The ninth text, and the first written from a list rather than from an idea. The frequency page ended by noting that thirty-seven roots appear in exactly one sentence in the whole corpus, and that this is where the next text should look. Eighteen of them are here.
An errand is the right shape for it: a bed, soap, shoes, a driver, the post office, the bank, rice and salt do not belong to one theme, but they belong to one morning.
Written at 300 roots, with no grammar beyond Lesson 23.
Pagi lai. Mi start din.
Mi go dari yatak. Mi gasil mano mi una sabun.
Mi pone sapatu in kaki mi.
Mi anda por tarik. Tair kanta in asman.
Auto lai. Sofer sema: "Yu go nali?"
Mi respon: "Mi go posta."
Mi kirim surat in posta.
Mi go banka. Mi ambil pesa.
Mi kupi risi, legum, minyak aur namak in market.
Legum ini baru. Mi beri fai pesa.
Grupo anak-anak suru oyun una bola in tarik.
Mi lihat ta-ta. Mi senang.
Mi lai dom. Mi stop anda. Din finis.
Line by line
| Amadunia | English |
|---|---|
| Pagi lai. | Morning comes. |
| Mi start din. | I begin the day. |
| Mi go dari yatak. | I get up from the bed. |
| Mi gasil mano mi una sabun. | I wash my hands with soap. |
| Mi pone sapatu in kaki mi. | I put shoes on my feet. |
| Mi anda por tarik. | I walk along the road. |
| Tair kanta in asman. | A bird sings in the sky. |
| Auto lai. | A car comes. |
| Sofer sema: “Yu go nali?” | The driver says: “Where are you going?” |
| Mi respon: “Mi go posta.” | I answer: “I am going to the post office.” |
| Mi kirim surat in posta. | I send a letter at the post office. |
| Mi go banka. | I go to the bank. |
| Mi ambil pesa. | I take money. |
| Mi kupi risi, legum, minyak aur namak in market. | I buy rice, vegetables, oil and salt at the market. |
| Legum ini baru. | These vegetables are fresh. |
| Mi beri fai pesa. | I give five coins. |
| Grupo anak-anak suru oyun una bola in tarik. | A group of children play a game with a ball in the road. |
| Mi lihat ta-ta. | I watch them. |
| Mi senang. | I am happy. |
| Mi lai dom. | I come home. |
| Mi stop anda. | I stop walking. |
| Din finis. | The day is done. |
What the text found
Writing from a list is not the same as being counted. Eighteen of the thirty-seven appear in this text, but the first draft moved only seventeen of them. legum sat alone between two commas — risi, legum, minyak aur namak — and the frequency measure counts a word only inside a run of two or more, so a word in the middle of a list is named rather than used. It has its own sentence now. The measure is right and the draft was wrong: a list is not a use.
The commonest words did not get commoner. But mi still opens fifteen of the twenty-two sentences, because a first-person errand cannot avoid it. The distribution is a fact about the language, not about the material.
A verb pair carried the frame. Mi start din and Mi stop anda open and close the day. start and stop are already-global loans that had been sitting unused since Lesson 25 taught them, and they turn out to do exactly what they do everywhere else.
One morning holds words from six themes. A bed, soap, a shoe, a foot, a driver, the post, a bank, rice, oil, salt, a bird, a ball. A thematic wordlist separates those; a life does not. That is an argument for writing texts rather than filling categories, and it is the same argument the vocabulary gaps made from the other side — the words the writing asked for were never the words a category would have suggested.
Gaps
It cannot say “I got up”. (To get up, to stand is on the list.) Mi go dari yatak, I go from the bed, is a paraphrase of a position change the language has no verb for. Rising, standing, sitting down — otur is to sit, and there is nothing for its opposite.
It cannot count money. Mi beri fai pesa is “I give five money”; whether pesa pluralises, and what a coin is as against an amount, is untouched. The clock could not be asked either, and this is the same kind of hole: the language names things well and measures them poorly.
“Along the road” is por tarik, and that is a guess. por is the preposition for to, for; using it for a path is not something any rule grants. Place settles direction and location and says nothing about a route, and the second tier of prepositions — through, without, about — is recorded there as being for later. This sentence is the first to want one.
Roots used
56 of 300.