kika olelo - lesson two

1) seslitokaa zizi tata.         1) That is a dragon.
2) kaeth thi nika?               2) What is your name?
3) Eclipse zizi ni nika.         3) My name is Eclipse. 
4) zi tani tata nika.            4) That name is pretty.
5) le, zanai nika zizi tata.     5) Yes, that is a beautiful name.
6) na`i cara*n zizi lii          6) I am a clever person. 
7) na`i cara*n-ta zizi lii       7) I am the clever person.
8) kaeth zizi tata?              8) What is that?
                

Zizi sentences

Zizi is used for class inclusion sentences, sentences that include one thing in a class of other things, such as "that is a cat" ( which includes "that" in the class of "cats"), and also equational sentences, which equate two specific things, such as "that is the cat". The only time a distinction is made between the two kinds of sentences is when you are talking about a specific noun that has already come up in conversation, where we would use "the". That is done by attaching -ta or -tata to the end of the noun phrase. This is only done when the distinction is relevent or inobvious.

na`i cara*n zizi lii. - I am a smart person.
nai`i cara*n-ta zizi lii. - I am the smart person (that we were talking about before, and not another smart person)

Because zizi sentences, which equate nouns to one another are different than zi sentences, which equate nouns with modifiers, there is no need to distinguish between words for nouns and modifiers. Which function a word is filling depends entirely on which pattern is used, for example:

seslitokaa zizi oya. You are a dragon.
zi oya seslitokaa. You are draconic (dragon-like).

zi oya zanai. You are beautiful.
zanai zizi oya. You are beauty itself.

(In English, nouns are generally made into modifiers with various suffixes, for example:
Heaven -> heavenly. Health -> healthful. Life -> lifelike.
Modifiers can also be made into verbs with suffixes:
Good -> goodness. Warm -> warmth. Sincere -> sincerity.
Kikan usually makes the distinction by pattern alone.)

Kaeth

Exercises
Translate:

A.
                

Vocabulary
cokolat - chocolate
ikae - sky, heavens
nika - name
tani - pretty, lovely