The fourth text, and the first dialogue. The two stories tell; the third argues; this one is two people talking, which turns out to be the hardest of the four for the grammar.
Written at 300 roots, with no grammar beyond Lesson 23.
— Pardon! Yu punya tempo?
— Ya. Ke?
— Mi baru in madina ini. Mi naiti hotel.
— Es du hotel sini. Uan lebi kabir, uan lebi keci.
— Harga?
— Hotel kabir: sis-des pesa por uan rat. Hotel keci: tri-des.
— Mi mau hotel keci. Ta nali?
— Anda tarik ini. Kab yu lihat ponte, go yamin.
— Ponte?
— Ya. Ponte in sungai. Yu no bisa unut ta — ta merah.
— Mersi! Aur es restoran in tempat ini?
— Es. Restoran keci. Corba paling hao in madina.
— Yu sema benar?
— Mi sema benar daima. Mi es tacir. Mi no bisa sema yalan.
— Ok! Mi go sasa. Aksam hao!
— Aksam hao. Agar yu naiti problema, lai tena. Mi in market daima.
Line by line
| Amadunia | English |
|---|---|
| — Pardon! Yu punya tempo? | Excuse me! Do you have time? |
| — Ya. Ke? | Yes. What? |
| — Mi baru in madina ini. Mi naiti hotel. | I am new in this city. I am looking for a hotel. |
| — Es du hotel sini. Uan lebi kabir, uan lebi keci. | There are two hotels here. One bigger, one smaller. |
| — Harga? | The price? |
| — Hotel kabir: sis-des pesa por uan rat. Hotel keci: tri-des. | The big hotel: sixty for one night. The small one: thirty. |
| — Mi mau hotel keci. Ta nali? | I want the small hotel. Where is it? |
| — Anda tarik ini. Kab yu lihat ponte, go yamin. | Walk this road. When you see a bridge, go right. |
| — Ponte? | A bridge? |
| — Ya. Ponte in sungai. Yu no bisa unut ta — ta merah. | Yes. The bridge on the river. You cannot forget it — it is red. |
| — Mersi! Aur es restoran in tempat ini? | Thanks! And is there a restaurant in this place? |
| — Es. Restoran keci. Corba paling hao in madina. | There is. A small restaurant. The soup is the best in the city. |
| — Yu sema benar? | Are you telling the truth? |
| — Mi sema benar daima. Mi es tacir. Mi no bisa sema yalan. | I always tell the truth. I am a merchant. I cannot tell lies. |
| — Ok! Mi go sasa. Aksam hao! | Ok! I’m going now. Good evening! |
| — Aksam hao. Agar yu naiti problema, lai tena. Mi in market daima. | Good evening. If you find a problem, come again. I am at the market always. |
What a dialogue tested that the others did not
Turns are short. A story controls its own length; a conversation does not. Eight of the sixteen turns here are under six words, and three are one word.
The joke lands. Mi es tacir. Mi no bisa sema yalan — a merchant claiming he cannot lie — works because the reader supplies the irony, not the grammar. A language that could not carry that would be a poor one.
Numbers in the wild. Sis-des pesa por uan rat is the first time a compound number, a currency and a preposition have stood together outside a lesson. Nothing about it needed explaining.
What the language still could not say
Two of these are new, and one of them is uncomfortable.
-
There is no rule for a fragment. Ke? Harga? Ponte? — three turns here are a single word, which is what conversation is made of. Every one of them is understood, and not one is covered by anything in grammar/. They work by accident.
-
The imperative was never decided. Anda tarik ini, go yamin, lai tena are commands. Bare verbs have been used as commands since Lesson 10 — Otur sini, plis, Buka ain yu! — and no rule anywhere says they are. The lessons taught a form the grammar never granted. This is the same kind of oversight as the missing mark for names, and it was found the same way: by writing something that was not a lesson.
-
No word for “per”. Sixty per night had to become por uan rat, “for one night”. Understandable, and not the same thing.
-
No interjections. A laugh, an oh, a hesitation. The dialogue reads more clipped than any real one because the language has no way to make a noise that is not a word.
Roots used
62 of 300.