Néıko chỉetoaı – Lesson 9

Kảqgaı ba. Hỉa ní moq? ①	Look! What is that?
Kảqjua ní da. ②	That is strange-looking.
Mỉu jí pôq ní da. Keo dủa bũ jí tâo ní hı rảı da. ③	I think that is a person. But I don’t know what it is doing.
Kỏy múy ní ba.	Let us talk to it.
Hỉo ka. ④	Hello.
Hỉo ka.	Hello.
Mả pỏq súq moq?	Are you a person?
Nho! ⑤	Yes!
Obe! Chủa hı rảı súq moq?	Oh! What is your name?
Mỉ Bỏko jí da! ⑥	I am Boko!
Mả dủy bũ súq moq?	Do you not move?
Gủosıa dûy mí Bỏko da! ⑦	Boko never moves!
Lủaı súq da.	You are funny.
Kủaq kỉe ka! ⑧	Thank you!

Notes

Hỉa is a question verb, and can be translated with “is what?”. Hỉa ní moq? “What is this?”, “What is that?”.
The compound kaqjua “to be strange-looking” contains a familiar component, kaq, which means “visual”, “pertaining to vision”. You met this as part of kaqgaı “to see”. jua means “strange”, so kaqjua is something that looks strange.
Here we meet another example of the rising-falling tone . pỏq ní means “this is a person”, so pôq ní means “that this is a person”. Mỉu jí pôq ní “I think that this is a person”. In the second sentence, we see the content clause tâo ní hı rảı, which contains a question word. Such content clauses are called indirect questions, because they are used to talk about questions rather than directly asking them oneself. tâo ní hı rảı translates to the indirect question “what this is doing”, so the full sentence Dủa bũ jí tâo ní hı rảı da means “I don’t know what this is doing”.
The word ka is a family member of da, moq and ba. Its appearance at the end of a sentence indicates that the sentence is true by virtue of being uttered. A common example of such a sentence in English would be “I now pronounce you husband and wife”. A good general translation of ka into English would be “hereby”. hıo means “to greet (someone)”, thus Hỉo ka has the literal meaning “Hereby, there is greeting”, which is the most common way to say “hello” in Toaq. A slightly longer version is Hỉo jí ka “Hereby, I greet”, or Hỉo jí súq ka “Hereby, I greet you”.
Nho is an affirmative interjection, which can be translated as “yes”.
The word mı is used to create name verbs. mı NAME is a verb meaning “to be named NAME”. mı Bỏko “to be named Boko”, mỉ Bỏko jí “I am named Boko”.
Here we see the name verb mı Bỏko turned into a noun via the rising tone . mı Bỏko “to be named Boko”, mí Bỏko “that which is named Boko”.
For now, take Kủaq kỉe ka! “Thank you” as a set phrase. However, the ka already tells you that this is a hereby-phrase. Its literal translation is actually “(I) hereby express (my) gratitude”, which is the standard way to say thank you in Toaq.

Exercises

Translate:

Kỏy déo máma da.
“The child talks to the mother.”
Gủosia kôy déo máma da.
“The child never talks to the mother.”
Tảo kúne sa jủa da.
“The dog does something strange.”
Lủai chô bũ kúne súq da.
“It is funny that the dog does not like you.”
Mả zảo súq mí Sảra moq?
“Do you know Sara?”

Fill in the blanks:

“I don’t know at what place I am.”
Dủa bũ jí tî jí hı rỉaq da.
“They talk to Amira.”
Kỏy hó mí Ảmıra da.
“What is the name of the dog?”
Chủa hı rảı kúne moq?
“I see something funny.”
Kảqgaı jí sa lủaı da.
“You do nothing that’s good.”
Tảo súq sıa gỉ da.