Lesson 2: Who are you?

In this lesson you will learn how to ask and respond about people.

Dialog

Dialog: Asking About People
MIRAD	ENGLISH
Hay, duhot et se?	Hello, who are you? (Lit. ...you are who?)
At se eta tuxut.	I'm your teacher.
Ay et se ata tixut.	And you're my student.
Va. Et se ata fia tixut.	Yes. You are my good student.
Duhot se hut be ha dresem?	Who is that (person) at the desk?
Hut se gay tixut.	That (person) is also a student.
Duhos se ita dyun?	What is his/her name.
Ita dyun se John. Duhos se eta dyun, hey dut?	His name is John. What's your name, (oh) sir?
Ata dyun se Anderson. Ay eta dyun?	My name is Mr. Anderson. And your name?
Se Mary.	It's Mary.
Hus se via dyun.	That's a beautiful name.

Note: duhot? is pronounced with the stress on the second syllable: du-HOT. It literally means Say which person, i.e. who?.

Animate Determiners and Personal Pronouns

In the last lesson, you learned the question word duhos? meaning what? and referring to a thing. In this lesson, we introduced the interrogative animate pronominal deictic determiner duhot?, which means who? or whom, referring to a person. Duhot is short for du hoa tob, say which person. Here is a chart of possible answers, i.e. pronominal deictic determiners and personal pronouns and pronominal adjectives:

Singular Animate Pronouns and Determiners
TYPE	PRONOUN	POSSESSIVE ADJECTIVE
interrogative determiner	duhot...?....who(m)?	duhota...?....whose...?
proximal determiner	hit....this person	hita....this person's
distal determiner	hut....that person	huta....that person's
1st person singular pronoun	at....I (or) me	ata....my
2nd person singular pronoun	et....you	eta....your
3rd person singular pronoun	it....he (or) she, him (or) her	ita....his (or) her

Notice that duhot differs from duhos in the final consonant. Pronouns ending in -t refer to persons, while those ending in s refer to things. They can be pluralized by suffixing i: Duhoti?....Who?, Which persons? and Duhosi?....What (things)?.

Possessive Adjectives

A possessive adjective is formed from the pronoun by the addition of the adjectival ending -a. So, at (I/me) becomes ata (my).

Duhota?....Whose?

hata....the person's, his/her

hita....this person's, his/her

huta....that peron's, his/her

ata....my

eta....your

ita....his/her

Gender in Mirad

Mirad is a gender-neutral language. If gender is to be expressed, it is done so with the use of the markers w and y. To make it....his/her specifically refer to a male, insert w before the root vowel. Thus, wit means he/him and wita means his.

Similarly, to make a pronoun or possessive adjective refer to a female, insert y after the root vowel. Thus, iyt means she/her and iyta means her.

Determiners can be genderized, too. Huyt means that female, she/her while hwita means this male's/his. The letter combination in Mirad hw is pronounced exactly as wh in English what.

Table of Pronouns in Mirad Showing Gender-marking

Here is a table of pronouns with gender marked. Note that the plural personal pronouns begin in a y and cannot be masculinized. The corresponding masculine plural deictic pronouns can be used instead. The plurals of deictic pronouns end in the usual noun plural marker -i.

Personal and Deictic Pronouns with Gender Expressed
	SINGULAR NEUTRAL PRONOUN	SINGULAR FEMININE PRONOUN	SINGULAR MASCULINE PRONOUN	PLURAL NEUTRAL PRONOUN	PLURAL FEMININE PRONOUN	PLURAL MASCULINE PRONOUN
1st Person	at I/me	ayt I/me (female)	wat I/me (male)	yat we/us (f. or m.)	yayt we/us (females)	[same as yat]
2nd Person	et you	eyt you (female)	wet you (male)	yet you all	yeyt you all (female)	[same as yet]
3rd Person	it he/she/him/her	iyt she/her	wit he/him	yit they/them	yiyt they/them (f.)	[same as yit]
3rd Person Definite Deictic	hat he/she/him/her/the person	hayt she/her/the female	hwat he/him/the guy	hati they/them	hayti they/them/the females	hwati they/them, the males
3rd Person Proximal Deictic	hit he/she/him/her/this person	hiyt she/her/this female	hwit he/him/this guy	hiti they/them	hiyti they/them/these females	hwiti they/them/these males
3rd Person Distal Deictic	hut he/she/him/her/that person	huyt she/her/that female	hwut he/him/that guy	huti they/them	huyti they/them/those females	hwuti they/them/those males
3rd Person Interrogative Deictic	duhot? who(m)?	duhoyt? who(m)?/which female?	duhwot? who(m)?/which male?	duhoti? who(m)?/which persons?	duhoyti? who(m)?/which females	duhwoti? who(m)?/which males?

Descriptive Adjectives

Descriptive adjectives end in the vowel -a. There are usually two sets of semantically opposing adjectives: Those with a three-way opposition like aga (big) - ega (normal) - oga (small) and those with a two-way opposition like via (beautiful) - vua (ugly). The vowels a and i are positive, while the vowels o and u are negative. The vowel e is in-between.

The descriptive adjective via (beautiful), because of the i-vowel stem, is a positive attribute. Changing i to u yields vua (ugly).

Here are some examples in sentences:

Hus se vua dyun.....That is an ugly name.
Eta dyun se vua.....Your name is ugly.

Likewise, fia (good) can be easily transformed to fua (bad).

Ata tuxut se fia.....My teacher is good.
Hit se fua tixut.....This is a bad student.
Hia tuxut se fia ay fua.....This teacher is good and bad.

Knowing the above, try filling in the blanks below:

Iga means slow, so uga means ________.
Vaa means affirmative and vea means possible, so voa means _________.
Fua means bad, so fia means ___________.
Afwa means allowed, so ofwa means ___________.

Three-way Scaling of Words

As learned in the last lesson, adjectives and other words with an a vowel stem can be part of a three-way scale, as shown in this chart:

Three-way Scaling
POSITIVE	INTERMEDIATE	NEGATIVE
va....yes	ve....maybe	vo....no
aga....big	ega....normal	oga....small
ay....and, also	ey....or, else	oy....but
hay...hello	hey...hey, oh	hoy...goodbye.

So, since you know that va means yes from this lesson's dialog, you now no how to say maybe and no.

Eta dyun se John, va?....Your name is John, yes?
Vo. Ata dyun se Bill.....No. My name is Bill.
Hua tuxut sefia, va?....That teacher is good, right?
Ve. It se fia ay fua.....Maybe. He (or she) is good and bad.
Hia dresem se oga oy fia.....This desk is small but good.
Hit se via ay hut se vua.....This person is nice-looking and that one is ugly.
Via ey vua, hia tuxut se fia.....Beautiful or ugly, this teacher is good.

When addressing a senior male, use hey Dut (oh, Mr.). Hey is a vocative interjection. Similar, use hay for hello and hoy for goodbye. Notice that these greetings have the a - e - i three-way scaling. Dut means sir, mister (the female version being Duyt (Ms., Ma'am, Madam, Mrs., etc.).

Hey Dut Johnson, .......Hey Mr. Johnson.
Hey Duyt Johnson, hay!....Mrs. Johnson, hi!
Va. Hoy!....Yes. Goodbye!

The Definite Article ha

The definite article ha (the) is really just another adjectival deictic determiner. It is used exactly as in English. Unlike in the Romance languages and other languages, ha is invariable in its adjective form and there is no agreement in gender or number with the noun it modifies. In fact, this is true of all adjectives in Mirad.

Ha dresem se aga.....The desk is big.
Ha dresemi se aga.....The desks are big.
Ha aga dresemi se via.....The big desks are beautiful.

This adjectival deictic determiner can be made into an animate and inanimate pronoun by suffixing -t or -s, as shown in the following chart:

Definite article ha as a deictic determiner
TYPE	ADJECTIVE	ANIMATE PRONOUN	INANIMATE PRONOUN
Definite	ha....the	hat....the person, he, she	has....the thing, it
Proximate	hia....this	hit....this person, he, she	his...this thing, this
Distal	hua....that	hut....that person, he, she	hus....that thing, that

Examples:

Hat be hua dresem se Joe.....The one at that desk is Joe.
Hat se ata tuxut.....He is my teacher.

In fact, -s and -t can be suffixed to most any noun to mean an X thing or an X person, eg.:

Ha tuxut se ha agat be ha dresem.....The teacher is the big fellow at the desk.
Agas ey ogas?....A big one or a small one?

The thing -s and person -t suffixes are really abbreviated stubs of the words sun (thing) and tob (person).

The Preposition be

You will notice the phrase in the dialog be ha dresem, which means at the desk. The preposition be comes before its object and indicates general location or position. It can have various translations, though, as shown here:

be ha dresem....at the desk
be ha mimkum....at the shore
be abem bi ha tam....on top of the house
It se be sinibar....he is on television
be nem bi his....in place of (= instead of) this

Lesson 2 Vocabulary

Nouns

tixut / tuxut....student/teacher
dut / duyt....sir, mister, Mr./Mrs., Miss, Ms., Madam, Ma'am
dyun....name

Pronouns

at / et / it / yat / yet / yit....I (or) me/you/he (or) him, she (or) her / we (or) us / you / they (or) them
duhot? / hat / hit / hut / duhoti? / hati / hiti /huti ....who(m)?, the person / this person / that person / who (pl) / the persons / these persons / those persons

Adjectives

fia / fua....good/bad
via / vua....beautiful/ugly
duhota? / hata / hita / huta....whose? / the person's / this person's / that person's
ata / eta / ita / yata / yeta / yita....my / your / his (or) her / our / your / their

Interjections

va / ve / vo....yes / maybe / no
hay / hey / hoy....hello /hey /goodbye

Conjunctions

ay / ey / oy....and /or /but

gay / gey / goy....also / even / except

Prepositions

be....at (a general preposition indicating location)

Mirad Grammar/Lesson 2

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