Meals

Meals are a very important part of day to day life no matter where you live, or what culture you are from.

The word for meal in Reisu is 'alo'. You might say to a child "Enata alo ono", "Finish your meal".

Breakfast - Alopaba
Lunch - Alojoni
Dinner - Alotego

Paba means start, joni means middle or center, and tego means end.

O xipaba katahaa nopu amunu alopaba aku!
You should always start the day with a good breakfast!

Where are you from?

This is a conversation og two people making small talk over the phone while waiting for something to process or whatever. I have this conversation at work all the time.

Vumoze: Mo, o okoko dei?
Deyaze: Alabama, bo ei omagi pa Karolaina Eko.
Vumoze: O! Izi ono lamu Kanada.
Deyaze: A... ei vadidula kataze. O okoko dei?

Customer: So where are you from?
Clerk: Alabama, but I live in South Carolina.
Customer: Oh! You sound like you're from Canada.
Clerk: Um... I've never been there. Where are you from?

And yes, it's pretty much this exact conversation. Where people get Canada from I don't know. It only happens at work, so it must be my customer voice.

There's one phrase here that's in need of a literal translation.
O okoko dei?
You house where?
When okoko is used as a verb it means 'to be from'. To ask where someone's physical house is we can say:
Okoko ono dei?
House your where?

Happy Halloween :D

So Halloween is awesome, and I want to share some Halloween related words in Reisu.

Candy - Saki
Ghost - Noto
Costume - Tivukodi
Pumpkin - Zalubaba
Apple Cider - Avo Gapasiri
Black Cat - Komo Hexi
Zombie - Bimo

Happy Halloween!

What's my age again?

Below is a sample conversation discussing age. Also from now going forward, when I post conversations I'm going to use Reisu given names.

A conversation between two friends who have not known each other long:

Gapasiri: Nopumada eino nopufu!
Nebupina: E? Kualafu nopurigisa jei?
Gapasiri: Tuxoto... Ei pabanu holanu doro...
Nebupina: [Hahanu] O xodigo bo lo ei.
Gapasiri: Ehe? O nopurigisa jei?
Nebupina: Vixo.
Gapasiri: Ei kuvitala. O una xodigo.
Nebupina: Xati.

Gapasiri: My birthday is tomorrow!
Nebupina: Oh? How old are will you be?
Gapasiri: Twenty-five... I'm starting to feel old...
Nebupina: [Laughing] You are still younger than me.
Gapasiri: Really? How old are you?
Nebupina: Thirty.
Gapasiri: I didn't know. You seem younger.
Nebupina: Thanks.

Reisu Travel Phrases Part 2

After Monday's post, David recommended I check out The Four Essential Travel Phrases. This site is awesome, so I translated the four phrases into Reisu. Enjoy!

Where is my room?
Vato ono le dei?

Where is the beach?
Lazaha dei?

Where is the bar?
Onapiivija dei?

Don't touch me there!
Kuzuli ei levo/natavo!
-Levo is literally that place, natavo is in that way/manner.

Reisu Travel Phrases

If you ever find yourself in Reixeko (State of Rei) then the following phrases are very useful. If such a place only existed.

O neina Reisu/Egaisu nei?
Do you speak Reisu/English?

Ei neina Reisu tai/aku.
I speak Reisu some/well.

Ei uneina Reisu./Ei uneina Reisuze.
I don't speak Reisu./I don't speak any Reisu.

O lijikua onapihalo xali nei?
Can you recommend a good restaurant?

Vatozeta dei?
Where is the bathroom?

Ei piteinu lo __. O vita sede lo leru?
I'm looking for __. Do you know how to get there? (Lit: Do you know directions to that place?)

Eru geri jei?
How much does this cost?

Terms of Endearment

This past month I just started a new job, and I knew it would be stressful so I created some posts that would go up automatically. Unfortunately I completely underestimated just how long it would take me to get into the swing of things, and so many weeks have gone by with no entries D: I'm still not really set in a routine with me new position, but I wanted to focus my brain on something more pleasant. So here's a post on Reisu terms of endearment!

In the kinship terms post one term of endearment was introduced kokoxai. This is only used for long term relationships. Referring to someone as kokoxai before they are ready can make someone seem clingy.

It's common to hear terms of endearment with names of birds and flowers. For example it's popular to refer to a child as xuxuxai, which is a shortened from 'vexuxusuxai' (meaning little ducking) because that's quite the tongue twister!

Some popular terms of endearment when referring to females are vexulimani (songbird) and jevaxai (little flower). For males a popular one is puhoxai (pony), but more common for males is to have the gender neutral ones. Some examples of those are vexulixai (little owl, shortened from vexulitaxai) and vexuruxai (little dove, shortened from vexuruluxai).

There are two more common words that could be considered terms of endearment. Komoxai (little kitten) for females and komozua (tom cat) for males. These terms have a much more sexual connotation, so in some situations they can be considered derogatory. However these words are considered mild enough that they are not curse words.

Dua & Xai

When we talked about kinship terms we used the affixes -dua and -xai. These suffixes can be used in many areas. -dua is an augmentative, and -xai is a diminutive. -Dua tends to make things larger in size or greater in power. -Xai tends to make things smaller in size, or cuter.

Some examples:
Feridua - Super store
Ferixai - Convenience store
Lazadua - Ocean (One of the major oceans of the planet)
Lazaxai - Sea (Smaller, but still major bodies of water ex: Mediterranean sea)
Kopodua - Boulder
Kopoxai - Pebble

These can also be attached to names. Adding -xai to someone's name or a nick name is a term of endearment. The words it's attached to depends on what level of endearment is intended. Adding -dua is an informal honorific, unless used with a person's title where it becomes very formal.

Kinship Terms

There are many kinship terms in Reisu. Most of them come from four roots: Data for father, mama for mother, gati for child and yoti for sibling.

If there are more than one siblings being discussed, or there is a need to differentiate which sibling we can do this many ways. We can divide it by gender saying yotikipa for a sister or yotigatu for a brother. It can also be divided by age, this is usually done with numbers with 1 being the oldest. So yotiha would be the oldest yoti being discussed.

Gati can be used in the same way: gatikipa for daughter, gatigatu for son, gatiha for oldest child, gatitu for second child, etc. Unlike daughter in English gatikipa can be used to refer to any female child, not just ones in relation to their parent. Gatigatu is the same way.

To refer to someone of one generation away we can use the suffix -dua, similarly to how we use 'grand' in English. So datadua is grand father, mamadua is grand mother, gatidua is grand child.

There are some kinship terms that don't use these roots. Most notably koko, which refers to a spouse. Often times this is used as a term of endearment via adding the -xai suffix. Kokoxai is a term of endearment only used in long term relationships.

Colors: Saturation and Brightness

I've posted the color words before. These words describe the hues of color, or what we would think of as the colors of the rainbow. We can also talk about the saturation and brightness of colors.

Saturation is how vivid or pale a particular color is. The scale of this is described with the words raxi for high saturation, and hili for low saturation. Here are some examples where the word is the color being discussed.

Lanu-raxi
Akari-hili

Note: These translations of the words raxi and hili is only in regards to color. They can be used to discribe light as well, but they do not mean saturated. They mean the level of light, similar to bright/dim.

Brightness is how dark or light a particular color is. The scale is described with the words Peibu and Hexi. These are also the words for white and block respectively. So the close to white the color is the more bright it is.

Afi-peibu
Itaka-hexi

Group of

Gei is a prefix particle that means 'group of'. It functions similarly to yei and tei. It's most commonly used in numbers. For example geitu is a twosome or a couple; geivi is a threesome; geisa is a foursome; geixotu is a dozen; etc etc.

Gei can also be used in other ways!

Geikomodenusa - A litter of kittens
Geihakaxasa - A circle of friends
Geibiho[muka]sa - Cattle
Geixudosa - A school of fish

A plural is always required when gei- is being used with a non-number word, generally a noun. -Sa is most common, but if we want to draw attention to the individuals in the group being different we can use -sai.

Geihemodosai - A group of unique individuals (people)
Geixudosai - A school of fishes

Counting Days - part two

This is a follow up to the original counting days entry. We're going to discuss the words for relative days.

The word for day is Nopu, which is where all of these words are derived. To say today we can simply add the demonstrative suffix -ru. This translates literally as "this day", which is the equivalent to today in English.

Similarly yesterday is Nopu+la, or "past day". Tomorrow is Nopu+fu, or "future day".

Nopuru - Today
Nopula - Yesterday
Nopufu - Tomorrow

We can use similar constructions to say expressions like "day before yesterday". In Reisu this would be Nopulatu, "day-past-two".

We can use these same constructions for other time words like month or year. The nopu in brackets are not required if it's obvious by the context that we aren't talking about the literal sun and moon.

[Nopu]rigila - Last year
[Nopu]lakifu - Next month
Koxukusifutu - Two weeks from now

Tua & Pua

Tua and pua are two special affixes that can be attached to all sorts of things.

Pua functions the same way -able does in English.

Atasa timi ya vutipua lo emodohaa po vato amuhe.
Cups low and reachable to everyone inside room food.
The cups are low and reachable to everyone in the cafeteria.

Tua means to cause or make something. So the word for blue, lanu, can become lanutua and mean 'to make blue'. Tua can also be used to create stylistic differences. This example is a bit morbid, but kill means to cause death. The words for kill and die are zopo and zato respectively. But you could just as easily say zatotua, and it would mean the same thing as zopo.

Asking yes/no questions

We talked about some question words back in February, but that doesn't cover all the types of questions you may need to ask.

For example we can turn any sentence into a question by adding 'nei' at the end.

Ei zopola ziti
I killed the bug.
O zopola ziti nei?
You killed the bug?

If you want to imply that the answer is yes we can change the verb to it's positive form.

O izopola ziti nei?
You killed the bug right?
Izopola.
I did.

If you want to imply that the answer is no we can change the verb to it's negative form.

O uzopola ziti nei?
You didn't kill the bug did you?
E... izopola. ...Oxida.
Um... I did. ...Sorry.

Olisa Ajinosa

Today we're going to talk about facial expressions! Facial expressions are called olisa ajinosa, types of faces.

There aren't words for specific expressions like a smile or a frown in Reisu. Instead we can say 'aji ida', or 'happy face'. We can also say 'Aji upa' or 'sad face'.

Leika aji ida! Make a happy face!
Make face happy!

Aji upa bei? Why the long face?
Face sad why?

Kuxadu aji ono idogi lo e. Don't get angry with him.
Don't-turn face 2PSingPoss angry to 3PSing.

Most obvious in the third example, it's more common in Reisu to talk about having a certain face than feeling the emotion itself. For example it would be better to say 'leika aji ida', 'make a happy face', than to say 'geki ida' (think happy, feel happy, or be happy).

You can also have aji imo, scared face; aji yifa, scary face; or aji haha, laughing face.

Don't unplug me

I've become absolutely obsessed with this song. It's so cute! So I translated the chorus.

Don’t unplug me
or just shut me down
Please just love me
with your steel heart
I’d reboot you
If you’d look at me
With those cold eyes
One more time

Literal translation:
Kujulize ei
Don't-NEG-power me
ro xadu yu vua ei
or turn down just me
Bega rulu vua ei
Please love just me
ja muaho feta ono
with heart steel your
Ei zijasi o
I would-refresh you
Ta o zihoki lo ei
If you would-look toward me
ja etarosavo fuxu
with eyes-those cold
yeihago
time-one-more

Translation trying to match the meter:
Kujulize
ro xadu yu ei
Rulu vua ei
ja muaho feta
Zijasi o
Ta o oki ei
ja oki fuxu
yeihago

Olisa sulano

Today we're going to talk about olisa sulano or flavors (literally types of taste). There are several words that that we can use for olisa sulano.

Sweet	Iki
Salty	Zute
Sour	Peri
Bitter	Sate
Spicy	Ubi
Savory	Abo
Fatty	Huxua

There are other things that could be olisa sulano in the proper context. Textures of foods for example like siri (crunchy) or zuba (smooth). Pretty much anything that could be described as part of tasting is an oli sulano.

Many of these words can also be olisa zegono or fragrances (types of smells). Iki kuala roki! Sweetness smells good!

Ei eli amuhe ubi ro peri! Bo olisa sulano xido sula akuga :)
1P-SING enjoy food spicy or sour! But types taste-POSS new taste best :)
I enjoy spicy or sour food! But new flavors taste best :)

Coming and going

Let's talk about some verbs today :) I'm going to explain some basic words of movement: come, leave, go and stop.

Daxi means come. For example: 'daxi leru', come here; 'daxi lo ei', come to me; 'daxi po le' or 'daxi po', come inside; or 'ei daxidu', I have come (I'm here). I also say this to my dog as another word for come. Daxi nebu!

Opposite of daxi is kaxi for leave. It's better in Reisu to say 'kaxi' instead of 'go away' or 'get out'. You can use kaxi very similarly to daxi. 'Kaxi leru', leave this place (go away); 'kaxi pe', go outside (get out); or 'kaxi lo vato ono!', go to your room!.

The word for go is yata. It doesn't have the same structure of meanings as the English 'go' though, and you can't really use it to mean 'leave' when discussing people or things. The meaning of yata is to move, proceed, pass or elapse. Some phrases would be 'Eisa yatanu vori hata!', we're going so fast!; 'kata yatala yude nopuvo', time passed slowly that day; or 'O liyata', you may go (It's your turn).

And since we have go, let's talk about it's opposite, stop. Stop is taza. For example: 'taza levo!', stop there; 'Ei gura, mo eisa xitaza', I'm hungry, so we should stop (Let's stop. I'm hungry); or 'toxu tazanu!', the rain is stopping!.

And... yeah. I have been working on Reisu stuff. It just doesn't ever seem to make it's way into the blog. I'm trying to get back into posting here.

GOLD

So this is cool. Someone shared this lovely link on the list recently, and I had to post it here. It's a database of all those crazy linguistic terms that I can never remember what they mean. I've searched for something like this before, but never come up with anything. Now I have gold. Yay :D

Drinking

We talked about meats recently, and this week I want to get to some even more basic words of eating. Back on my phonology posts when I started this blog I translated "amu" and "bubu" as verbs for eating and drinking.

This isn't always an appropriate translation, although it will work most of the time. Amu really means closer to 'consume' than 'eat'. We amu food, water, air, medicine and other things (that we probably shouldn't). This is the most basic word of consumption, and most often used in the context of eating.

But it's not only used for animals. Plants also amu sunlight, water and other nutrients from the soil. In fact objects can amu as well. For example my television can amu electricity, and cars amu gasoline.

Since amu can be used in all these ways, what is the word bubu for? I means the same as amu, only specifically to liquids. I use it if differentiation is needed, though it very rarely is. More commonly I use bubu to describe drinking 'ivija' or... alcohol! This is similar to a colloquial usage of drinking in English. Phrases like "Have you been drinking?" or "I've had too much to drink!" would normally refer to alcohol.

Similarly the word for breathing, feni, tends to be used when the context is not clear that we are referring to gasses. In practice, I've found this rarely necessary. If it's clear by the context amu is perfectly fine to use. And similarly to bubu, feni is used to refer to smoking. So a sign saying "ufeninu" would mean "no smoking" not "no breathing".

Unlike bubu for liquids and feni for gasses there is no special word for consuming solids. When speaking of solids always use 'amu'.

Some example sentences~
Amu safisa ono aa. - Eat all of your vegetables (Eat salad-greens you all).
Eka eisa bubu ata-go a. - Let's have one more drink (Let us drink cup-more one)!
Onapiru maino ufeninu - This is a non-smoking building (Building-this has NEG-smoking).