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Lesson 39: Vocabulary Interlude 7

Vocabulary


	anadal		meal (lunch, dinner, etc.)
	áalaá		butterfly
	bada		spoon
	bin		bowl
	bre		layer
	hed		drinking glass
	líithi		to be white
	líithin		to be grey
	lod		household
	lub		poultry, fowl
	máa		egg
	meda		vegetable
	ni		cup
	ona		face (body part)
	óowa		fire
	oódóo		bridge
	rin		plate
	rushi		wine
	thu		honey
	un		to lead

You might be interested in knowing a little more about the words for “bridge” and “butterfly.” One of the things that women do in their language behavior, in all of the languages I know, is a whole lot of body language work. I wanted that work to be less in Láadan, and the language is therefore constructed to lexicalize body language. (That is, to give it a pronounced form, instead of leaving it all to be done by tone of voice and gesture and facial expression and so on.) That’s why you have the set of words that tell whether the sentence coming up is a statement or question or something else; and that’s why you have the endings that tell whether the sentence is meant as a joke or a lesson or a narrative or something else—to reduce the communications labor for the women speaking.

The word for bridge, when its tone markers are in the right place, has a sound pattern like this: . The word for butterfly is like this: . Since intonation (the melody that carries the spoken words) is part of body language, this is another way of lexicalizing it. For both of these words, the voice makes the shape of the thing named, in the ear’s space and the ear’s time. Shapes “in the air,” you perceive, but for the ear rather than for the eye.

Exercises

Translate the following into English

¹Bíide eril meyod len óowaha o widahath nohal le háanáaleya wa. ²Thalehul anadal. ³Eril ham lub i bal thuden i wohaba wohódon i máa i meda; rana lenetho rushi. ⁴Ham lod wum. ⁵Mehalehale i mehamedara len anadaleya aril. ⁶Widahath mehóoha len, mesháad len bethedi i naháana le. ⁷Thi le mewoháya wohozheth. ⁸Shumáad le babídan menedebe i un beneth yáaninedi boó we. ⁹Noháana le widahath nalíithin wohene wothosh wa. ¹⁰Ril láad le owath onanan bróo naham rosh; aril háyahal sháal; rilrili shóo wothaleháalish wobeye. ¶

Of course, since the preceding sentences are presented as a story in paragraph form, no Type-of-Sentence Words or Evidence Words are required after the first sentence—except when we switch to dream perception and back.

Translate the following into Láadan


11	The teacher asked the child, “Does your horse live on land or in the ocean?”
12	“On land,” said the child.
13	The teacher asked, “Is a horse a wild animal or a domesticated animal?”
14	“A domesticated animal.”
15	“Does a fish live on land or in the ocean?”
16	The child thought and said, “In the ocean.”
17	The child was still. Slowly she began to cry.
18	The teacher asked, “Why are you crying?”
19	The child said in a small voice, “I play music for my horse, but I shall never play for the fish because it would need many days for me to travel to the ocean.”
20	The teacher laughed gently and said, “You will be able to do it. If you were never able to play music for the fish, then I would cry also.”

Notice the word “never” in #19 & 20. We are already acquainted with “hadihad” (always). The opposite of “always” is “never:” “rahadihad” [ra– (non–) + hadihad (always)].

In case you couldn’t follow the (fairly advanced) syntax of the answer to #19, the third clause is “...rilrili them [im le meladi]hé sháaleth menedebe...” (...would need [I travel to the ocean] many days...). The embedded sentence is the Subject of the clause.

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Answers


1	We ate around the fire when I finished working in the evening.
2	The meal was extremely good.
3	There were poultry, bread with honey, fragrant cheese, eggs and a vegetable; our beverage was wine.
4	The entire household was there.
5	We made music and danced after the meal.
6	When we were tired, we went home and I went to sleep.
7	I had beautiful dreams.
8	I dreamed I was flying with many birds (with pleasure) and led them to the three trees.
9	I awoke when the eastern sky was beginning to be grey.
10	I feel warmth on my face because the sun is beginning to shine; it’s going to be an unusually beautiful day; maybe something wonderful will happen.

11	Bíi eril mime omá háawithedi wáa, “Báa habelid omid netho e doniha e melaha?”
12	“Doniha wa,” di háawith wáa.
13	Bíi eril mime omá wáa, “Báa omid e romid e shamid?”
14	“Shamid wa.”
15	“Báa habelid thili e doniha e melaha?”
16	Bíi eril lith háawith wáa, i di be, “Melaha wa.”
17	Bíi eril wam háawith wáa. Nadelishe be lóolonal.
18	Bíi eril mime omá wáa, “Delishe ne bebáawáan?”
19	Bíi eril di háawith híyanal wáa, “Bíi alehale le omid lethoda, izh aril alehale ra le thilida rahadihad bróo rilrili them im le meladihé sháaleth menedebe wa.”
20	Bíi eril ada omá lemanal wáa, i di, “Bíi aril thad ne hith. Rilrili bre thad alehale ra ne thilida rahadihad, ébre delishe le íi.”

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