Faleni the easy tongue

fewa tewi: Asking the Way

The second Faleni reference text, and a dialogue rather than a story. It tests different machinery from the Cat and the Moon: questions, commands, times, and two people taking turns. Same constraints, no word outside the dictionary and no rule outside the ten.

How to read it. A is a traveller, B is someone local. Tap any Faleni line to hear it; press gloss for the word-for-word layer, which is generated from the dictionary rather than written by hand.

What to watch for. A command in Faleni is simply a predicate with no subject and no ha: ka nihu is go straight ahead. There is nothing to add and nothing to conjugate. Questions work the same way they do everywhere else, the question word sits where the answer would go, so taji loni ha kihu jeni? is literally train does leave when?

The dialogue

  1. Ala nita! we ha melo kepi wa ho?Good day! Can you help me?
  2. Bawe. we ha me jeta?Yes. What do you need?
  3. Afofu, wa ha pa lome niwi tuna wo.Sorry, I'm a stranger in this city.
  4. Awa ha me ka nosa ti taji loni.I want to get to the station.
  5. Bti taji loni ha niju.The station is close.
  6. Bka nihu, hi kefo nono niwi tewi ne nuki.Go straight ahead, and turn right at the second street.
  7. Awa ha melo kali nosa wu ho?Can I walk there?
  8. Bawe, tewi ha loti u.Yes, it's a very short road.
  9. Ataji loni ha kihu jeni?When does the train leave?
  10. Bwi ha kihu mo nafi ki na naha.It leaves at 8:30.
  11. Aeno wa ha komu no.Then I have time.
  12. Bawe. api ka nima, uka tewi ha lose.Yes. But go now, because the road is busy.
  13. Afife! we ha la.Thank you! You're kind.
  14. Bhe nu. we ha kihu nusu jewa?You're welcome. Where have you come from?
  15. Awa ha kihu nusu tuna li niju sete.I've come from a small town near the sea.
  16. Bwa ha ma tuna wu! pama wa ha sane ti wu.I know that town! My mother lives there.
  17. Aseju ha li!The world is small!
  18. Bawe. la ka, hi we ha ka luwa.Yes. Goodbye, and travel safely.

What the dialogue proves

The dialogue needed Faleni did it with
A polite greeting la + a time of day. No greeting vocabulary to learn.
"Can you...?" melo (be able) plus the ordinary yes/no ho
Two commands in one breath two bare predicates joined by hi, no imperative form
"at the second street" ne nuki, the same ordinal you use for anything
"at 8:30" [hour] nafi [minutes] naha, plain numbers in a fixed order
"because the road is busy" uka and a second clause. No subordinating machinery.
"come from where?" nusu jewa, the question word in the answer's slot

Every one of those is a pattern you already met in the lessons. The dialogue introduces no rule at all, which is the point worth checking: a language that needs a new construction as soon as two people speak to each other has not really finished its grammar.

Try it yourself

Read it aloud twice, once as A and once as B. Then paste any line into the translator and pull it apart, or rewrite B's directions to send A somewhere else: kefo nohu (turn left), ka nosa tepo (go to the market), ti kema ha niju (the restaurant is near).