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Lesson V

Can I Come? (fo mae:)

S: a píawañ ciñ! múañ:
L: a píac: ía peaslyañyir:
S: fo mae:
L : a jwae: mú meqeña: ía cada dañ ñama:
S: qoei! ía phuiaxa swáer dañ ñama xr'peasmei:
L: a jwae! fo kwou:
S: a'cui!

Translation:

S: a píawañ ciñ! múañ:: /a. piæ. wæɲ. ciɲ - mUæɲ./; "a PEEa-waN CHeeN. MOO-aN" - "Hello! What's up with you?"
L: a píac: ía peaslyañyir:: /æ piæc - iæ piæs. l^jæ. ɲi^r./; "a PEE-aCH. EEa Pee-aS-LYa-NYeer" - "Hey! I'm on my way to my Mother's house"
S: fo mae:: /fU mæe/; "Foo Ma-ay" - "May I (come along)?"
L: a jwae: mú meqeña: ía cada dañ ñama:: /æ tz^wæe - mU mə. qə. ɲæ. - iæ. cæ. t_æ. t_æɲ. ɲæ. mæ./; "a TZWa-ay. MOO Muh-Quh-NYa. EEa CHa-THa THaN NYa-Ma." - "Sure. Are you hungry? I'm travelling for food.
S: qoei! ía phuiaxa swáer dañ ñama xr'peasmei:: /qUəi. - iæa. p^hUiæ. ʃæ. swæe^r. t_æɲ. ɲæ. mæ. ʃɚʔ. piæs. (ə). məi. /; "Qoo-uh-ee. EEa PHoo-ee-a-SHa SWA-air THaN NYa-Ma SHur'-Pee-as-(uh)-muh-ee." - "What! I love your mother's cooking! "
L: a jwae! fo kwou:: / æ tz^wæe - fU k^wɔ^w/; "a TZWa-ay. Foo KWaw" = "Well, come on then.""
S: a'cui!: /æʔ. cUi./; "a'-CHoo-ee." - "Let's (go)!"

Vocabulary

múañ - [mUaɲ] - "MOO-aN": Short for mú wañ, which means "What's up with you?", or more literally "What (of) you?". This could encompass "How are you?", "What are you doing?", "What's going on with you?", "Why did you do that?", "Who are you?", "What are you?", and so forth as well, depending on the context of the situation.
peas - [piæs] - "Pee-aS": "Mother"
-lyañ - [-l^jæɲ] - "-LYaN": This is a Sematic Particle, which means that it is used for word-building. When suffixed to the end of a word 'X' it means "Home of X" or "Place of X".
fo mae - [fU mæe] - "Foo Ma-ay": This idiomatic expression can translate to "May I", "Excuse Me", ""Help Me", "Give it to me" among others. The word fo is another Speech Act Particle, which introduces irrealis sentences, i.e. "If, would, could, etc." The word mae is quite versatile, but its general meaning runs along the lines of "Give; Help, Aid, Facilliate, Allow, Permit"
meqeña - [mə. qə. ɲæ] "Muh-Quh-NYa": "Hunger"
cada - [cæ. t_æ] - "CHa-THa": "Journey, Travel"
dañ - [t_æɲ] - "THaN": This Particle is a Conjuction, which can be translated as "With regards to...", "Concerning...", "In reference to...", etc . Its use will be discussed in Lesson VII."
ñama - [ɲæ. mæ] - "NYa-Ma": "Edibles, (Prepared) Food, Drink; Eating"
qoei! - [qUəi] - "Qoo-uh-ee": This is an Interjection. It might be similar in usage to "Oh, wow!", "Shucks!", "Darn!", "Yeah, really" or some such. Honestly, you will just have to get a feel of how draqa interjections are used through experience and intuition. There should be many examples here eventually. Interjections are naturally quite common in this language.
-xa - [-ʃæ] - "-SHa": This is another Semantic Particle. Suffixed to word 'X', it means "The Pleasure of X" . It is very commonly used in draga speaking.
swáer - [s^wæe^r] - "SWA-air": "Very, Very Much"
kwou - [k^wɔ^w] - "KWaw": "To move in a direction, Come, Go"
a'cui - [æʔ. cUi] - "a'-CHoo-ee": This is another Speech Act Particle. It is used to introduce "1st Person Imperative" statements, i.e. "Let's Do such and such". As you can see, a Speech Act Particle can used by itself and still be a complete sentence.

Review:

1. ía cadaxa:
2. mú kwou:
3. mú meqeña-yir:
4. ía peas:
5. a'cui ñama-teyou:

Lesson VI

Genitive Particles I:

There was one word in the exchange above that was left out of the Vocabulary: xr'peasmei - part of the phrase "ñama xr'peasmei".

xr'peasmei is a complex word, made of 3 parts:

xr'- "Of"

peas "Mother"

-mei "The Referent's, Of the Referent"*

The word xr', or cr', is best translated as "Of". It simply means there is a relationship between the words before and after it. ñama xr'peasmei breaks down: ñama "(Prepared) Food" - xr' "Of" - peasmei "Your Mother". The word xr' is called the Generic Genitive Particle. It doesn't specify the nature of the relationship indicated. The word mei is a Personal Genitive Particle, which are similar in meaning to English Possessive Pronouns.

*The Referent is the "main character" or the person under discussion. When certain Speech Act Particles are used (such as mú), the Referent equates to the Second Person, i.e. "you". At other times, it would be translated by the Third Person, i.e. "She, he, it, they". So, the phrase xr'peasmei may mean "Your Mother's (of your Mother)", "His Mother's", "Her Mother's", "Their Mother's".

Some of the Genitive Particle suffixes can take more than one form. In many cases, these forms are interchangeable, but sometimes only a certain form can be used with certain Roots. The longer forms are used more commonly, and sometimes for added emphasis. The short forms below -c, -(y)ac, -(y)an are mostly used in very common constructions or to create a short and flexible word-form.

Table I: Personal Genitive Particles

-xeañ	-ʃiæɲ	"-SHee-aN"	"My, Of me"
-wix	-wiʃ	"-WeeSH"
-c, -(y)ac	-c -(j)æc	"-(Y)aCH"
These forms are used to refer to the 1st Person Exclusive, i.e. "I" or "We (but not you)". -xeañ and -wix are very often interchangeable, but -wix is generally preferred when speaking in the plural ("we"). The word pea generally means "My Mother" or "Mom, Mama", but the form peas-ac also means "My Mother" or "Our Mother (but not yours)". With this word (peas), *peas-xean and *peas-wix would not be acceptable. The rule in that case is simple, because any Root ending in "-s" will take -ac for this form.

-waqs, -weiaqs	-wæq. s., -wəiæq. s.	"-WaQ-S", "-Wuh-ee-aQ-S"	"Our, Of us"
These forms are used to refer to the 1st Person Inclusive, i.e. "You and I" or "You and Us". -weiaqs is the formal spelling and pronunciation, but -waqs is often used in casual speech, though it is often just spelled "-weiaqs" as well.

-mei	-məi	"-Muh-ee"	"Of the Referent, The Referent's"
-(y)añ	-(j)æɲ	"-(Y)aN"	"Of the Referent, The Referent's"
The role of Referent has been discussed above. Note that in the case of the word peas, only peas-mei could be used to mean "Your Mother". peas-añ is too informal and would be considered disrespectful to use this way, but it still may be used meaning "Her, his or their Mother".

-lor	-lU^r	"-Loor"	"His, her, its, their"
-feas, -fas	-fiæs -fæs	"-Fee-aS", "-FaS"	"The other one's"
These forms refer to what are called 3rd Person and 4th Person (or Obviate), respectively. If I am speaking to Saliá, and bring up Salec, Salec's mother would be referred to with pea-lor or peas-elor. When I then bring up Iñatiña, her mother is referred to as peas-fas.

Now, the word peas is irregular. Here are some more regular examples of these Personal Genitive Particles:

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