Re: Vocab #5

On Fri, 26 Apr 2002 16:44:45 -0400, Aidan Grey <grey@...>
wrote:

>   Brought to you by C (for coffee), the distinction between perfective and
>habitual past tenses, and intensive adjectives.
A distinction made with adverbs in Tirelat, which (unlike the Romance
languages) uses _perfective_ instead of imperfective for the habitual
aspect.

>   1. coffee / bitter drink / culturally distinctive drink
>       I used to drink coffee.
Tirelat: u lhahsa ["Ka:sa]
(the "u" is not a real word of Tirelat, but a gender marker, found only in
dictionaries. I've been adding genders to Tirelat, but I haven't yet sorted
out all the categories, so for now the genders are tentative.)

tzyrai   l'-gliba-rhi-n  my  lhahsa
formerly 1s-drink-*  -PF ACC coffee

*rhi = experience, past

>   2. tea / herbal tea
>        I drank the tea in one gulp.
T: u xil ["xil] -- from the Gjarrda word for tea (Camellia), which refers
to the plant as well as the beverage. Gjarrda also has a distinct word
"traz", which includes beverages made from leaves in boiling water in
general, but Tirelat lacks an equivalent word. See below under "steep".

l'-gliba-rhi-n  my  lhahsa w'jaki      li -u zjaka
1s-drink-   -PF ACC coffee by.means.of one-U gulp

>   3. steep / brew
>       She used to steep the tea for 10 minutes, but she steeped this cup
>for only 7 minutes.
T: syra ["s14a] (new word)
e syraky "product of steeping: tea, herbal tea"

tzyrai   j'-syra -li-n  my  xil zha    nidi-o minyt,
formerly 3s-steep-* -PF ACC tea during ten -O minute

*li = hearsay, past

lha j'syralin my tal  gi nja  kinehzh zha smai telilh-o minyt.
but              that of this cup         just seven -O

>   4. pastry / biscuits / cookies
>       She had pastry with her coffee once.
>       She had pastry with her coffee every day.
No generic word for pastry.

T: o zimi ["zimi] "pie" (new word)
e ziwimi ["ziv\imi] "tart" (diminutive of zimi)
(also: o fazahlzimi [fa"za:lzimi] "flat pie" = "pizza")

Assuming these are UK biscuits / US cookies:
T: o zhepa ["ZEpa] "cookie"
US biscuits are entirely different. I'd probably call them "o gatzinjem"
("chicken-bread") since I associate them with KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken,
a fast-food restaurant that includes biscuits with its chicken meals).

(Notice a pattern here? Food falls into the O gender. So does the moon,
since it's made of cheese, and a number of categories not related to food,
like time-related concepts and insect-eating birds. One exception is
diminutives, which are E gender regardless of the gender of the word
they're derived from.)

so li -o xahzh j'-kadza-li-n  my  zimi zha   gliba-ri  u   lhahsa
at one-O time  3s-eat  -  -PF ACC pie  while drink-ing OBL coffee

so naj  -o xos j'kadzalin my zimi zha glibari u lhahsa
at every-O day

>   5. milk
>       She doesn't take milk in her tea.
T: o krhigu ["kr_0iGu] is what I have. It's one of those random words,
though, and I'm not sure that I like it. Well, I'll let it stay around for
a while, and if something better comes along, I'll replace it.

j'-gliba-ja-ka -n  shy  krhigu my  xil
3s-drink-* -NEG-PF with milk   ACC tea

*ja = hearsay, non-past

>   6. bitter
>       The coffee was very bitter today.
>       The coffee was bitter every day.
T: niroi [ni"4O:j] (used only of flavor, not cold weather).

so gindzu tadru-ni niroi -lha-n  sy  lhahsa
at today  much -ly bitter-   -PF NOM coffee

so naj  -o xos tadruni niroilhan sy lhahsa
at every-O day

>   7. sweet
>       He likes his tea too strong and too sweet for us.
T. shili ["Sili]
mi  lhe xang zani   -lhi-n  ty  xang shili-lhi-n  sy  mezha
for we  too  intense-   -PF and too  sweet    -PF NOM flavor

   gi j'-shobla-ri  u   xil
   of 3s-enjoy -ing OBL tea

*lhi = opinion

>   8. wired / the feeling obtained after drinking 43 cups of coffee
>       That guy is wired! He drinks too much coffee.
T: k'mizazhi [k@"mizaZi] (augmentative of |k'mizhi| "awake")

k'mizazhi-z   sy  jah  zharh! xang j'-gliba-lhi-n  my  lhahsa
"wired"  -IPF NOM that person too  3s-drink-   -PF ACC coffee

>   9. mellow / calm / soothing (of music)
>        The music they play is too mellow for my taste.
T: shuruhbi [Su"4u:Bi] (new word)

mi  le xang shuruhbi-lhi-n  sy  tina  ni  j'-wagna-z
for me too  mellow  -   -PF NOM music REL 3s-play -PF

>   10. street vendor / coffee house / tea bar / the culturally appropriate
>place to buy a cup of tea or coffee
>        That street vendor always had the best tea, but then his wife left him.
T: e lhahsajut "coffee place", e xiljut "tea place"
For "street vendor" in the example, "paxida wy nox" ("nox-paxida" would be
someone who sells streets).

sy  jah  paxi-da wy nox    shmai  j'-binda-rhi-n  my  pai  njam     -o xil,
NOM that sell-er at street always 3s-have -   -PF ACC most delicious-O tea

   sinda sy  j'-nora   m'    -fada -li-n
   but   NOM 3s-spouse 3s.ACC-leave-  -PF

>   (note: in #10, it's a habitual past followed by a perfective)
>
>   [p.s. In honor of my becoming the manager of the grad student coffee
>house on campus. Yay!]
>
>   Aidan

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