Summary
Íshina and Tajhe meet in the city of Hinaldh. They plan to travel together to
Teitéir the next day.
Conversation
Íshina:
Good morning.
As you can see from hovering over each word in the sentence above,
this literally means from the sun hello, and as such can't be used on
overcast days. You can greet people whose names you know by adding
vel'name to the sententce.
Apostrophes have several uses in Asha'ille. First, like in English, apostrophes
mark contractions. Second, they are required between most consecutive vowels
within a word. Third, they mark certain consonants (especially n)
as being held longer when pronounced.
However, none of these three uses explains the apostrophes above. For that, we
need to know the fourth use for apostrophes: to join certain words to other
words. Adverbs (which usually begin with v, like vedá above) are one type
of word that needs to be joined to the following word.
Accent marks are used as in Spanish, marking which syllable is stressed when
spoken. There are nine rules used to determine which
syllable is stressed in a word, but only three are very common and important.
Verbs (which end in v) are stressed on the last
syllable, and all other words are stressed on the second-to-last syllable.
Accent maks override both these rules.
Tajhe:
Same to you.
Vo is, grammatically speaking, a pro-verb. Like the more familiar pronoun
standing in for a previously mentioned noun, pro-verbs can stand in for
previously mentioned verbs. As a phrase, daedh vo means either
same [verb] to you or me too, depending on what makes sense as a
response.
Íshina:
I am Íshina.
En'i means self and can usually be translated as I or me.
To say one thing is equivalent to another, such as equating your name to
yourself, fill in the phrase jhor'one thing t'another.
The rules of Asha'ille dictate that only one apostrophe may be written within a
group of letters not separated by spaces. Thus, although the word en'i
contains an apostrophe, it can't be written when jhor- is joined to it by
another apostrophe.
Who are you?
Here is the sentence form jhor'one thing t'another again
(hereafter referred to as the jhor'te form). This time the pronoun osa
is being equated to the question word nö, meaning what (or who in
this case). Pronouns in Asha'ille are rather complex; for now, treat osa as
a polite, friendly way to say you.
To ask a question that can't be answered with yes or no, you modify the
vowel of the stressed syllable in the question word of the sentence, as well as
the word no, if it appears in the sentence. In the Roman alphabet, this
question-induced vowel change is marked by a diresis. Thus, no becomes
nö. Any question can optionally end in an -ë, spoken with rising
intonation.
See the detailed
questions grammar page
for a chart of how to change the vowel.
The -ë doesn't mean anything per se, it just makes it clear that the
sentence is a question. In normal Asha'ille, -ë isn't used quite as often as
it is in these lessons. When you get comfortable recognizing questions, feel
free to drop the -ë.
-Ë is normally joined via an apostrophe to the word before it. However, in
this case the “one apostrophe per group of
letters” writing rule keeps this joining apostrophe
from being written, just as with jhor'en i.
Tajhe:
Me? I am Tajhe.
N'ï is a contraction of në en'ï, the question form of ne en'i. You
never say nouns by themselves, even in sentence fragments. Instead, the word
ne must precede it. Thus, saying just en'ï by itself is the
question form of en'i, but you can't say only that word as a response
without ne in front of it. (Or në, in the case of a question.)
In addition to te, and, being joined via apostrophe to her name,
Tajhe, the te has also been contracted to just t'.
Íshina:
Do you live here?
Most sentences in Asha'ille do not rely on using the jhor'te form.
Instead, most sentences use verbs, subjects, objects, adjectives, and adverbs,
just as in English. Normal word order puts verbs first, then subjects, then
objects (as opposed to English's normal order, where subject comes first, then
the verb, then objects).
For example, the simple sentence I eat cheese translates into Asha'ille as
nagov en'i ne imadh. Literally, that means eat I the cheese.
When questions can be answered with a simple yes or no, the
vowels in question words don't change like in the previous question sentences.
Yes-or-no questions are much simpler: say ojo before the sentence, and
optionally tag a questioning -ë to the end of the sentence, and you're
asking a yes-or-no question! Compare the above question to its
declarative statement version, You also live here: Daedh lo'mmav esa.
As we mentioned before, Asha'ille pronouns are quite complex. Esa is a more
intimate version of osa, although it is still considered a polite form.
Íshina switches to esa to address Tajhe after they have introduced
themselves.
Íshina choosing to switch so soon, while still within the range of normal,
shows that she is a friendly, outgoing individual.
I live here, in Hinaldh.
Ne doesn't actually mean the, but it can usually be translated as such.
Ne actually just separates the subject of the sentence from the objects,
because otherwise you wouldn't be able to tell where the subjects ended and the
objects began, since the verb isn't between them as in English.
'Sa is an extremely common contraction of alunsa, which means that the
next word describes the word immediately before the word alunsa. In most
cases, you could translate alunsa is which. In this case, 'sa Hinaldh
describes saea, so that you know here is Hinaldh. An alternate English
translation of the above question could be I live here, which is Hinaldh.
Tajhe:
I do not. I am not from Hinaldh.
Kr' is the contraction of kre, just as t' is the contraction of te.
Kre is the generic negation word, meaning no or not. The pro-verb
vo here is standing in for the previous verb, live here. Thus, an
alternate translation of kr'vo could be I do not live here.
Jhor- shows that two things are equivalent; kor- is the negative form of
jhor- and means that two things are not equivalent. Compare this to
what Íshina might say about herself: Jhor'en i t'diyhinaldh,
I am from Hinaldh.
Diy- prefixes the name of a location (in this case, the city Hinaldh) to
mean something from that location. Thus, diyhinaldh does not mean
Hinaldh, but rather from Hinaldh.
Both vedá and diy- can be translated as from, but their meanings are
slightly different. Compare jhor'tourist t'vedá América,
the tourist is (coming) from America against jhor'citizen
t'diyamérica, the citizen is from America (or
the citizen is American.) Vedá is used for movement or temporary status,
while diy- is used for orign or permanent status.
Íshina:
Where do you live?
Väe is the question form of the adverb vae, which means where. The
rest of the sentence, lo'mmav esa, means you live, so it should be easy
to see that adding väe before the verb turns it into the question
where do you live.
Tajhe:
I live in Teitéir.
As previously mentioned, adverbs must be joined to the next word via an
apostrophe. Väe asks for a location, so vae provides a location.
Lo'mmav en'i mean I live, so adding vae'Teitéir describes where Tajhe
lives.
But I travel to Hinaldh to trade.
Kret is, in fact, related to kre. It means but. Like jhor and
te, it joins to the word following it via an apostrophe.
The "one apostrophe" rule prevents the apostrophe of alcáspi'ev from being
written.
Subjects can be dropped if they haven't changed since the last sentence. The
en'i from lo'mmav en'i ne Teitéir thus carries over into this sentence.
Including en'i explicitly in alcáspi'ev en'i ne Hinaldh would be
considered redunant.
Verbs that are intransitive in English and use prepositions to add information
are often transitive in Asha'ille, using direct (or indirect) objects to add
the same information. The exact relationship of the object to the verb is
dependent on the specific verb in question. In this case, the object Hinaldh
is the location traveled to.
Note that you can also express many of these sentences with adverbs, if you
really want your sentences to have syntax more similar to English. For example,
Alcáspi'ev en'i ne Hinaldh is equivalent to vel'Hinaldh alcáspi'ev en'i,
literally to Hinaldh travel I. A native Asha'illen, however, would favor
using the first variant over the second.
Yes, vep is also an adverb and works just like all the others used
previously. It joins to the word following it via an apostrophe. It begins an
adverbial phrase describing a purpose or reason.
To turn a verb into a noun, attach -on to the end of the verb. Thus
epararev is a verb meaning to trade, while epararevon is a noun
meaning either trade or trading. -On does not change where stress
falls in the word.
Íshina:
So you are a trader, are you?
Iparari is formed by surrounding the verb epararev with i-i
(pronounced as "short" i's, like in sit, not like the ea in
seat).
Without tagging alunun jhi to the end of the sentence, it would translate as
are you a trader?
Tajhe:
Yes, I am. I will return home soon.
Íshina:
I have never visited Teitéir.
Tajhe:
Perhaps you would like to go to Teitéir together?
Íshina:
Yes, I would like that!
When do we go?
Tajhe:
Let's go tomorrow.
Íshina:
Until then, be well.
Tajhe:
Same to you. Goodbye, Íshina.
Íshina:
Goodbye, Tajhe!
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