FIRST SHORT LESSON IN THE ESPER LANGUAGE

 

Haw'aw! -> Haw! -> Hi!

 

For those who don't know what the Esper language is, why you should learn it, or why it exists in the first place, rather than use up the length of this lesson explaining the answers to such things I will simply say this. Imagine a world where everyone was fluent in the same second language and nobody had to give up their first language or any part of their unique heritage or identity to learn it, nor did becoming fluent take years of their lives. Esper is simplified Esperanto. If you know what Esperanto is, then you may wonder how such a thing can be simplified. Well, it's easier to teach you the language than to explain. Are you up to it?

 

This is a lesson in the Esper language. It is intended to be short and to the point, so I apologize if it is not particularly entertaining or alluring. This language is meant for us to help others by meeting them half way linguistically instead of expecting everyone to learn our complicated first language. If you are looking for a selfish reason to learn the Esper language, wait until enough good people have chosen to learn it for the benefit of everyone's future and then you should be able to find one. If you're sufficiently daring and caring, welcome aboard.

 

First I'll give a quick explanation of the alphabet, so that you will be able to read the Esper words you see in this lesson and pronounce them correctly.

 

The written and printed letters in the Esper alphabet are the same 26 letters found in the English alphabet, but with different names, with consistent sounds, and in a few cases with different sounds than an English speaker may expect.

 

Specifically, the following four letters should be explained.

 

The letter "c" makes the same sound as "sh" does in English. The name of the letter is "ca" which in English phonetics could be spelled something like "shaa". The name of each letter which is not a vowel is formed by placing the vowel after it which proceeds it in the alphabet.

 

The letter "j" makes the same sound as the "z" in the English word "azure" or the "s" in the English word "pleasure". The name of the letter is "ji" and if I were to try to spell that in English phonetics, I thing "zhee" is the closest I could get.

 

The letter "q" makes the "hard h" sound of the "ch" in the Scottish word "loch". It is like an "h" sound with the throat partially closed to make it stronger and more raspy. The name of this letter is "qo" and unfortunately I don't think I can spell that in English phonetics, but "kho" might give the general idea.

 

The letter "x" makes the same sound as the hard "th" in the English words "thick" and "thin". The name of the letter is "xu" and the closest I can think of to spelling that in English phonetics would be "thoo".

 

The vowels are pronounced similar to the way they sound in Italian or Spanish. Here's a quick reference list using American English words to indicate sounds which are within the range of each vowel.

 

For the letter "a" you can use the sound of "a" in the English word "father".

 

For the letter "e" you can use the sound of "e" in the English word "egg".

 

For the letter "i" you can use the sound of "i" in the English word "ship" or the "ee" sound in the English word "sheep" or anything in between. I recommend somewhere in between like the "i" in the American English pronunciation of the word "think", although of course I am speaking from my own personal linguistic exposure and I don't know exactly what sound a person reading this may understand that explanation to mean. Just keep in mind that too close to the English "ee" sound may make it difficult to distinguish next to the consonant letter "y" and it's best to choose a sound that you can stick with so that people can learn to understand your particular accent consistently. 

 

For the letter "o" you can use the sound of "o" in the English word "both" or "nor".

 

For the letter "u" you can use the sound of "oo" in the English word "tooth" or like the "oo" in "book" or anywhere between those sounds. I recommend somewhere in between if you can manage it. The first of those sounds may make it difficult to hear the distinction next to the consonant letter "w".

 

Oh, by the way, the name of each vowel is just the vowel itself.

 

Each letter should be pronounced the same way no matter where it occurs in a word. I could explain the rest of the letters, but I want to keep this lesson short and that's difficult for me. You should be safe choosing what you think of as the most common sound for the rest of the letters, based on experience with the English language. One that should be pointed out specifically is the letter "g" which always takes the hard "g" sound of the word "get" and not the soft "g" sound of the word "gem". The name of the letter "g" is "ge" and I don't know how to spell that in English phonetics although it's like "get" with the "t" on the end missing, except that if you took the "t" off many people would change the sound of the "g" in English. Perhaps "geh" would be as close as I could get, but that would be assuming the rules of English phonetics would make the "h" on the end silent, show the spelling to be of a "origin" which uses the hard "g" sound, and have a "short e" rather than "long e" interpretation of the vowel in the middle. Okay... does that make my point for why we should give the world something easier than English to learn in order to freely share their thoughts and concerns with us so that we can start solving the biggist problems in this world and not treat those in the most need of help as "foreigners" on our planet?

 

So, that's 11 out of 26 letters explained in detail, and you should have enough information to figure out how to say and memorize the Esper alphabet so that you can spell words out loud in Esper if you choose to or understand someone else spelling a word in Esper out loud.

 

Now, on to Esper grammar.

 

Word order is very flexible in the Esper language as it is in the Esperanto language, because the words themselves tend to carry more meaning than their counterparts in other languages and this makes the word order less of an issue.

 

A role ending formalizes a word as a particular part of speech. That way you know what the word's grammatical role is no matter where it occurs.

 

For many of the most common words, the role ending may be dropped more often than not when speaking or writing informally or semi-formally, but learning the word ending for a specific usage of a word should help to organize a person's vocabulary in their memory.

 

The following format will be used to list the formal and informal variations of a word, along with an English translation.

 

[formal] -> [informal] -> [English literal] -> {optional explanation or interpretation}

 

Imi' hu'os. -> Imi huos. -> We will be effective. -> {We will have an impact or effect upon something.}

 

Ili' qon'os. -> Ili qonos. -> They will be effected. -> {Something will have an effect upon them.}

 

Less common words should always be used in their fully qualified formal form.

 

The first thing you should know about Esper grammar is that it implicitly allows anything to be either implied or expressed. This is in a sense true of all human languages because humans carry with them an extensive knowledge of the world from which they can derive and assume meaning to go along with whatever they see, hear, or otherwise experience. This can be a big advantage when wanting to communicate the important details of a complex situation, or when wanting to communicate what details you can using a language in which you have learned to express only a limited number of things.

 

Every complete sentence in the Esper language contains at least one verb phrase, even if the verb is not given and may not be entirely obvious. For example, if someone asks who's paying attention, you might respond "mi" to let them know that you are paying attention. Although all you expressed was a first person singular pronoun, you also implied an action or state of paying attention, because that is the context in which you gave the response.

 

Ivi' lud'as kun'e kay'aj vi' djoy'ax. -> Ivi ludax kune kay vi djoyax! -> You play together and you rejoice! -> {You all are playing togetherly and you (singular) rejoice (or, you are glad).}

 

This example deserves some explanation. 

 

First off, verbs have different endings depending on their time frame. The conjugations ending in "s" are simple tenses in specic times. These are the ones to use until you become familliar enough with the others to use them as well. 

 

The "os" ending indicates an event which is believed will happen in the future.

 

The "ox" ending indicates something which it is believed will occur one or more times or indicates the expectation that something will be true.

 

The "as" ending indicates an event which is presently happening.

 

The "ax" ending indicates something which occurs one or more times in the present or indicates that something is presently true.

 

The "is" ending indicates an event which happened in the past.

 

The "ix" ending indicates something which has occured one or more times or indicates that something was true.

 

In the Esper language any word can be singular or plural. When used in the singular it does not mean exclusively that there is only one but may be understood to imply that this is probably the case. In the case of pronouns that implication is particularly strong since it would be quite inconvenient to explicitly express for each singular pronoun used that it way meant to exclude all possibility of representing more than one, but if desired the number "on" may be placed in front of any singular noun phrase or pronoun to explicitly express exclusion of the potential to be plural.

 

Notice in particular that there is a distinction in Esper between "vi" basically meaning "one of you" and "ivi" meaning "more than one of you" whereas most dialects of English lack such a distinction. Some people may be familliar with "yall" or some similar variant as the plural form of "you" in English. The English word "you" actually comes from the old English plural word "ye", just as the old singular "thou" was a form of the word "thee". The Esper word "vi" like the English word "you" is derived from what in some sense used to be a plural word in Esperanto, although in Esperanto it too has become number ambiguous.

 

The conjunction "kay" meaning "and" can be used to join things together much like its English equivalent, such as in the example where it joins two verb phrases. The conjunction ending "aj" does not exist in Esperanto where conjunctions are used in their stem form, but it is derived from an an Esperanto suffix. It is from the Esperanto practice of using conjunctions without a role ending that informal Esper would tend to drop the conjunction ending also in the case of common conjunctions being used in such a way as to seem obvious enough how they are intended to be taken.

 

As will be explained later, the proposition "hu" is implied in this example as the head of the prepositional phrase which contains the subject of the verb. In fact, each verb phrase has it's own subject so when two verb phrases are joind by a conjunction there are also two subjects, which each may be either expressed or implied. Like the conjunction ending, there is no role marker for prepositions in the esper language, and the role ending "wi" which marks a preposition in Esper does not exist in Esperanto, so the convention in informal esper is to drop the preposition ending for common prepositions.

 

You may have also noticed the "e" ending on the word "kune" indicating that it is being used as an adverb. The stem "kun" basically means "with", but there is no regular formation of an English adverb from the word "with" so the adverb "kune" is usually translated as "together".

 

Before I go back to explaining Esper grammar, I want to give you some words to think about. Please do not attempt to memorize them unless you're very good at such things because I don't want you to get bored or discouraged. Instead, just refer back to them as practice words to choose from when you want to start making up your own phrases to see how they would sound and think about how they may be understood.

 

Unlike Esper verb phrases and noun phrases, word order matters in the case of conjunctions and prepositions. A conjunction goes between two things in order to semantically join them, and a preposition goes at the beginning of a prepositional phrase.

 

Here's a rather extensive list of Esper conjunctions. Not all of these will be "common" conjunctions, so I suggest you not drop the "aj" ending even for informal use on any of them until you feel confident that doing so will not result in misunderstanding. Keep in mind that without the "aj" ending these words may be taken as any part of speech. In fact, as you learn new grammatical role endings, try them on a few of these words in place of their "aj" ending to see if you can think of a translation for such a combination or figure out what it would mean and how it could be useful. Don't worry about any that you can't see a potential use for. This is of course by no means a complete list of conjugations since technically any Esper word can be made into a conjugation. You may notice that some of them have more than just "aj" in their ending. These are compound role endings and can be broken apart like any other combination of Esper word elements.

 

aw'aj => either; or; xor (exclusive or) 

eksklud'aj => excluding 

ekst'aj => outside; outside of 

el'aj => out of; off of 

en'wi => in; into 

enklud'aj => including

ent'wi => inside; inside of 

est'aj => being

div'aj => divided by {12 divaj 3 estax 4} 

ibl'aj => divided into {3 iblaj 12 estax 4} 

ka'aj => requesing

kaw'aj => and/or (inclusive or)

kay'aj => and 

ke'aj => that; which

ki'aj => questioning

kontra'aj => versus

kun'aj => with

kvank'aj => although; even though; despite

kvaz'aj => as if; as though

maldiv'aj => multiplied by {4 maldivaj 3 estax 12}

malibl'aj => by which is divided {4 maliblaj 12 estax 3}

malkun'aj => without

malminus'aj => plus; to which is added {1 malminusaj 3 estax 4}

malobl'aj => divided by

malpli'aj => is less than

malplus'aj => minus; from which is subtracted {7 malplusaj 3 estax 4}

minus'aj => minus; from which is subtracted {4 minusaj 3 estax 1}

nek'aj => neither, nor (and also not) 

obl'aj => times, multiplied by

ol'aj => than

pli'aj => is more than; is greater than

plus'aj => plus; to which is added {4 plusaj 3 estax 7}

por'aj => for 

rest'aj => still

se'aj => if

sed'aj => but 

sen'aj => without 

sub'aj => beneath; underneath; under

super'aj => above; over 

sur'aj => on, upon, aboard

tce'aj => at  

tamen'aj => yet

tcar'aj => because

tcu'aj => whether; exclusive or 

ti'oaj => that

ti'alaj => therefore; so; because; for that reason

ti'amaj => then; at that time

ti'eyaj => there; at that place; at that location

ti'elaj => likewise; by that means

yes'aj => yes; affirms

 

Note that the strange case that the word iblaj is basically its own antonym. This is a bit like the case of negative zero being equal to zero.

 

And here, is a quite extensive list of Esper prepositions. Again, not all of these will be "common" preposition. In fact some of the words in these lists may actually be more commonly used as some other part of speech, with a different grammatical role ending. This list is for your convenience and not meant for you to stress out over. These are compound role endings and can be broken apart like any other combination of Esper word elements.

 

al'wi => to; toward 

anstat'wi => in lieu of; in place of; instead of 

ant'wi => before; in advance of; in front of; prior to 

apud'wi => beside; next to 

de'wi => by; from; of; off of

djis'wi => until; unto 

don'wi => given; granted 

dum'wi => during 

ekde'wi => since 

eksklud'wi => excluding 

ekst'wi => outside; outside of 

el'wi => out of; off of 

en'wi => in; into 

enklud'wi => including

ent'wi => inside; inside of 

flank'wi => aside 

gra'wi => avoided because of; canceled on account of

inter'wi => between; in between 

ki'elwi => as; like

klud'wi => among; amongst

kontra'wi => against 

koncern'wi => to do with; concerning 

krom'wi => apart from; aside from; besides 

kun'wi => with 

kvank'wi => in spite of; notwithstanding

law'wi => according to; along; as per 

malant'wi => behind; after 

maldjis'wi => since 

malsen'wi => with 

malsub'wi => above; over  

malsuper'wi => below; beneath; underneath; under

malsur'wi => off; off of

mank'wi => absent 

ne'wi => not 

nek'wi => neither; not that 

okaz'wi = regardless; occurs; happens that 

pley'wi => most; greatest of

por'wi => for 

post'wi => after; following 

preter'wi => beyond 

pri'wi => regarding; about; as for; as to; concerning; in terms of; with respect to 

pro'wi => due to; because of; by virtue of; for the sake of; on account of; owing to 

proks'wi => close to, near 

proks'idjwi => approaching 

proks'imidjwi => nigh; seeming to be getting very near

sed'wi => but 

sekva'wi => next 

sen'wi => sans, without 

sub'wi => beneath, under, underneath 

super'wi => above, over 

sur'wi => on, upon, aboard, on top of; on the surface of

tce'wi => at  

tcirka'wi => around; circa; surrounding; being the environment of 

tcu'wi => whether; from amongst

tra'wi => through; via 

trans'wi => across; beyond; on the other side of

ven'wi => come; upon coming to 

yam'wi => already

zi'wi => all; both; all things considered

 

You may notice that some words which only differ by their role ending within these lists have been given identical English translations. This is an unfortunate limitation of the English language in that it is often difficult or impossible to distinguish parts of speech outside of the context of actual usage. The Esper language does not share this flaw, but you can simulate it by leaving off the role endings if you so desire. In fact, if you can't recall which role ending to use, are not sure what grammatical role you intend a word to play, or wish to use a word in a combination of grammatical roles at the same time, it is better to leave off the word's role ending than to feel that you are unable to communicate your thoughts.

 

Once again, I advise against spending too much time or effort trying to memorize these lists or other lists like them, as a much better use of your time and effort would be to learn them in the context usage rather than as memorized translations.

 

Now just to be sure that you that you have something simple to practice with I'll introduce you to a few interjections, or grammar ambiguous words. This way you will at least have a few things which you can actually say to people, or to inanimate objects for that matter, for practice. It is important that you practice and that you remind yourself when you practice, even if it's just a single word, that you are using the Esper language so that you can learn it. This is important because it tells the parts of your brain which handle language that your intention is to learn a specific language and not just to add new words to the vocabulary of your old language. If you don't inform these parts of your brain about such intentions, things might get misfiled and have to be reorganized later. If you keep reminding yourself that these words belong to the Esper language, then when you hear another person say one of the, not only will you be more likely to understand what was said, but you will also be more likely to recognize what language it was said in and to automatically shift at least part of your thinking process into that language. These skills take time to develop, so be patient and keep at it, but if this is your first time learning a second language then you should be haappy that it's one which will not burden you with exceptions to learn, overly complicated grammar, a difficult writing system, thousands of new writing symbols to learn, or a complex phonetic system.

 

In English an interjection is generally used by itself and therefore lacks any specific grammatical relation to other words used with it, since there usually are none. Likewise in the Esper language the "aw" words can be used alone, but they can also be used in a phrase as grammar ambiguous. This is handy when you don't know what the exact grammatical role of a word is or when you wish to use a word in two or more grammatical roles simultaneously, or when you wish to leave a phrase open to two or more grammatical interpretations such as for example to set up a joke without giving away the punch in advance.

 

Here some Esper interjections with a simple translation for each and then a description of one or more ways it may be used and meant as a single word sentence. Try replacing the interjection grammatical ending by attaching the adjective ending "a" or the adverb ending "e" to the word's stem, and see if you grasp what difference the new categorization of the word would make in its possible usage or interpretation.

 

Hodi'aw! -> Hodiaw! -> Today!

 

The "o" is pronounced like in the English word "both" and the "a" is pronounced like in the English word "father".

 

This is a three syllable word, because it has three vowels. The vowels in the Esper language are "a", "e", "i", "o", and "u", exclusively. They are pronounced much like the vowels in Spanish or Italian. This word may be used as a greeting, to mean something like "good day", or "good to see you today" with the extra meaning implied or expressed through tone of voice, facial expression, and so on. It may also be used in a sentence anywhere that the idea of "today" needs to be expressed and no specific grammatical role needs to be explicitly specified. It may also be used as an exclamation to indicate a desire to see something accomplished within the day. The word stem is "hodi" and can be used to form other words.

 

Adi'aw! -> Adiaw! -> Farewell!

 

This is mainly a semi-formal parting salutation. The root of this word is "adi" and can be used in the formation of other words. Note that the letter "a" is still pronounced like the "a" in the English word "father" in both positions where it occurs in this word. English speakers are generally used to changing the pronunciation of a letter according to where it occurs in each word, but letters do not work that way in the Esper language. Each letter is represented in speech by a single sound no matter where it occurs, and any variation should be from person to person or accent to accent, rather than within an individual accent. If this is difficult don't worry. It will get easier in time and the important thing anyway is to make progress, so don't let it stop you from proceeding. 

 

Haw'aw! -> Haw! -> Hi!

 

Do you recognize this? I put it at the start of this lesson as a friendly greeting. The Esper word "haw" is pronounced like the English word "how" and may be thought of as meaning something like "how are you", "how do you do", or "how's it going" as such commonly used in English phrases are often used as friendly greetings. It is a greeting which implies caring or feelings of good wishes toward the recipient. It is mainly an friendly greeting, but may be used formally as well. The root of the word is "haw", and the word is usually used informally without its role ending attached. The root of this word, like that of any other word root in the Esper language it may be used as an unchanging stem to form other words. You may also formally quallify it as an interjection with the interjection ending "aw" by forming the word "hawaw" as shown in the example. This could be taken as slightly more formal but basically means the same thing. It is not necessary however as the word can be easily recognized without this formalization and the form of the stem will naturally remind a fluent Esper speaker of the standard interjection word form anyway.

 

Tcaw'aw! -> Tcaw! -> bye!

 

The Esper word "tcaw" is pronounced like the English word "chow" and may be thought of as meaning something like "take care", "see you later", or "bye for now" as commonly used in English. It is a friendly greeting or verbal departing gesture, and may also be used as a way of saying hello in passing. Like the Esper word "haw", this word implies good wishes toward the recipient. It is much like the Italian greeting "ciao" and may be used the same way. The root of the word is "tcaw", which is to say that the whole word stem is it's root, and of course it may be used as a stem to form other words. As with the word stem "haw" you may of course formally quallify the word "tcaw" as an interjection with the "aw" ending to form the word "tcawaw" which may be taken as slightly more formal, but again this is not necessary as the word can be easily recognized without this formalization and retains basically the same meaning either way.

 

Salut'aw! -> Salutaw! -> Hello!

 

The "u" is pronounced like the "oo" in the English word "food".

 

This is mainly a formal greeting or salutation, but may of course also be used informally. The root of the word is "salut" and may be used as a stem to form other words.

 

Ankor'aw! -> Ankoraw! -> Still!

 

This word means "yet", "still" or "continue" and can be used as an exclamation to mean something like "still here" or "still at it" or "still waiting". The root of the word is "ankor" and many be used as a stem to form other words.

 

Bonven'aw! -> Bonvenaw! -> Welcome!

 

This word has two roots in its stem. The stem of the word is "bonven" and may of course be used in the formation of other words, but the roots of this word are "bon" meaning "good" and "ven" meaning "come". These roots may also be used as stems in the formation of other words. Note that the word "bone", made up of the root "bon" and the adverb role ending "e", can be translated to the English adverb "well" which you may have noticed in a modified form as part of the English word "welcome". In the Esper language, words do not modify their forms in such ways. They are simply made of parts which may be exchanged from one word into a similar position in another word. Literally this word can be translated as "well come" indicating thoughts of a good or pleasant arrival, but as an exclamation it may be used as a friendly greeting.

 

Bonvol'aw? -> Bonvolaw? -> Please?

 

This word also has the root "bon" as part of its stem. The other part of this word's stem is the word root "vol" which means "wish" or "want". The word "bonvolaw" can be used like the English word "please" as an interjection, but litterally means "good wish" The stem of the word is "bonvol" and may of course be used in the formation of other words, as may either word root. This word may be used to ask a favor or by itself to indicate a request of permission.

 

Ka'aw? -> Ka? -> Please? -> {May I?}

 

This word is a polite request word. It can be used like the English word "please" as an interjection, and is part of a set of short polite Esper words including "ta" and "da" which can be used to mean something like "thanks" and "you're wolcome" respectively. The word "ka" may also be used at the end of a question to indicate that a response is requested. This use of "ka" is borrowed from the Japanese language and can be particularly useful in situations where the speaker and listener may have different ideas about tone usage and a simple tonal change to indicate a question might potentially be misunderstood. It is good practice to end any Esper question with "ka" which would otherwise only be recognized as a question by the spoken tone or written question mark. This practice could even be introduced into English for added clarity, or the formal Esper interjection "ka'aw" could simply be stated after a question in any language in order to indicate to the listener that a response is requested.

 

Ga'aw. -> Ga. -> Communicate. -> {I've finished what I was saying. Have a turn at it please.}

 

This word basically means "communicate", "speak" or "exchange" and can be used as a polite way of letting someone you are speaking with know that you are planning on allowing reasonable time for a response at that time. This can be quite useful as different styles of spoken dialog often leave one person feeling that there is no opportunity to speak without seeming rude or inconsiderate. The word "ga" at the end of what you are trying to say can let the person you are speaking with know that this would be the best time to start speaking if wishing to say anything. This use of the word is not of much value in writing of course, except in the case of written dialog such as a script for a play or movie, although the word root "ga" can also be used to form words built upon the idea of to "speak" or "communicate" using other word elements for the construction of derived words based on such a concept. At the end of a written work, this word may be taken to mean something like "I've said my part" or "now teach what you have learned", depending upon the context and the author's writing style, and of course the reader's personal interpretation. For those who understand the reference, the Esper word "ga" may be thought of as a sort of Klingon concept of politeness. 

 

Permes'aw? -> Permesaw? -> Permission?

 

The root of this word is "permes" and of course may be used as a stem to form other words. Note that in the example I placed a question mark at the end indicating use as an interrogative. Formally this usage would be "Tcu vi permesas?" meaning litterally "Whether you permit?" or more generally "Tcu permesaw?" meaning literally "Whether permission?". Since tone can not be relied upon to be understood in the same way by people from different linguistic backgrounds, this would help to clearly distinguish it from a use such as "Mi permesas!" meaning "I permit!" which is an indication of giving your permission rather than asking permission.

 

Pardon'aw! -> Pardonaw! -> Pardon!

 

This word indicates a feeling of wanting absolution or forgiveness for something. The root of the word is "pardon" with roughly the same meaning as the English word "pardon".

 

Konsent'aw? -> Konsentaw? -> Consent?

 

Again, note that this can be used as a question or a statement, but the word "tcu" meaning "whether" may be placed in front of it to indicate clearly that it is meant as a question of whether or not consent is granted or achieved, or the word "ka" may be added either before it to indicate that it is meant as a request or after it to indicate that a response is requested, or if it is not meant as a request, "ga" may be added at the end to indicate simply that you have said what you wanted to say and it is up to someone else to continue the communication if so desired. As a single word statement "konsentaw" may be used to indicate agreement or permission. As an example of the word root's usage, "do imi konsentas" basically means "so we agree".

 

Dank'aw! -> Dankaw! -> Thank!

 

Used to indicate meanings such as "thank you", or "thanks". The root of this word is "dank" meaning "thank" and may be used as a stem in the formation of other words. Yes, I know, I keep saying that. It's redundant and should not have to be said more than once, but I happen to know that unfortunately the languages people have learned with all their exceptions and rules upon rules have done some extensive damage to some people's ability to trust a linguistic generalization. So I may say it a few more times before I let it go and hope nobody thinks "oh, he didn't say it this time so this word must be an exception". Thanks for understanding. "Dankaw".

 

Nedankindaw! -> Nedankind'aw! -> Not thankworthy!

 

Generally an expression to mean "not a bother" or "you're welcome" indicating that something you were thanked for was really no big deal and not in need of thanks. Personally this one strikes me as a little funny since it may be difficult to teach politeness to young children if you keep telling them to thank people and the response they keep getting back is that what they are giving thanks for was not worthy of thanks. Really though, have you stopped to think about the actual meanings of most everyday phrases in English? This is one of the nice things about learning a language which makes sense. At least you can really get to understand the various ways someone else may interpret what you say rather than blindly accepting that common usage makes it good enough for all situations. This word has a prefix, a root word, and a suffix, besides its grammatical role ending. The root prefix "ne", which is identical to the WORD "ne", simply means "no" or "not" and the root word "dank" which we just went over a moment ago means "thank". The suffix "ind" means "worthy" and indicates worthy of whatever the stem happens to be. So in this case "dankind" means "worthy of thanks" and the prefix "ne" indicates "not" that.

 

Ta'aw! -> Ta! -> Appreciated! -> {Thanks!}

 

This is an alternative way of expressing thanks. It may be shortened down to its word root "ta" roughly meaning "thanks", "accepted", "appreciate" or "gratitude". This shorter form is also a slightly less formal variation than the two syllable interjection "taaw".

 

Da'aw! -> Da! -> I appreciate your courtesy. -> {offering a quantity of appreciation; acknowledgement of politeness}

 

As with "taaw" this may be shortened down to its root, which in this case is "da", making it slightly less formal but equally sincere. I gave a description of this example rather than a translation, because no translation that I know of into anything commonly used really makes much sense to me. The root of this word is "da" which is generally used as a preposition meaning "quantity of" and usually just translated as "of" when used in a sentence. The word also can be taken to mean an offering or to offer. The word "da" is used as an alternative way of expressing polite appreciation for having been thanked, a sharing of your inner self, or acknowledgement of respect. When used alone in this way, it can be thought of as implying something like "I freely offer a quantity of myself" or in other words that your heart was in your actions or simply that you are in consensus with the freely shared offering of politeness. This indicates that you understand the politeness was not required, nor is the quantity of politeness you offer in return, but it is more or less a way of acknowledging an attempt to maintain a fair balance of give and take without necessarily having to keep score. Or you can just think of it as Esper's version of "you're welcome", and a word for "of" as in "of whatever is being offered", if that's easier for you. :)

 

Morg'aw! -> Morgaw! -> Tomorrow!

 

The root of this word is "morg" which carries the meaning of "tomorrow" and can of course be used as a stem to form other words. You may also encounter words formed with the entire word "morgaw" used as a stem. As an exclamation this word may be used to mean something like "until tomorrow" or "see you tomorrow". It may also be used in a sentence anywhere that the idea of "tomorrow" needs to be expressed when no grammatical role needs to be explicitly specified. 

 

Almen'aw! -> Almenaw! -> At least!

 

This may be used to express the general idea of "that or more" or "one would expect as much". The root of this word is "almen".

 

Revid'aw! -> Revidaw! -> See again!

 

This word literally means re-see, and may be used as a exclamation to mean something like "see you soon" or "see you again some time". The root of this word is "vid" which means "see" and of course can be used as a stem in the formation of many other words. 

 

Sinyor'aw! -> Sinyoraw! -> Esteemed person or people!

 

Like the English phrase "ladies and gentlemen", or "to whom it may concern", this is basically a formal way of addressing a group of one or more people, such as an audience or the recipient of a business letter. The root of the word is "sinyor" which can be used to form other words and roughly means "mister" or "madam" or "misses" or "sir".

 

Suf'aw! -> Suf! -> Enough!

 

As an exclamation, this word indicates that sufficiency has been reached. The root word is "suf" which roughly means "sufficient".

 

Atc'aw! -> Atc! -> no-good!

 

Derived from a derogatory suffix, this word simply expresses bad feelings about something.

 

Aq'aw! -> Aq! -> Ow! -> {Oh!; Ouch!}

 

Expresses such feeling as sudden pain or generally unwelcomed surprise. Not likely to be used often formally.

 

Fi'aw! -> Fi! -> Shame! -> {Shame on you!; How shameful!}

 

Used to expresses the thought that something was shockingly shameful.

 

Ha'aw! -> Ha! -> Ah! -> {Eureka! So there it is! Now I understand!}

 

Used to expresses the feeling of discovery or sudden enlightenment.

 

Ho'aw! -> Ho! -> Oh! -> {Really!; So that's how it is!}

 

May be used to expresses a wide variety of difficult to describe feelings and emotions.

 

Ve'aw! -> Ve! -> Woe! -> {Oh, the sorrow I feel! Whoa!; How disturbing!}

 

May expresses wide variety of negative feelings or general complaints such as feeling that something is a bother or that an problem is too big or an item too expensive. Often used in conjunction with "ho" as in "Ho ve!".

 

Hu'aw! -> Hu! -> Boo! -> {Gotcha!; Attention!; Hey!}

 

This is the same word as the preposition that introduces the subject of a verb phrase, but here in interjection form to say as much as "here's the subject" or "this is what you should be paying attention to" in a sense. Of course the exact meaning will be defined through its usage, like any word.

 

Hura'aw! -> Hura! -> Hooray!

 

Something shouted in celebration.

 

Ya'aw! -> Ya! -> Indeed!

 

Need I say more?

 

Nu'aw! -> Nu! -> Well!

 

That's it. Oh, I mean, that's the end of the first lesson.

 

I hope you enjoyed it and will continue learning and practicing from here on.

 

Donald Arthur Kronos

 

For further information go to...

http://occupylosangeles.org/?q=node/9484

The GLOBAL COMMUNICATION COMMITTEE page

Note: This is the name I chose for a page meant to tie this stuff all together. It is not (at the time of this writing) the name of any official Occupy Committee, to the best of my knowledge. I'm not using the name to deceive anyone into thinking that it is an official committee, although I may have tried to make it one a long time ago if I had thought I could figure out the process of doind so.