some introduction / beginners' lesson / whatever part 2

User avatar
nighean-neonach
Posts:2440
Joined:2007-01-14, 22:39
Real Name:Mona
Gender:female
Location:eadar cuan is teine
some introduction / beginners' lesson / whatever part 2

Postby nighean-neonach » 2007-02-05, 8:47

The second lesson of Davvin does not introduce much new stuff.

Mii du namma lea? Mu namma lea Máhtte.

Gii don leat? Mun lean Máret.

mii = what?
gii = who?

It's important to note the following:

Maid don jugat? = What do you drink? (From the Gulahalan online lessons)

maid = what? in genitive-accusative case

Another important question is:
Mo(t) manná? = How are you?

mot is obviously shortened to mo in colloquial speech, because the -t almost disappears anyway in final position, due to the pre-aspiration.

~ ~ ~

The various demonstrative pronouns can be a bit confusing:

Gii do boahtá? = Who comes there?
lea mu eamit. = This is my wife.
Bures dat manná. = It goes well.
Gii do leat? Dat lea Biera = Who is that? That's Biera.

The Gulahalan online course also introduces:
Gii dovle lea? = Who is that over there?

My book says:
dat = simply this/that, he, she, it, not specially stressed.
dát = this here
duot = that over there
dot = that one further away, yonder

dá = here, there

All these pronouns are inflected for case and number, but we'll look at that later ;)

~ ~ ~

There are lots of small expletive words or particles used in the dialogues in Davvin and Gulahalan as well:

De boahtá Juvvá. = So there comes Juvvá
Gii do boahtá? Na Pekka. = Who comes there? Well Pekka.
Don leat vissa Joavnna? = You are surely Joavnna?
Gii don gis leat? = Who are you then?
, Máret don leat. = Right, you are Máret.
, du viellja dat lea ge. = Alright, so that's your brother.

Please don't accept my translations as 100% correct. Davvin is in Norwegian, Gulahalan is in Swedish, so I'm not quite sure whether I get the correct nuances there from the translations... and I speak more Gaelic than English these days, or funny English with Gaelic speakers, so my English tends to be a bit weird as well ;)
Last edited by nighean-neonach on 2007-02-05, 9:52, edited 1 time in total.
Writing poetry in: Scottish Gaelic, German, English.
Reading poetry in: Latin, Old Irish, French, Ancient Greek, Old Norse.
Talking to people in the shop in: Lithuanian, Norwegian, Irish Gaelic, Saami.
Listening to people talking in the shop in: Icelandic, Greenlandic, Finnish.

Return to “Uralic Languages”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests