talking in language

Ei nena riaknia lâ, nadastâmshim monion

Kuan veandâde kembí kariakkan e bodúta

Bodú veandâde na kariakkan a kembí yodin mâwet porom

Kembí dâguôt nena riaknia duen

Kembí tí'na dohantie sudabodú

Ten tí alidení. Kembí dâguôt sha duen

A longer exchange as we head towards the end of the second dialogue.

The lady student opens the discussion by talking about the language they are learning. The language name is moved to the beginning of her statement between the topic marker ei and the emphatic particle lâ. Here the language is called nena riaknia. In the previous dialogue nena meant words and here is being used for language. For the name of the language I have copied the original Chinese dialogue and the lady student refers to it as nena riaknia, national language. Riaknia is an adjective derived from the word meaning kingdom, the same word is used later in these sentences.

The lady student completes the sentence by saying I don't understand very well. The word for understand is nadastâm. Most verbs don't mark the end of the first person singular verb. Nadastânt is one of a handful of verbs that are different and take an -M at the end of the finite verb. Ghostians argue that these are a set of very old verbs that are done in the old way. They should be respected whereas the rest of the language has moved on. Nadastânt is not yet changing like some of these old verbs are changing. The adverb monion used for very well literally means greatly.

Wow, the next sentence is full of lots of new words. Teacher asks When did you arrive in our country? Going through it word by word: Kuan is a question word, when; Veandâde, arrived, is a verb moved directly after the question word, it beginning with the non-present particle ve which has fused with the A of andâde. It's our friend dânt, to come, with a prefix borrowed shamelessly from German so it means to arrive; Niriakkan means in the country, the word for country is riakka, kingdom, which is the stem of riaknia used above, here it is an accusative noun after the prefix ka-, to, for, which can only be used on place-words. Our is translated from e bodúta, which is the plural of bodú, I, me. It acts like a noun rather than a pronoun and needs the plural accompanitive preposition to mark it as a possessive.

Lady student replies I arrived in your country only last month. When kembí is used as a possessive it needs the accompanitive preposition like bodú which is why it is often replaced by sebio, one's own. The time phrase is yodin mâwet porom, one month last, or only last month.

Teacher tells her You speak national language well. The student replies You flatter me. The word for flatter is another causative verb created from a noun meaning praise. To make it excessive she adds the reflexive particle súd to bodú, literally 'self-of-my'. Her disclaimer literally says You are praising myself.

Teacher reassures her It is true; you speak really well. The word true, alidení has the same ending as riaknia above, without agreeing with the noun it follows. The word translated as really is sha which is common as an interjection in sentences.