Re: Vocab #5

1. Ikuduna lotukin aida
[the-bitterness] [drink-durative] [over-I]
Notes:
(a) Iku 'bitter' shows a curious parallel with English 'bite-bitter'. It
also means 'a sharp tooth'.
(b) The sense here is 'I used to drink coffee, but I don't now'.

2. Kumai loteti lenginame da
[aromatic tea] [drink down] [without-a-stop] [Aux.1ps]
Notes:
(a) Kumai appears to be a generic name for drinks made from easily
hand-gathered leaves such as mint, rosemary, thyme, etc. They tend to be
sweet/piquant.
(b) Loteti: the ending -eti gives a verb a more active sense; we might say
'knocked back'.
(c) The construction 'without ...ing' is translated by turning the verb into
an abstract noun and then using the 'negative' case -me.

3. Sakseatikin kumai dara minutekin na, tu i lohtu kintean hemai minutekin
na
[soak-durative] [tea] [10] [minutes-durative] [Aux 3ps], [but] [this]
[drinking-vessel] ['small-ly'] [7] [minutes-durative] [Aux 3ps]
Notes:
(a) Again, use of the -eti suffix (here dissimilated to -ati) and the
habitual/durative -kin. This is one of the few endings that appears
unchanged both as case marker and verbal modifier.
(b) Sakse 'to wash' (something, not yourself/somebody)


4. Naina nalgo tir bai gama ikudunanio na,
Gamakin nalgo ikudunanio roidu na
[at some time] [a sweet pastry] [occasion] [one] [eat] ['coffee'-her-with]
[Aux.3ps]
[eat-durative] [pastry] [with-her-coffee] [day-all] [Aux 3ps]
Notes:
(a) Naina means 'at some unspecified time', and can be either past or
future; though poetically 'he naina' is almost always taken as a harbinger
of things to come to pass.
(b) -du is a useful suffix which translates 'all, every'. The root of roi
'day' seems to be related to other words conveying the idea of circularity
(the daily round, if you like)

5. Belme kumainio lotu bena
[milk] ['tea'-her-with] [drink] [Neg.Aux.3ps]

6. Ikuduna i roi ikunde na
['coffee'] [this] [day] [bitter-very] [Aux 3ps]
Notes:
(a) Iku-nde 'very bitter'. Omeina has a host of degrees of comparison for
adjectives. This is one of them!

7. Kumaine dunalden, aikealden mana lotu na
[tea-his] [heavy-too] [sharp/sweet-too] [as-us] [drink] [Aux 3ps]
Notes:
(a) The excessive degree -alden is another adjectival suffix. Dun 'heavy'
would be used; Asta 'strong' means 'fit, resilient, physically strong.'
(b) In this type of construction the excessive adjective would be followed
by the essive case of the thing it is being compared with, here 'us'.

8. A h-ano tantean eira na! Lotukin maralden ikuduna na
[that] [man] [runningly] [pass(of time)] [Aux 3ps]! [drink-dur.] [large-too]
[coffee][aux]
Notes:
(a) h- is often used as a liaison between a- (that) and i- (this)

9. Alai oulin nala altanalden dilde na
[music] [play-relative] [Aux.3pp] [wet-too] [for-me] [Aux 3ps]

10. Elesta kumai a h-alirilde aikin, tu naina eriassine mene ninen na
[best] [tea] [that] [giver-dat] [past-durative], [but] [then]
[lover-female-his] [go] [from-him] [Aux.3ps]
Notes:
(a) 'To have' is formed by the dative case of the haver together with the
standard auxiliary, here in the durative form to convey the idea of
'always'.

Mike