Héıko chỉetoaı – Lesson 10

Notes

1. The compound lıqfu “to be a daughter” has the components lıq “to be female”, and fu “to be an offspring”.

2. Tỉopuı is another verb question. While hỉa asks what something is, tỉopuı asks how many things a given expression refers to. In Toaq, instead of asking “How many babies are there?”, we ask “How numerous are the babies”, Tỉopuı bé moq?.

3. Enı is an interjection meaning “here, take this / look at this”. Number verbs express the numerosity of a thing: Sảq bé “The babies are three in number”.

4. We already met mama “to be a mother”. Now we meet aba “to be a father”.

5. baq, like sa and tu, turns a verb into a noun. The noun it creates refers generically to the kind of thing the verb describes. baq hảbı “birds in general”, as opposed to any particular animal.

6. This sentence showcases another indirect question, but instead of hı it uses mâ. mâ, with a rising-falling tone is the content clause version of mả, and can be translated as “whether”. mâ tỉ sa hảbı “whether some birds are present”.

7. This sentence is a great example of how much you can already achieve with the little grammar we have introduced. Tủa súq kâqgaı mýı káto literally means “you make it the case that we see the cats”, which uses the power of paraphrase to express “you show us the cats”. Using such tricks, we can express things we don’t know the words for. We will also learn easier and shorter ways to say such things soon.

8. We see beı again, which adds emphasis to the following word. Recall that it is beı that takes the stress in spoken Toaq, often accompanied by a falling tone, while the word following beı remains unchanged.

9. shú is used to quote and refer to the following word. shú Tỏmı means “the word ‘Tommy’”. An important semantic point here is that the correct way to say “My name is Tommy” is Chủa shú Tỏmı jí da, and not Chủa mí Tỏmı jí da. The word ‘Tommy’ itself is the name. Chủa mí Tỏmı jí da would mean “My name is something named Tommy”, that is, the name has a name!

Exercises

Translate:

• Bủa sa nỉaı jío da. Pủı níaı da.
  “Some animals live in the building. The animals are numerous.”

• Zảı ába chô líqfu hábı da.
  “The father hopes that the daughter likes the bird.”

• Dủa máma shâo bé nûo hó da.
  “The mother knows that the baby wants to sleep.”

• Kủo káto ru kóruo da.
  “The cat and the raven are black.”

• Tủa súq jâı jí da.
  “You make me happy.”

• Mả mỏaq súq tî hó hı rảı moq?
  “Do you remember where they are?”

Fill in the blanks:

• “The dog is white. But the cat is black.”
  Bảo kúne da. Keo kủo káto da.

• “Do you know whether they are asleep?”
  Mả dủa súq mâ nủo hó moq?

• “We are many.”
  Pủı míy da.

• “I like dogs.”
  Chỏ jí baq kủne da.

• “I hope Julia does not hate me.”
  Zảı jí lôı bũ mí Jủlıa jí da.