On Sige, a human approaches an inlanlu tahori who is in her hamin skin.
English Translation
Human: “Hello.”
Inlanlu: “Hello. How are you?”
H: “I’m okay, thank you. And you?”
I: “I’m well. Are you from Sige?”
H: “Yes, I’m Sigian.”
I: “You speak Uhjayi well.”
H: “That’s kind of you. Thank you.”
Literal Translation
“Respectful greetings.”
“Friendly greetings. You-what-feel?”
“Respect, I-calm-feel. Yourself?”
“I-good-feel. Sige you-reside?”
“Yes, Sige-resident I-am.”
“Uhjayi you-speak-well.”
“Kindness to me you-give. To you gratitude.”
Uhjayi Conversation
“Jodh yidh.”
“Lih shehth. Du-omnara?”
“Jodh unmajhra. Duku na?”
“Unlidra. Sige duravri na?”
“Ki, Sigerav unhuri.”
“Uhjayi duyurite.”
“Yasku sag unku dulomri. Sag duku rujhku.”
Special Pronunciation
Sige is one of the few names pronounced the same in vocan as Uhjayi. SEE-gay
Notes
~ In referring to feelings, -ra is used to modify the emotion root (majh, “neutral” or “calm”) to mean “feel ___”. It’s not a standard -ri verb; you can say “I feel happy” as unlidra without any -ri.
~ Un means “I” when attached to a verb as its pronoun, but when a pronoun like un or du (“you”) stands alone with no modifiers, -ku is added. It’s similar to saying “you” versus “yourself”.
~ Notice that “Du-omnara?” did not end with na. In this case, na is part of omna, the word for “what.” Query words like what, which, who, and similar include -na, so any question phrased with these words does not need to end with na.
~ Asking “how are you” (“what do you feel?” when taken literally) is an easy way to determine the other person’s reason for initiating conversation. It’s not often used as humans use it, since tahori can gauge each other’s moods and well-being fairly accurately without words. (In this conversation, the human didn’t realize the tahori’s point in asking, answering her in a human fashion and leading into a short, somewhat pointless conversation.)
~ Written Uhjayi doesn’t use any form of hyphen. When writing Uhjayi in the English alphabet, hyphens are used to clarify separate vowels and cases of identical consonants being together. For example, dach-cho is not written as dachcho so that the speaker pronounces both CH sounds; likewise, du-omnara is not written duomnara to ensure the speaker pronounces both U and O separately. (You’ll see dach-cho in the next lesson.) Also, a word like guh-om will use a hyphen, since UH is considered a single vowel; this will help you distinguish H as part of a vowel from H as a consonant (as seen in kiham).
Extra Credit
~ Practice identifying -ra and -ri in the conversation. Make sure to distinguish them from one another. You never need to -ri a -ra.
~ If duyuri is “you speak,” what is the modifier indicating “well” or “good”? Refer to the conversation.
~ If yasku is “kindness” and “I feel ___” is phrased as un___ra, how would you say “I feel kindly”? Hint: lidku is “happiness.”
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