Chetanka

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Solarius
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Chetanka

Post by Solarius »

Hello everyone! Welcome to Lesson 1 of Learn Chetanka!

Chetanka, or Chetankana asli is the native language of the Republic of Chetanka, a country of 65 million people where nearly everyone speaks the language. Additionally, many more speakers live in the diaspora, a huge community in its own right. So whether you want to speak with your business partner in Shiliya, talk to your Chetanka grandmother, or read the signs in your city's Chetankatown, it's time to learn Chetanka!

The first thing that you need to learn for Chetanka is how to say hello. How can you ever say anything else if you can't meet people! There are actually two common ways of saying "Hello" to people. The first is Nama tenur.

Nama tenur literally means "My greetings." This is the most common way to greet someone, and it's formal without seeming too much so. It can be shortened to tenur or even ten in less formal contexts.

The other common greeting is more familiar to English speakers: Hai (tivai). Hai is a borrowing from the English hi, and tivai, which means something like "hey you!" can be added. Chetanka was once a British colony and the locals picked up many Anglicisms. But English speakers should be careful not to overuse it; hai often is seen as a little edgy and can seem gauche during, say, a religious ritual. Nama tenur is often much more neutral.

But after you say hello, what do you say? You ask someone for their name! In Chetanka one says Ich ai'ntwin rvica nil chayn? To respond, one can say Na'ntwin rvica nil ___. Here is an example dialogue to kick things off.

John: Nama tenur!
Aslaiki: Tenur!
John: Ich ai'ntwin rvirc nil chayn?
Aslaiki: Na'ntwin rvirc nil Aslaiki. Ich ai'ntwin?
John: Na'ntwin rvica nil John. Na chñeuri.
Aslaiki: Chñeuri swa na.

You might be wondering how to pronounce foreboding looking words like chñeuri or rvirc. Chetanka primarily uses an indigenous alphabet called Aslulcani. However, since you are just beginning, we will start with the romanization. This textbook uses the Iberian system, which is most common in the United States and is preferred in Chetanka as well. British learners may prefer the Oxford System, which they can learn on their own time. The letters are the same as they are in English, with a few exceptions.

i e a o u are always pronounced as they are in Spanish, never as in native English words. After certain letters u is pronounced like French u, not as in English.

c always makes a "ts" sound, never an "s" or "k" sound.

f is not the same as English "f". It represents a sound a little bit between a "p" and an "f."

r is always a rolled trill, never a soft "r" like in English.

v and w are also sounds which don't quite occur in English. v is like a softer version of English "v," but the teeth are never used. w is like English "w" but the lips are never rounded.

y is always a consonant.

Chetanka uses these additional letters: ch ñ sh ng ll. The first two are said exactly as in Spanish. sh is used as in English, as is ng, although it never has a "g" sound with it. ll is a little harder; it's like an "l" and a "y" said at the same time.

The letters b d g j q x z never occur in Chetanka.

So now you can pronounce every Chetanka word! If you know the International Phonetic Alphabet, there is a chart on Appendix B which has the letters in that way of writing.

Here is some homework:
1. What do you think Na chñeuri. and Chñeuri swa na. might mean from the context?
2. If you wanted to greet your priest, what would you say?
3. What do you think Ich means?

But there's one phrase for you to learn before you go: Cheturi haca, which literally translates to "It has finished." Cheturi means "has finished" and haca means, in this context, "now" or "for now." But more idiomatically the phrase just means "Goodbye."

Cheturi haca!

~Sol-torm "Sol the teacher."

------------------------------------------------------------------------
So yeah, this is not meant to be lessons per se, but rather a novel way to present a language other than listing out phonologies, inspired by Acadian from back in the day on the ZBB. You're welcome to treat it as such though, and if mods feel it's more appropriate in another board you can move it there.
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DesEsseintes
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Re: Chetanka

Post by DesEsseintes »

Refreshing to see something other than just another list of phonemes and affixes. [:)]

And I did the homework:
Spoiler:
Solarius wrote:Here is some homework:
1. What do you think Na chñeuri. and Chñeuri swa na. might mean from the context?
2. If you wanted to greet your priest, what would you say?
3. What do you think Ich means?
1. Na chñeuri - My pleasure/I'm happy or similar. Chñeuri swa na - Pleasure is mine
2. Nama tenur
3. ich - and

Let's see how many of these I got completely wrong. [>_<]
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qwed117
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Re: Chetanka

Post by qwed117 »

Might as well as learn a language. Being trilingual is always helpful. (No Egerius, I admittedly don't know Sardinian past some few conjugations and a couple cool words)
Spoiler:
1)"Na" appears to mean "I" (so Nama means my), and is cliticized in some areas. I would hesitant before concluding anything in casual conversation where idiomatic expressions are socially dependent, but for the purposes of this I would say it [Na chn~euri] means "pleased to meet you", and "Chn~euri swa na" is "Pleased to meet you as well"
2)"Nama tenur"
3) I'm actually stumped here. "Ich" could have two meanings when translated to English, either "You" or "What". I'm going to hesitantly say "what" because "ai" appears to be cliticized to the verb ntwin, and might mean you as a result.
Spoiler:
My minicity is [http://zyphrazia.myminicity.com/xml]Zyphrazia and [http://novland.myminicity.com/xml]Novland.

Minicity has fallen :(
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Clio
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Re: Chetanka

Post by Clio »

Solarius wrote:i e a o u are always pronounced as they are in Spanish, never as in native English words. After certain letters u is pronounced like French u, not as in English.
I can't wait to find out what those letters are! I like the tone of brushing off certain complications, even if it's a little frustrating--just like some introductory language textbooks get frustrating with their oversimplifications.

Also, the homework:
Spoiler:
Solarius wrote:1. What do you think Na chñeuri. and Chñeuri swa na. might mean from the context?
2. If you wanted to greet your priest, what would you say?
3. What do you think Ich means?
1. Pleasure to meet you. and The pleasure is mine. Or perhaps more literally something like I am pleased. and I, too, am pleased. I'm pretty sure na is a first-person pronoun on the basis of its similarity to nama my and its presence in Na'ntwin rvica nil.
2. Nama tenur
3. Either How, so Ich ai'ntwin rvica nil chayn means something like How are you called?, or What, so Ich ai'ntwin rvica nil chayn means What is your name? or What do you call yourself?
Niûro nCora
Getic: longum Getico murmur in ore fuit
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Solarius
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Re: Chetanka

Post by Solarius »

Answers:
Spoiler:
1. Na chñeuri means "I am glad," and Chñeuri swa na means "(You) please me." chñeuri is like "like" in certain stages of the history of English, when it meant "to like" and "to please."

2.Nama tenur.

3. Ich is a particle which makes a sentence into a question. chayn means what.
----------------------------------

Lesson 2

From now on, lessons will be divided into three parts: a short passage, a list of words to learn, and a grammar section. Linguists often make the mistake of using excessively technical terminology, so these lessons will use terms that laymen can comprehend.

Años años'twin hacam ler ong poteka. Hacam pularur canew Whopper. Te’ntwin ama chimusur “Cheta!” ong hacam. Hacam chimusur “Nama canew Whopper nil hayes.” Hacam o te’ntwin ama lar poteka’ntwin nweche canew Whopper fwa swa leri.

“A woman and the woman's boy went to a convenience store. The boy took a Whopper box. His mother said to him ‘Stop!’ But the boy said ‘This is my whopper box.’ The boy and his mother left the convenience store but the Whopper box didn’t.”

Let’s break this down a little bit. Here are some words accompanied by a definition. Verbs are in their dictionary form.

Años (n.): woman
Hacam (n.): boy, son
Ler (v.): to come
Ong (prep.): in, on, to
Poteka (n.): convenience store (from “bodega”)
Pular (v.): to take
Canew (n.): box, rectangle, square
Te (pn.): he, she, it
Ama (n.): mother
Chim (v.): to say
Nama (pn.): My, mine
Nil (v.): to be
Hayes (pn.): this
Lar (v.): to go
Nweche (n.): back, behind
Fwa (v.): not
Swa (pp.): with


Grammar: The two possessives and pronouns

I can see your eyes rolling right now: grammar!? Who needs such a thing when you can just talk? I agree, but there are a few points in the story which need some explanation.

If you were reading the story above closely you may have noticed that there were two different kinds of possessives. Didn’t see it? Here are the relevant sentences, with these constructions in italics:

Te’ntwin ama chimusur “Cheta!” ong hacam. Hacam chimusur “Nama canew Whopper nil hayes.”

Te’ntwin ama means “His mother” and Nama canew Whopper means “My whopper box.” You may notice that in fact there are two ways of making a possessive. This is the case in English too: “His mother” vs. “The mother of him.” But in Chetanka there is more of difference in meaning. Let’s take a few other examples, which may be more clear. Let’s start with the second kind of construction. Here are some examples:

Hacama poteka. “The boy’s convenience store.”
Ama Whopper. “The mother’s whoppers.”
Nwecha canew. “The back’s box.”

As you can see, this kind of possessive is made with the suffix -a. On words which end in vowels in it turns that vowel into itself, except for words like ama, which stay the same.

The other kind of construction is accomplished with the particle twin, which goes before the second noun.

Años twin ama. “The woman’s mother.”
Ama’ntwin hacam. “The mother’s son.”

As you can seen, twin attaches to the preceding when it ends in a vowel, and gains an extra n. This is even the case when there are other words in the way:

Hacam chetanka’ntwin ama. “The Chetankan boy’s mother.”

So what’s the difference between the -a suffix and the twin particle? The latter indicates thing that can’t be lost or which are more permanent. So family members will always be family members, whereas Whoppers or boxes might be dropped down the drainpipe. Also, nouns which take twin always must be possessed--hacam can go without because it has two meanings--”boy” and “son.”

There are also pronouns in Chetanka, which are pretty simple. They are:

Na: “I”
Ai: “You”
Te: “He/She/It/They”
As: “We, excluding you”
Lweor: “We, including you” [/b]
Ais: “You all”

These have unique forms with the possessive -a:

Nama: “My”
Aiwa: “Your”
Tema: “His/Hers/Its/Their”
Asa: “Ours but not yours”
Leña: “Yours and ours.”

Homework:
1. Write the following phrases in Chetanka:
“Your woman.”
“The box’s mother.”
“Their whoppers.”
2. Write the following phrases in English:
Asa poteka.
Tema’ntwin hacam.
3. Translate the sentence “I came to the woman’s convenience store.” into Chetanka.
shimobaatar
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Re: Chetanka

Post by shimobaatar »

As much as I love me some phoneme and affix lists, this definitely feels like an authentic textbook experience. Like Clio said, it is a bit frustrating, but I'm looking forward to you revealing things at your own pace!

Homework (Lesson 1):
Spoiler:
1. Based on context, I assume Na chñeuri. and Chñeuri swa na. mean something like "Nice to meet you" and "Nice to meet you, too" respectively. They mean "I'm glad" and "(You) please me", respectively. chñeuri means "to like" or "to please".
2. To greet your priest, you would say Nama tenur.
3. I think Ich might mean something like "what". It's a question particle.
Edit: Compared with the answers.
Homework (Lesson 2):
Spoiler:
1. “Your woman.” - Aiwa años
“The box’s mother.” - Canew twin ama
“Their whoppers.” - Tema Whopper
2. Asa poteka. - "Our, but not your, convenience store"
Tema’ntwin hacam. - "Their son"
3. “I came to the woman’s convenience store.” - Na ler ong añosa poteka.
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