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Lesson 3
Vocabulary Practice 1


In the third of each set of seven lessons, we’ll have a lesson with no grammar at all. These will be times to rehearse what we’ve learned so far and to add some new vocabulary with which to play.

Vocabulary

áana

sleep

áath

door

bud

clothing

ede

grain

héeya

to fear

hesh

grass

i

and

laya

to be red

lom

song

muda

pig

rana

drink; beverage

shum

air

thal

to be good

tham

circle

thili

fish

thom

pillow

u

to be open

ud

stone

wíi

to be alive; to be living

zháadin

to menopause

Examples

Bíi áya hesh wa. hear this pronounced

The grass is beautiful.

Bíi áya lom wa. hear this pronounced

The song is beautiful.

Bíi áya thili wa. hear this pronounced

The fish is beautiful.


Bíi áya wíi wa. hear this pronounced

Being alive is beautiful.

Did you notice, in the last example, that a word that had been introduced as a verb, “wíi” (to be alive), was used as a noun, “wíi” (being alive)?

English does the same thing (known grammatically as “nominalization”), forming “abandonment” from “to abandon,” “carelessness” from “to be careless,” and so on; any English verb can be used as a noun if “–ing” is added, as in “Swimming is good exercise.

This process, which is common to all human languages, is very easy in Láadan. Simply use the verb in the noun’s place in the sentence and add a case suffix to in (in this case that’s the Subject Case suffix, which is a “null suffix”); this will become clear in subsequent lessons.

Bíi hal with wa. hear this pronounced

The person works.

Bíi óoha with wa. hear this pronounced

The person is weary.

Bíi hal i óoha with wa. hear this pronounced

The person works and is weary.

Exercises

Translate the following into English

1

Bíi u áath wa. hear this pronounced

2

Bíi laya bud wa. hear this pronounced

3

Bíi áana muda wa. hear this pronounced

4

Bíi wíi ede wa. hear this pronounced

5

Bíi thal hesh wa. hear this pronounced

6

Bíi laya tham wa. hear this pronounced

7

Bíi thal ud wa. hear this pronounced

8

Bíi zháadin muda wa. hear this pronounced

9

Bíi wíi thili wa. hear this pronounced

10

Bíi thal lom wa. hear this pronounced

Note, in #8, that “zháadin” (to menopause) is done exclusively by females. Therefore, we could be more specific and translate “muda” (pig) in this sentence as “sow”.

Translate the following into Láadan

11

The circle is open.

12

The pig is alive.

13

The beverage is red.

14

The air is good.

15

The fish menopauses.

16

The clothing is open.

17

The grass is alive.

18

The pillow is red.

19

The grain is good.

20

The fish is afraid.

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Answers

1

The door is open.

2

The clothing is red.

3

The pig sleeps.

4

The grain is alive.

5

The grass is good.

6

The circle is red.

7

The stone is good.

8

The sow menopauses.

9

The fish is alive.

10

The song is good.


11

Bíi u tham wa. hear this pronounced

12

Bíi wíi muda wa. hear this pronounced

13

Bíi laya rana wa. hear this pronounced

14

Bíi thal shum wa. hear this pronounced

15

Bíi zháadin thili wa. hear this pronounced

16

Bíi u bud wa. hear this pronounced

17

Bíi wíi hesh wa. hear this pronounced

18

Bíi laya thom wa. hear this pronounced

19

Bíi thal ede wa. hear this pronounced

20

Bíi héeya thili wa. hear this pronounced

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