Tele-teaching course for Proto-Drem - Lesson 2

 

 

XXX - Second lesson

XXX – The hungry child:

 

Undóndògu?  

Do you see it?

ŋiwèŋa.

I’m hungry…

Sínab’ane! Undóndògu?

Quiet! Do you see it?

Wa.

Yes…

Damù? Gumbé?

Well? Where is it?

Zà, mbùroŋgà. Gundàbàzâ

There, by the creek. It’s drinking

Sìsínab’ane.

We must be quiet

XXX

Do we have anymore food?

 

Nà, sìwehegu. Sínab’ane

No, we ate it (already). Now be quiet!

Libê.

Hmph! (as the boy grumbles and pouts)

 

Sínab’ane ma Umbàndàgugbù

Quiet or you’ll scare it away.

 

XXX – Words:

 

If a word isn't listed here, look for it in the Grammar section.

 

 

English meaning	Proto-Drem word
v. to See	ndóndò
QUES (
1P (I)	ŋi
Attv. to be hungry	wèŋa
v. to be silent	nab’ana
3P (it)	gu
Yes	wa
QUES (where?)	mbé
CNVA (progressive mood)	àzâ
LOC (over there)	zà
LOC (by, near. close to, besides)	ŋgà
n. stream, creek	mbùro
v. to drink	ndàbụ
3PPLU (we)	sì
MOD (imperative)	sí- … -e
v. to let/have	nèbè
n. food	mesa
NEG	nà
CONJ (or)	ma
INTJ (Well?)	Damù?
v. to eat	wehe
TAM (recent past)	dáŋé-
INTJ (hmph!)	Libê
2P (you)	u
v. to scare	mbàndà
LOC (away)	gbù
1PPLU (our)	sì

 

XXX – Sounds:

 

No new sounds are being introduced in this lesson. In a later lesson will be the section on vowel coalescence where vowels combine into new and interesting sounds.

 

XXX – Culture:

 

Children are the same generally world-wide. Children, notably have a lack of patience. In the harsh environment that the Dremish clans lived in, children were a tad more patient as food was hard to come by, since the men had to hunt for food, and sometimes didn’t bring anything home. The women were an important gatherer of food as women knew where the good fruit, nut and berry resources were. Both men and women usually took around 3 to 4 hours to deal with the “food” issue, as children always went along learning from the parents of what do and what not to do.

 

Hunting and gathering usually occurred in the morning after a small meal of nuts and smoked meat. The ‘leftovers’ went with the men as they sometimes went out for a longer period due to having to chase a wounded animal down before killing it for food later that day. It is during these extended hunting periods that children, often get hungry during the afternoon meal which is usually small, and just ties people over until supper. So food rationing is usually enforced as supplies are limited out on a hunt or at the village as the women wait for the hunters to return. So children not having patience usually are often heard telling the adults that they’re hungry. The men and boys are usually fine due to the leftovers, as the women and girls snack on what nuts, fruit and berries they have collected.

 

But as is the case, there always is the hungry child who wants more…

 

XXX – Grammar:

 

Personal Pronouns:

 

The personal pronouns are a mixed bag in Proto-Drem. There are differing ways to use the same pronoun when in different places in the sentence. For instance, a pronoun is different when it is the subject (you saw me), the direct object (I saw you and him), and the indirect object (I saw him and you). Last lesson we talked about possessive pronouns, which are important, the personal pronouns are equally important since they are commonly used. They are usually memorized due to usage since they are so commonly used.

 

 

• Note that the personal and subject pronouns are usually interchangeable, but the personal pronouns are more commonly used.
• The direct object pronoun is technically a direct object and so is to the right of the verb. The indirect object pronoun being an indirect object is found to the right of a direct object (as seen in the examples above).

 

Locatives I:

 

The locatives are in some ways complex, yet easy to understand. Words such as around, on top of, between, in, outside of, and so on are fairly easy to understand in most languages. Proto-Drem is no different in the differing aspects of locatives and to describe the ways one object can be in relation to another object. So in this lesson, we will describe the ‘basic’ locatives, and leave the more advanced issues for the next lesson.

 

For this lesson, these basic locatives will easily describe the location of an object. In this way, when we say “Go inside the hut” we must remember that the locative is to the right of the noun that the locative attaches to. For the sample sentence, we would look at it as “Go-hut-inside”. Also when looking at the chart below, one will notice that the locative will mean several things which all generally mean the same thing, so that clarity is still not a problem for most speakers.

 

 

 

• Note that locatives are always to the right of a noun, which is usually thought of as a “person, place or thing”. So remembering the location of certain things, especially locatives will help one in knowing where an object is.

 

Verb Tenses:

 

Proto-Drem verbs most of the time just add additional sections onto it. The sections, known as suffixes and prefixes go onto either the right or the left side of the verb. Therefore, in this lesson, we will talk about an important part of verbs, that of tenses which deal with when the action was done or will be done. This is normally seen as the ‘past’ or ‘non-past’ in Proto-Drem. In Proto-Drem, these events are separated by 4 categories. The categories are seen as a single action, or a group of 2 actions, where 1 action must be done before the real action can be done. This split is known as “regular” and “anterior”. There is another major way to tell the difference between tenses, and that is if the action is going to be done, or if the action is not going to be done. Proto-Drem also has a way to tell the difference between hard far in the past or “future” an action took place.

 

To give you a taste of what the differences are between the variations, I will use the immediate past for all 4 samples. Note that the first syllable of the verbs is replaced by the tense marker, which is one of the reasons that verbs are at least 2 syllables long.

 

Ŋidáŋúduleŋe.

I just finished hunting.

 

Ŋidálúhenduduleŋe.

I ate before I just finished hunting.

 

Ŋinàŋúduleŋe.

I didn’t just finish hunting.

 

Ŋinàlúhenduduleŋe.

I didn’t eat before I just finished hunting 

 

• The dictionary form is the infinitive and is usually known as the verb ‘root’ which in Proto-Drem is always 2 syllables at least.
• Marking the negative on the correct verb is important, as the regular negative nà- negates the whole sentence essentially.
• An Immediate tense usually deals with an action being done right away or was just finished
• Recent deals with something done recently. For the Dremish clans, usually in the last few days
• Remote usually deals with anything longer than a few days.

 

Verb Moods:

 

In Proto-Drem, there is a term for how a sentence can almost have an emotion tied to it. The moods are in some ways subtle, while others are not. In the language, moods are quite common and easily used with verbs. Below are the most common moods used in Proto-Drem, as they basically state a need, desire, and order, advice, or for the last one, to add to the verb what we see in English, the –ing ending. The indicative is a verb that is just for normal, basic information and so remains the most ‘neutral’ as far as emotional impact of what other moods do.

 

Optative                        -wâ-

Ŋinduduwâ.

I wish to hunt.

 

Indicative                       -gè- … -e-

Gèndude

hunt

 

Imperative                      -sí- … -e-

Síndude

Hunt!

 

Injunctive/Advisory          -sà- …-e-

Ŋisàndude

I advise (you) to hunt.

 

Hortative                        -sè- … -e-

Sèndude

Let’s hunt!

 

Progressive                   -ázâ

Ndudázâ

hunting

 

Note that not all moods go directly to the right of a verb ‘root’, as of the six common ones above; five also have a section that goes to the left of the verb. Also, note that moods also have an ending vowel; in this case, that ‘final vowel’ replaces the final vowel of the verb. As one can see, the verb ‘root’ is changed a bit, but usually not too much when using just a mood. In a later lesson, we will go over when tenses and moods combine, then one can see just how much a verb can change, and in some ways it can be hard to distinguish just what verb is actually meant.

 Exercises

 

Are you ready for an exercise to see what you’ve learned, and to see what you can apply so far? If you understand what was presented in this lesson and you want to tackle bigger challenges, then “Go to the exercise for this lesson”.