have (done something), and baget, eaten, following after aft. Also at the end of the sentence ghostian uses kodin as a question tag. We would say 'haven't you', instead ghostians use kodin.

In reply the lady student says Yes, and asks the same question. There are two longer answers as alternative in the fourth sentence: Not yet, I have not eaten; and On-the-contrary, I have. The teacher refers to himself as yao, I. Yao is used when a person has higher rank than the other. A teacher or a boss may use yao and expect a student or a worker to use the humbler egalitarian bodú in reply. After yao, or bodú the past perfect verb aft is shortened to a'.