The seventeenth text, and the second written for the roots no text had ever used. Text 16 took the market words and the function words and brought the count from 55 down to 34. This one goes to the country after the rest.
A journey was the obvious shape, because most of what was left is out there: a train, a taxi, a farmer, a horse, a cat, a garden, stones, a key, a shirt.
Written at 300 roots, with no grammar beyond Lesson 26.
Uan mensis suda go. Mi suda punya mimpi: safari kabir.
Mi ambil taksi. Sofer leta mi por tren.
Tren anda hayai. Tren anda pat hora.
Mi kan negara mi. Petra kabir in pahar. Asman asul.
Nasab mi espera sini. Ta es kisan.
Cehra ta hao. Rambut ta siya.
Ta buka pintu una anahtar.
Ta punya farasi aur kucing keci.
Animal-animal in bage. Bage sub, dom upar.
Mi beri regalo por ta: kamisa asul.
Ta senang. Mi senang.
Kita otur. Ta sema habari negara.
Kita dengar musik. Musik ini es kultura ta.
Rat lai. Mi lala. Mi punya mimpi tena.
Besok mi saufa go dom mi.
Tarik duan aur safari no muskil.
Mi fikir uhuru es safari.
Line by line
| Amadunia | English |
|---|---|
| Uan mensis suda go. | One month has gone. |
| Mi suda punya mimpi: safari kabir. | I had a dream: a big journey. |
| Mi ambil taksi. | I take a taxi. |
| Sofer leta mi por tren. | The driver brings me to the train. |
| Tren anda hayai. | The train goes fast. |
| Tren anda pat hora. | The train travels four hours. |
| Mi kan negara mi. | I see my country. |
| Petra kabir in pahar. | Big stones on the mountain. |
| Asman asul. | The sky is blue. |
| Nasab mi espera sini. | My relative waits here. |
| Ta es kisan. | He is a farmer. |
| Cehra ta hao. Rambut ta siya. | His face is good. His hair is black. |
| Ta buka pintu una anahtar. | He opens the door with a key. |
| Ta punya farasi aur kucing keci. | He has a horse and a small cat. |
| Animal-animal in bage. | The animals are in the garden. |
| Bage sub, dom upar. | The garden is below, the house above. |
| Mi beri regalo por ta: kamisa asul. | I give a gift to him: a blue shirt. |
| Ta senang. Mi senang. | He is happy. I am happy. |
| Kita otur. | We sit. |
| Ta sema habari negara. | He tells the news of the country. |
| Kita dengar musik. | We listen to music. |
| Musik ini es kultura ta. | This music is his culture. |
| Rat lai. Mi lala. | Night comes. I sleep. |
| Mi punya mimpi tena. | I dream again. |
| Besok mi saufa go dom mi. | Tomorrow I will go to my house. |
| Tarik duan aur safari no muskil. | The road is short and the journey is not difficult. |
| Mi fikir uhuru es safari. | I think freedom is a journey. |
What it reached
Twenty-seven roots used here for the first time in any text: anahtar, animal, asul, bage, cehra, duan, farasi, habari, kamisa, kisan, kucing, kultura, mensis, mimpi, musik, muskil, nasab, negara, pat, petra, rambut, regalo, safari, sub, taksi, tren, uhuru. The draft called it sixteen; the list under it had twenty-seven in it, and the count is the thing that was wrong.
Seven roots are now left, and two of them cannot be used at all yet: madad, whose class is undecided, and kadang, whose position as a frequency adverb is an open question. Writing either would answer a question this text has no standing to answer. The other five are burun, dekat, gusa, kiri and polisi.
sub was the one that needed care. It is a place word, like sini and situ, not a preposition: Bage sub is “the garden is below”, and sub dom would be inventing a fourth preposition beside in, dari and por. The line was written the way the language allows and reads better for it.
pat, four, was the last digit no text had used. It is in Tren anda pat hora — four hours — which also leaves duration unmarked, the way Lesson 13 already does with din cang.
Gaps
No word for a station. (Not on the list and not in the A1 checklist either — a station is a thing neither method had reached.) The taxi brings me por tren, to the train, because there is nowhere for a train to be. Every journey text will hit this.
Duration has no marker. Tren anda pat hora is “the train goes four hours”, and nothing distinguishes that from a time when. The language has been doing this since Lesson 13 and has never decided it; it belongs beside the question about in and time.
No word for but, a fourth time. Tarik duan aur safari no muskil wants “the road is short but the journey is not easy”. Every text that has tried to contrast two clauses has wanted it — the ninth gap, now asked for by four pages.
Roots used
73 of 300.