Verse:Tdūrzů/Knench

Tdūrzů/Knench/Lexicon

Tdūrzů/Knench/Swadesh list

Cubrite
Kibri
Created by	IlL
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Canaanite Ancient Cubrite Old Cubrite Cubrite

Cubrite (Kibri /kɪbɹɪ/ or núm Kibr /nɨːm kɪbɐ/) is a Semitic language spoken in the Lõis timeline, spoken by the Cubrites, a minority in the British Isles and France and more common in Canada and the United States. Genetic studies have shown that the Cubrites are descendants of Celtic speakers who adopted a Canaanite language. The language descends from a close relative of Biblical Hebrew which was spoken in North Africa and preserves quite a few quasi-Biblical Hebrew words and phrases, but its grammar is far more analytic than its ancestor: it was completely restructured to use auxiliaries instead of the older prefix and suffix conjugations, and it is the only Lõisian Semitic language that has lost grammatical gender outside of Far East Semitic. Most modern Cubrites are Catholic; some (particularly in North America) are Muslim, Jewish or neopagan.

Cubrite has many Greek, Brythonic, Arabic, Romance and English loanwords.

It's inspired grammatically by Welsh, and aesthetically by Cockney English, Icelandic and Khmer.

Names

Native Cubrite names

• Parm (f.) is from baśam

History

The first attested text in Modern Cubrite is a fragment of a gloss, translation and explanation of the Jewish Haggadah, dated to the 14th century. The Cubrite translation attempts to use vowel signs in their Tiberian values and uses ayin with a geresh for the ł sound and the inverted nun for nasal vowels. (The author evidently tried to pull out all the stops to capture the phonetic complexity of the language.) Non-rhoticity, gender loss, and the shift to auxiliaries were complete by this time, and Cubrite has had little change since except in vocabulary, accent, and the loss of grammatical mutation.

Cubrite played a key role in the evolution of nonrhoticity in Southern British English.

TODO

• Swadesh list
• bel-, ble- is a common prefix (conflation of ben- and ba3al-)
• Many adverbs from infinitive absolute
• kori = to die (lit. be called [by God])
• šavų = week
• mødbar = conference
• Philippi should be weaker: i > e, instead of the TibH i > a (*bint > peþ 'daughter'; TibH baṫ)
• Mén fows ta xett kori? = Why did you have to die?

Some sound changes

• -ø (mainly from ACub -ō) becomes silent and lengthens the vowel before it
• non-rhoticity (nonrhoticity has to happen after fem sg ending loss)
• ħ > x; *gt, kt, ᴋt, ħt > ht
• ś > usually x, sometimes f or fl
• d-t, t-t (morpheme boundary) > st
• xr > x

Phonology

Consonants

• /m n ʁ̃ʷ l w j ɹ/ ⟨m n ł h l w j r⟩
• /p ʔpʰ b f v t d ʔtʰ~ʔ θ ð k g ʔkʰ/ ⟨p b pp f v t d tt þ ð k g kk⟩
• /s z ts ʃ ʒ tʃ (sje) h~x/ ⟨s z ts š ž č x h⟩

Ancient Cubrite /l/ became /w/ in some places, especially before C or pausa.

Stops are unaspirated.

Vowels

Tdūrzů/Knench has one of the largest vowel inventories of any Semitic language in Lõis (Maltese also has 18 vowels):

/a e ɪ ɔ ʊ äe iː äo ɨː ɑ̃ː ɛ̃ː ɪɤ̃ ɔ̃ː ɑː(ɹ) ɛː(ɹ) eː(ɹ) oː(ɹ) ə(ɹ)/ = ⟨a e i o u é í ó ú ą ę į ų ar er ir ur ø/r⟩

Word-final /ə/ is transcribed as a syllabic r (ør after r), unless it's in a short clitic such as pø/p' where it can be dropped. R-intrusion similar to that in Southern British English occurs after /ɑː(ɹ) ɛː(ɹ) eː(ɹ) oː(ɹ) ə(ɹ)/ and before a vowel.

The following is Hrafn Leifsson's classification of Cubrite vowels:

• Schwa: ø/r
• Short vowels: a e i o u
• Lengthened vowels: é í ó ú
• Nasal vowels: ą ę į ų
• R-colored vowels: ar er ir ur

Prosody

Stress

Stress tends penultimate or final.

Orthography

Modern Cubrite has two orthographies: an English-like orthography and a French-like orthography. The orthography used on this page is an academic one devised by Icelandic linguist Hrafn Leifsson, detailed in his PhD thesis A comparative grammar of the British Isles languages.

Morphology

Tdūrzů/Knench has lost the verbal inflections and triconsonantal morphology of Ancient Cubrite.

Nouns and adjectives

Nouns inflect for number and definiteness. Like in English, proper nouns don't take the definite article. Attributive adjectives agree with nouns in number. Cubrite has lost grammatical gender and the construct state, although animates still have natural gender.

Number and definiteness

Tdūrzů/Knench has regularized all plurals to -r (from a merger of Ancient Cubrite -īm > *-ī and -ūδ). -u nouns become -lr in the plural: þebu, þeblr 'a world, worlds'.

Nouns inflect for definiteness, as follows:

• Singular: -as (after C) or -sr (after V)
  • -u nouns become -was: abu, abwas 'an apple, the apple'
• Plural: -il (replacing the plural suffix -r if any)
  • ablr, ablil 'apples, the apples'

Words ending in a nasal or R-colored vowel add an intrusive R between the final vowel and the plural suffix. Words ending in a long vowel add -ør.

• pdą 'a tree', pdąrør 'trees'
• lú 'a god', lúwør 'gods'

Some irregular plurals: penš, plenš = human

Examples:

• xadr = a room/space/flat
• xadras = the room
• xadrør = rooms
• xadril = the rooms
• xadr kruw = a big room
• xadras kruw = the big room
• botr krulr = big houses
• botil krulr = the big houses

-ma nouns from Greek become -mat nouns: þemat, þematas, þematr, þematil 'topic, theme'.

Predicative adjectives

The predicative/adverbial marker bø + bare form is used for predicative adjectives: Re xadras bø kruw 'The room is big'.

Degree

• Equative: de = as X as; equally X (~ BH day 'enough')
• Emphatic: ro = so X, very X indeed (inherited from Ancient Cubrite, which borrowed it from Celtic)
• Comparative/Superlative: -ðr = more X or most X; comparandum takes prí 'than' (from Ancient Cubrite pirūðī 'when I see')

Example: kruw 'big', de kruw 'as big as'; ro kruw 'so big; very big indeed', kruwðr 'bigger/biggest'

Pronouns

Cubrite has a pronoun system similar to European languages, except that there is no grammatical gender and se "that" is used as an inanimate or gender-neutral pronoun. There is a T-V distinction: the 2nd person plural tim is also used as a polite pronoun.

I (/i:/ or /ɪ/) is the default form for the 1sg subject pronoun; ni is used after a vowel or for disambiguation.

Tu has been proposed as a 2nd person singular neopronoun (inspired by Romance languages). This isn't as common as using the 2nd person plural tim as singular, however.

For the pronoun "she", hi is most often used sentence-initially (for present tense). Otherwise oj is used.

Pronouns in Tdūrzů/Knench, basic forms

→ Person	I	thou (m)	thou (f)	he	she	we	ye	they
Basic forms	i, ni	tr	ti	u	oj, hi	nu	tim	im
With =nr	(n)inr	tanr	tenr	unr	ojnr, hinr	nunr	temnr	emnr

Interrogative pronouns

• dar = what? (nominal)
  • archaic idar (*hajj dabar 'what thing')
• ew = who?
• ajšr = which?
• énr = where?
• møðé = when?
• łømar = why? (*3lē ma 'on what')
  • archaic/poetic malah (*ma lax 'what's the matter')
• ham = how many?
• hélt = how?

Verbs

Almost all verbs use only one form, the infinitive (usually etymologically the infinitive construct with a prefixed l-, which may sometimes be conflated with the etymological imperative). The infinitive form may or may not have a prefixed l-, depending on the verb; however, even verbs without l- display a voicing mutation (e.g. žbuð 'to be idle, to lie fallow'). Some verbs instead are derived from other nouns derived from the relevant triconsonantal root rather than the infinitive of a particular verb (e.g. benin 'to build', cognate to the Hebrew noun binyan; from the root b-n-y)

The infinitive is also used as an imperative: ðett ló oj! = 'Give it to her!' Imperatives are negated by placing bal or bawði before the verb.

Inflected lexical verbs

There are only six inflected lexical verbs (i.e. verbs with inflected past and future forms):

• juð 'to be' (the past form han is cognate to Arabic kāna)
• fluð 'to do' (from *ʕaśō, with contamination from *faȝal)
• luð 'to come' (with suppletion of *haðō and *pô); bu is still used as a directional
• laht 'to go' (from *halax)
• kaht 'to take' (from *laqaH)
• ðett 'to give' (from *naðan, with contamination from *hinīH 'to leave')

The finite forms have become more similar to each other due to analogy.

Even verbs with finite forms are defective verbs, since finite forms are always perfective (except forms of juð). To express the imperfective with these verbs, you still have to use the copula + bø + VN construction. The negator lu only negates finite verbs.

Inflected verbs in Tdūrzů/Knench

→ Person		I	thou (m)	thou (f)	he	she	we	you (plural)	they
juð	future	é ni	þé tr	þí ti	jé u	þé oj	né nu	þú tim	jú'm
	past	han i	han tr	han ti	han u	han oj	han nu	han tim	hanu'm, han im
fluð	future pfv.	ąf i	þąf tr	þąf ti	jąf u	þąf oj	nąf nu	þąflu tim	jąflu'm
	past pfv.	fowð i	fows tr	fows ti	fow u	fól oj	fown nu	fowðu tim	flu'm
luð	future pfv.	eð i	þes tr	þes ti	jeð u	þeð oj	neð nu	þeðu tim	jeðu'm
	past pfv.	powð i	pows tr	pows ti	pow u	pól oj	pown nu	powðu tim	pu'm
laht	future pfv.	lej i	tlej tr	tlej ti	len u	tlen oj	lej nu	tlew tim	lew'm
	past pfv.	lawð i	laws tr	laws ti	law u	lęl oj	lawn nu	lawðu tim	lalu'm
kaht	future pfv.	kej i	tkej tr	tkej ti	ken u	tken oj	kej nu	tkew tim	kew'm
	past pfv.	kawð i	kaws tr	kaws ti	kaw u	kęl oj	kawn nu	kawðu tim	kalu'm
ðett	future pfv.	nej i	tnej tr	tnej ti	nen u	tnen oj	nej nu	tnew tim	new'm
	past pfv.	nawð i	naws tr	naws ti	naw u	nęl oj	nawn nu	nawðu tim	nalu'm

Most non-pronominal forms come in non-feminine and feminine, and agree in gender only with a singular subject; the feminine is only used with women and female animals. With plural nominal subjects the non-feminine form is used.

Regular pa3al verbs

The regular pattern is *(li)CCuC.

When C1 is a guttural, the l- usually resurfaces:

• C1 = ayin: ląbur 'to go past'
• C1 = aleph/he: lévuð 'to bake, to fire', lézuð 'to be on drugs' (or vuð, zuð)
• C1 = heth: lętul 'to cease/stop'

-t verbs

Many of these verbs got the glottally reinforced -tt from -ʔt. The -tt then analogically spread to other verbs.

• laht = to go by foot
• kaht = to take
• žaht = to go back
• žoft = to sit
• lost = to be born
• rost = to go down
• rašt = to acquire; to get
• ðett = to give
• xett = to carry, to owe, should
• tsett = to go out
• žątt = to go by vehicle
• gątt = to hit; also a (pseudo-)auxiliary for "to do X correctly"
• dątt = to know
• tątt = to farm, to grow (plants)

Regular nif3al

The regular pattern is *(li)CoCiC where the first C is not voiced. The l- appears when the first consonant is a guttural or a semivowel.

Regular pi3el

The regular pattern is *løCaCiC or *løCiCuC where the middle C is not voiced.

Regular hif3il

The regular pattern is *laCCiC, *leCCeC, or *laCCoCø.

Regular hithpa3el

The regular pattern is *liδCaCiC where the middle C is not lenited.

Other verbs

Other verbs come from noun derivation patterns, or from earlier verb + noun collocations.

Auxiliaries

Various auxiliaries in Tdūrzů/Knench

→ Person	I	thou (m)	thou (f)	he	she	we	ye	they	Non-pronominal
Present	i, ni	tr	ti	u	hi	nu	tim	rim	ri, r' before V
Present emphatic	łud i	łud tr	łud ti	łuden u	łuden oj	łud nu	łud tim	łud im	ngud
Passive future perf.	ur i	þur tr	þri ti	jur u	þur oj	nur nu	þru tim	juru'm	jur/þur
Passive past perf.	barð i	bart tr	bart ti	bar u	bro oj	barn nu	bart tim	bru'm	bar/bro
Cautionary (from imperfect of זָמַם 'to scheme')	zum i	þøzum tr	þøzum ti	zum u	þøzum oj	nøzum nu	þøzmu tim	zmu'm	zum/þøzum/zmu

The auxiliary ri comes from ruhi, the imperative of rahō 'to see'. Ri is not used in subordinate clauses:

• Ri Đavíð þax žin. = David is about to sleep.
• Pið Đavíð þax žin, u dal bø hapuð uras. = When David goes to sleep, he doesn't turn off the lights.

Yes-no questions are marked by a rising intonation, using the focus particle =nr (cognate to Hebrew נא) after the word/phrase whose truth value is asked about, and dropping ri in sentences with a nominal subject. In sentences without a specific focused constituent, nr appears sentence-finally in sentences with no finite verb, and after the finite verb if there is one.

• Đavíð þax žin nr? = Is David going to bed? (neutral)
• Đavíð nr þax žin? = Is it David who's going to bed?
• Fows nr tr [nexú] jax Marijr amž? = Did you marry Maria yesterday?
• Fows tanr [nexú] jax Marijr amž? = Is it you who married Maria yesterday?

Finite forms of kaht 'to take' can be used as an auxiliary meaning 'to go ahead and VERB/to take the liberty to VERB/take the initiative to VERB'. Cubrite-influenced English dialects use take in a similar way: I took to buy spare parts myself, because my department wouldn't give me any.

To express the passive in the non-perfective tenses, the VN form (lø)bur of the passive auxiliary is used: Ri tawðas bø løbur vðųx 'The door is opened (by someone)'.

The auxiliary zum for the cautionary future comes from the Ancient Cubrite verb *zāmam 'to scheme'. It's used to:

• warn the listener of a future event or contingency:
  • Zum sąras ðø luð fu hol łeð. = 'The storm might come here any moment.'
  • Zum þafkestas dal juð kabų hetteb! = 'The map might not be well-defined! [in a hypothetical math lecture, cautioning against a tacit assumption the audience might make]'
• often used in a threatening manner, for example: Lah tr dal jedą dar zum i fluð lah tr! = 'You have no idea what I'm gonna do to you!'

Prepositions

Prepositions inflect like in Welsh: for pronominal prepositional objects, usually the preposition is inflected and is followed by the independent pronoun. The inflected preposition is stressed unless the emphatic pronoun is used.

example of a Tdūrzů/Knench inflected preposition: el "for"; pø/p' 'in, at' is inflected similarly

• 1sg: li, li ni
• 2sg.m: lah tr
• 2sg.f: lah ti
• 3sg.m: lom u
• 3sg.f: ló oj
• 3sg.n: løze
• 1pl. lon nu
• 2pl. lam tim
• 3pl. low'm

Other prepositions:

• men = from
• túb el = for
• jern = because of (also "reason")
• łej = on, above
• jax, jaxøm = with (both inst. and com.)
• pøłé = inside, within
  • sim. løłé, møłé 'into, out of'
• pølip = amidst
• wen = without
• møné = before, in front of
• kodm = before (temporally)
• xni = after (Hitsi šeni 'second half')
• møłęl = above
• møþęl = below
• þaht = instead of
• til = like, as
• xakr = until
• gu = up to

Numbers

Danish system?

0-10: zero, xóð (inanimate)/xęð (animate), šném/šné (attributive), šluž, arvą, xomi, šeš, šebą, šmún, þeš, łax

11-20: štąx, šnająx, šlužąx, arvąx, xomižąx, šežąx, šebąx, šmúnąx, þežąx, łexi

21-30: łexi xóð, łexi šném, ... łexi łax

31-40: łexi łax štąx, ..., šné łexi

41, 42, ...: šné łexi xóð/xęð, šné łexi šném, ...

60: šluž łexi

...

100: mír

1000: awv

Syntax

Constituent order

The order is tense-subject-verb-object.

R'išas bø hél ablas.

The man is eating the apple.

Re béð u bø degrú til stadi.

His house is as big as a stadium.

Fól oj ðø fluð halkkbéð oj bø ro-múxr.

She did her homework too late.

The negative particle dal (from tabar lū 'not anything') comes after the subject pronoun and before the verb.

Faulty accusative

Tdūrzů/Knench has the faulty accusative (glossed as FA) particle ðø or ð' , from Ancient Cubrite jūδ ha-. It is actually not used for direct objects, but only for constituents that are separated from their heads. It also replaces a (TAM-marking) "preposition" in front of a lexical verb, when no preposition is used.

Noun phrase

To say "this X" or "that X", X-as fu and X-as feni (lit. "the X here" and "the X there") are used. To say "this" and "that", you say se fu and se feni (where the se becomes ilø in the plural).

hafu, hafeni = like this, like that

The abstract demonstrative (referring to sentences or facts) is suð.

Words for yes and no

• ens (from *amitt ze "this is truth") = 'yes' in reply to a present-copula sentence
• haj (from hajjē "where?") = 'no' in reply to a present-copula sentence
• ríð (from rahīδī "I saw") = past 'yes'
• lu fow (from lū 3aśō inflected) = past 'no'
• jąf (from ja3śē, inflected) = future 'yes'
• lu jąf (inflected) = future 'no'
• bal = imperative 'no'

Verb phrase

Cubrite allows arbitrarily long chains of pseudo-auxiliaries:

Hi bø dafkrøl gątt latsękk.

3SG.F IPFV never_fail to_do_correctly to_joke

Her jokes never fail to land.

VN constructions

Cubrite has a rich tense-aspect system which expresses imperfective/perfective as well as progressive and perfect.

• ri Parm bø laht = Parm goes
• ri Parm ław laht = Parm is going
• ri Parm þax laht = Parm is about to go
• ri Parm xni laht = Parm has gone
• ri Parm xni juð bø laht = Parm has been going
• ri Parm døž laht = Parm just went
• ri Parm wen laht = Parm hasn't went
• fól Parm ðø laht = Parm went (perfective; cf. AAVE She done went)
• þąf Parm ðø laht = Parm will go (perfective)
• han Parm bø laht = Parm went (imperfective)
• þé Parm bø laht = Parm will go (imperfective)
• Laht! = Go! (number neutral)
• Kubnu laht! = Let's go!

Balancing vs deranking conjunctions

Balancing conjunctions take full finite clauses (clauses with a finite verb or an auxiliary):

• ej "and"
• ow "or"
• mur (complementizer)
• łeþr "when"
• wi "if"

Deranking conjunctions replace finite forms of the copula juð and thus are also called copula-replacing conjunctions (e.g. by Hrafn). Some CRCs are:

• prí "than"
• jið (complementizer)
• pið "when"

Time clauses

pið-clauses

A pið-clause is in the same tense as the clause it's embedded in. Pið-clauses denote states, things that can be marked with re + tense markers in the present tense), rather than completed actions.

łeðr-clauses

łeðr can be used for clauses with auxiliaries other than juð.

Complementizer

There is a complementizer mur (from lēmūr) or jið (from conflation of hajūδ 'to be' and jūδ accusative marker) depending on dialect.

Relativizer

In most cases, relative clauses use the relativizer har (from *χa-ʔašir 'like that which'). nr may appear after the resumptive pronoun if one is used.

Subject of a copula auxiliary:

pahnas har han __ bø kri "pnar"

the boy who cried (would cry) wolf

Subject with a non-copula auxiliary:

pahnas har fow __ kri "pnar"

the boy who cried wolf (once)

Direct object:

levras har fown nu ðø kru (se (nr))

the book that we read

Oblique object:

péðas har han oj bø xun pøze (nr)

the house she used to live in

To relativise the subject of a present copula, łom (from hā-3ūmid 'that is standing') is used:

abwas łom bø xadr i

the apple in my flat

Serial verb construction

Serial verbs are also very common in Cubrite:

Pow Móšé ðø kaht vðųx maþøn u. / Fow Móšé ðø luð kaht vðųx maþøn u.

come.PST.3SG.M Moshe FA take.INF open.INF gift / PST.3SG.M Moshe FA come.INF take.INF open.INF gift 3SG.M

Moshe came, took, and opened his gift.

Directionals derived from verbs, such as laht '(t)hence', bu '(t)hither' and kub 'movement together with another person' are also common and may replace pronouns.

Wh-questions

No special treatment is observed unless the wh-word is the subject, in which case łom is used after the wh-word. However, łom is not used in a question in the form of a nominal sentence. (As always, ri is dropped in questions.)

Dar Petr bø fluð?

What's Peter doing?

Dar łom bø kruð?

What's happening?

Dar se fu?

What's this?

Énr ti?

Where are you?

Énr fows tr ðø laht? / Énr laws tr?

Where have you been?

Vocabulary

Cubrite has the following vocabulary layers:

1. Most of the common words are inherited from the Semitic common ancestor of Ancient Cubrite and Biblical Hebrew, however they often show drastic semantic drift or compounding. Example: šłúd 'a lot' comes from saȝudō 'feast'.
2. Celtic substrates
3. Ancient Greek, Aramaic
4. Latin, Romance, Arabic, Turkic and Modern Greek

Although it is attested in Ancient Cubrite, the *CaCīCō verbal noun pattern is not as productive as the corresponding pattern in Mishnaic and Modern Hebrew.

Many words are formed from earlier construct state or verb + object combinations, and are sometimes unrecognizable as such:

• ambín 'brick' from *habanē binjan 'building stones'
• søvgom 'massacre; (slang) debacle, fiasco; a mess' from *šafx dam 'spilling of blood'
• łénøm 'source' from ʕēn mayim 'spring of water'
• xefin 'to like' from *śe'θ fin lit. 'lift the face of' meaning 'to favor'
• xettném (el) 'to look at' from *śe'θ 3ēnajim 'lift eyes'
• kraleb 'conscience' from *qūl hal-lēbb lit. 'voice of the heart'

Some productive affixes are:

• pen-/ple- = agentive
  • pnar 'wolf' comes from pre-Cubrite *pen harr 'son-of mountain'; a euphemism replacing Ancient Cubrite zēb
• peδ- = place noun
• pød-/pl- = associated inanimate, esp. singulative of a collective noun (from peθθ 'daughter')
  • pdą = tree (*pett ja3r)
  • pdam = wave (*pett jamm)
  • pderm = word (irreg. metathesis from *pett himrō)
  • pdeš = flame
  • pled = echo
  • pødner = stream
  • pødmattr = raindrop
  • pødgašøm = (poetic) petrichor (mattr is the normal word for 'rain')
• -l = transitivizer or causative of verbs (from a -w ~ -l alternation in some intransitive-transitive verb pairs)
• -is: -ess (from Celtic)
  • vasilis 'queen' < vasil 'king'
  • męšivis 'witch' < męšiv 'mage, wizard'
• lið- = mediopassive
• rø- = intensive of verbs

Example texts

UDHR, Article 1

Bar hol plenšil ðø lost bø xurar ej bø šaw łej hobdas ej šertil. Bru'm ðø fkud jax rižún ej kraleb, ej rim bø xett liðalih jaxøm šúv pø nøžóm axwr.

[bɑː hɔl ˈplɛnʃɪl ðə ˌlɔzd bə ˈɹɪð ə bə ˈʃaw ɴɛj hɔbdas ə ʃɛ:tɪl ‖ bɹʊm ðə ˌfkʊd jaɧ ɹɪˈʒɨːn ə kɹaˈlɛb, ə ɹɛm bə ɧɛʔt lɪˈðalɪx ˌjaɧəm ˈʃɨːf pə nəˈʃaom ˈaɧwə]

PASS.PST.3SG.NF all human/PL-DEF.PL be_born PRED free and PRED equal on dignity-DEF.SG and right-DEF.PL. PASS.PRES-3PL endow with reason and conscience, and PRES.3PL PRES carry behave with one_another LOC spirit brotherhood.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act toward one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Tower of Babel

1. Han pø þó law þebwas ðø súðu løžunas ej númas bø lųl.
2. Wini pið im bø laht men óstr, flu'm ð'ęvent meštaxas Šinłar ej ližešib feni.
3. Flu'm el šúv mur: "Púlé, kubnu fluð ambínr ej latteb vuð im." Ej han ambínil bø lųl low'm til abonr, ej ørgílas til mawtt.
4. Flu'm mur: "Púlé, kubnu benin krir lon nu ej tur pøze, jąf ruž se ðø ląluð laht šmémas, ej nąf nu ðø nawž nu bø dųžim! Oz nąf nu dal ðø liðvasir łej þó law þebwas."
5. Wini fow Mønęlas ðø rost bu, hę jąf u ðø xettném el kriras ej turas har han plenšil ław benin.
6. Fow Mønęlas mur: "Łeþr kalu'm ðø laxew fluð suð til xóð pobu łom bø dapr xóð núm, jé dal rustr el mędøbr har jú'm bø zúm fluð!
7. "Púlé, kubnu rost laht ej bawbil núm im, oz jú'm dal bø lębin núm šúv."
8. Ej men feni fow Mønęlas ðø vasir im łej þó law þebwas, ej flu'm ðø lętul benin kriras.
9. Me jernas fu kaw kriras ðø šemas Babel -- fow Mønęlas ðø bawbil feni núm þó law þebwas. Me feni fow Mønęlas ðø vasir im łej þó law þebwas.

Phrasebook

When three forms are given, the forms are respectively for addressing one man (informally), one woman (informally), and politely/gender-neutrally respectively.

• Šaløm! = Hello! / Goodbye!
• Maþin tub! = Good morning!
• Xnitsur tub! = Good afternoon!
• Łarb tub! = Good evening!
• Lél tub! = Good night!
• Xakr! = See you!
• Bu dr/di/dim! = Welcome!
• Praw lah tr/ti [lam tim]! = Thank you!
• Imtsøxém tr/ti/tim = Please (etym. himm jimtsā Hinn ba3ēnēxa 'if it finds favor in your eyes')
  • also plíz (from English)
• łeþ tub = have fun
• Ajšr šemas kaws tr/ti [kawðu tim]? = What's your name?
• Kawð i ðø šemas [NAME]. = My name is [NAME].
• Powð i men... = I'm from...
• Barð i lost pø... = I was born in...
• I bø fu. = I'm here.