Making a list (and checking it twice)

Dribí ninâ bodúta tí yodna tugikan, yodin pipas, yodin inon a yodna slina. Dua penglúyen yodne bekken wodata, ya malant inon

Ye gods, what a lot of new words this sentence introduces. What Teacher says is We need a pen, a paper, some ink and a slate. Then add a little water and mix the ink.

When a subject is used with dribí it comes after the long preposition ninâ, on, is used. Bodúta is the plural of bodú, I. So 'we need' literally means 'needs on us'.

What follows is a list of things. Each is a different gender, and sometimes case. Tugika is a writing tool, a pencil, a pen, or a brush. Context will make it clear which it is. It is a feminine noun and takes the accusative ending. Pipas, paper, a masculine noun, does change its form in the accusative. Inon, ink, is a thing-word, like tuon, thing. The plural would be ina like tua. All thing-nouns are neuter. Slina is feminine. Because it follows the accompanitive particle a it is not in the accusative case.

Ya is a little devil of a word. It sneaks into sentences every where. At the beginning of a sentence it might be used to mean 'let us' or to soften a command so it means 'would you'. In the middle of a sentence it can mean 'and' or 'with' and the word after it is dative. If the word after it is feminine it becomes yi, and plural then ye. If the word before it drops the Y and becomes a, e, i. It's a tricky little thing. (I'm not sure if I've mastered it myself yet!)

Teacher's second sentence also introduces new words. Penglúyant is a verb meaning to add, it has the plural ending in the sentence above following Teacher's first sentence so it's (We) add. I think the verb malant, mix things, is usually found as a verbal noun.

The word for water is wodata. It's a plural noun, I think the singular form has dropped out of the language (unless I need it for other things later on, like derivatives). So the indefinite article yodne, and the adjective bekken, little, both have plural endings to agree with wodata. I'm still undecided if adjectives follow the noun, or precede it. I think I'm more comfortable with this order.