Kala

THIS SECTION IS CURRENTLY BEING UPDATED TO REFLECT A NEW GRAMMAR.

The Kala conlang...

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Syntax

Kala has an extremely regular grammar, with very few exceptions to its rules. Sentences are made up of one or more phrases. Each phrase consists of a verb (optionally followed by modifying particles) and a subject (optionally followed by modifying particles). The subject, if understood, can be omitted at the end of an utterance: pana ("It is raining.") pana! ("Rain!") An utterance can be anything from an interjection to a story.

Predicates

In the simplest form, the adjective simply appears after the noun, in verbal position. Many statements that would be phrased as adjectival predicates in English are preferably expressed with stative intransitive verbs in Kala, requiring no copula. (For simplicity, such verbs are glossed without “be” in interlinears.)

• mita hikya

dog old

The dog is old.

• nahi tayo aya

daughter 2s.GEN beautiful

Your daughter is beautiful.

The same phrases can be formed using the copula a, this is grammatical but bulky and jarring.

• mita hikya a

dog old COP

The dog is old.

• nahi tayo aya a

daughter 2s.GEN beautiful COP

Your daughter is beautiful.

Negation

The negative mood [NEG] (always marked finally on the primary verb) is indicated by the suffix –k or –nke (when the last syllable contains /k/). See also: 3.2.3) Mood

• tahi inyak

boy hunger-NEG

The boy is not hungry.

• yohuaye ha ke samalo anyak

night-PST 3s O star-PL watch-NEG

She did not watch the stars last night.

In general, contiguous serial verb constructions can only be negated as a whole. Negating one or more of the verbs in the construction separately is ungrammatical.

• na ke tsakahue nya ina ka’elatlik

1s O home-LOC for eat toward-MVT-FUT-NEG

I'm not coming home for dinner.

However, if there is a modal auxiliary, negation may either take scope over the modal (and thus over the whole clause), or alternatively only over the non-modal part of the serial verb construction:

• eta tlahapok

P.2s leave-compel-NEG

You don't have to leave.

• eta tlahamyok

P.2s leave-PERM-NEG

You're not allowed to leave.

In some serial verb constructions, where the middle noun phrase acts both as the object of the first verb and as the subject of the second verb, each verb phrase can be negated separately.

Voice

Passive voice emphasizes the process rather than who is performing the action. In Kala this form is called kemi. There are few patterns to help distinguish between active and passive voices in Kala verbs. Using the passive voice is not common in Kala. It can sometimes be used to emphasize what would normally have been the object of the sentence. In order to shift emphasis away from the agent and towards the patient or theme, a transitive sentence can be passivized simply by word order, or using the particle ni (“by”) [PASS].

ACTIVE

• na ke tanum yempahue moheye

1s O plate-PL table-LOC place-PST

I put dishes on the table.

• na ke topa muntaye

1s O bed rearrange-PST

I changed the bed.

• ha ke yona yomutli

3s O book read-FUT

She will read the book.

PASSIVE

• ke tanum yempahue moheye

O plate-PL table-LOC place-PST

Dishes were put on the table.

• ke topa ni naku nayo muntaye

O bed PASS sister 1s.GEN rearrange-PST

The bed was changed by my sister.

• ke yona ni kola yomutli

O book PASS AG.INDEF read-FUT

The book will be read by someone.

Compound Sentences

Two sentences may be joined together to form a longer compound sentence. Both sentences must be able to stand alone as properly formed sentences. When combined, they simply come one after the other, joined by a conjunction. Common Conjunctions:

Kala	meaning	example
pa	although; even; despite	She is here despite my protest.
po	so; thus	He seems nice so I ate with him.
ku	and; also; too	I see it and I see you.
ma	and; also; too	I see it and you.
ua	and/or; either	You may eat and/or drink.
ue	either X or Y	You may either eat or drink.
uenke (uek)	neither X or Y	You may neither eat nor drink.
yema	both X and Y	I ate both soup and bread.
yo	if X then Y; therefore	If she comes then we’ll eat.
ehe (me)	but ; however	I dislike him, but he is my brother.

• na ina ku ha moku

1s eat and 3s sleep

I am eating and she is sleeping.

• na ina ehe ha moku

1s eat but 3s sleep

I am eating but she is sleeping.

Note: ku is a clause level conjunction used to join to independent clauses.

• ta ina ua inu

2s eat and/or drink

You are eating and/or you are drinking.

• ntahi ke mita anya ma inamya

child O dog see and eat-CAUS

The child saw and fed the dog.

• ta ina ue inu

2s eat or drink

You are either eating or else you are drinking.

• ha tala yo na’am hinatlik

3s come therefore 1pl.EXCL be.here-FUT-NEG

If she comes we won’t be here.

Clause-level conjunctions such as ku (“and; also; too”), ua (“or; either; otherwise”), or ehe (“but; however”) are placed clause-initially. Note that these conjunctions (except for ku) can be used to connect noun phrases.

• tahi tohyo ku nahi pina

boy brave CL.CONJ girl intelligent

The boy is brave and the girl is intelligent.

• ima kihu saman ehe pakyotlai

now weather sun-ADJ however storm-IMM

Now the weather is sunny, but a storm will come soon.

Non-subject noun phrases are coordinated using the conjunction ma "and" (sometimes "with").

• yomaye na ke tanka ma pato anya

day-PST 1s O eagle CONJ duck see

I saw an eagle and a duck yesterday.

• kinti ke tsaka kamyo ma'a yosu sapotle ma siuem muya

squirrel O house 3pl.GEN with moss soft-REL and leaf.PL make

The squirrels make their nest comfortable with soft moss and leaves.

• ona ma ota kyosanku

mother and father fornicate-RECP

Mother and father have sex.

• ta ma'a na ke molihuelatli

2s with 1s O forest-LOC-MVT-FUT

You and I will go to the forest together.

Noun phrases can be presented as alternatives to each other with the conjunction ua ("or; other"). This conjunction can be used with both subjects and non-subjects. The conjunction ue ("(exclusive) either X or Y") is used to delimit other nouns from the conjunction phrase.

• ta ke nasi ua poma inamyo

2s O pear or apple eat-PERM

You may eat an apple or a pear.

• tsola ue otso itsikua mataye

fox either.X.or.Y wolf PROX-bird kill-PST

It must have been a fox or a wolf that killed this bird.

Contrastive coordination of noun phrases is achieved with ehe ("but; however") (or me more informally) if the noun phrases appear in subject position.

• yomaye mita'u ehek mitana ke kutsu kapya

day-PST dog-MASC but-NEG O meat receive

The male dog but not the female dog received meat yesterday.

• na itlaka mek inaka unya

1s PROX-man but-NEG PROX-woman know

I know this man, but not this woman.

Compliment Clauses

Complement clauses, i.e. subordinated clauses acting as a noun (most importantly as the subject or object of a sentence), and are formed exactly like ordinary main clauses, preceded by the particle ke (“topic particle”).

• nakkan ke eya tekim kamahi hyoka munaye

woman-chief O maybe enemy-PL city-DIM attack worry-PST

The queen was worried that the enemies might attack the village.

• itomatle ke maliya noyamya

wood-carve O Mary happy-CAUS

Carving wood makes Mary happy.

Complement clauses can also act as the object of a motional/locational verb:

• ta ke naha ka’elak yatli ke tlohi kuyepak

2s O river toward-MVT-NEG if.X.then.Y O salmon grab-ABIL-NEG

You can't catch salmon if you don't go to the river.

• kam ka’e tsiua uahe moku ma ina yalayenko

3pl toward lake instead.of rest and eat walk-PST-CONT

Instead of taking a rest and eating, they continued to walk towards the lake.

Since complement clauses behave like nouns syntactically, they may participate in existential constructions as well. Semantically, this indicates that the occurrence of the action described in the complement clause is emphatically affirmed.

• uala ke yemua tlana masenko

verily O DIST-place person dance-CONT

There is dancing over there. (lit. it's true that people are dancing there)

In addition to the particle ke, Kala possesses a few other words which may fill the same syntactic position under special circumstances. The most common of these appears in the context of reported speech. A couple of other specialized particles have a more limited distribution, appearing mainly in evidential constructions.

Relative Clauses

Relative clauses, i.e. subordinated clauses acting as an attribute to a noun phrase, are marked with the relativizer -tle (or -le if the last syllable has tl). A pronoun referring to the relativized noun is retained within the relative clause:

• na ke naka amyatle pesoue

1s O woman liked-REL meet-VOL

I want to meet a girl who is friendly.

• kam tananitle ke teki tlalitli

3pl fight-nice-REL O enemy defeat-FUT

They who fight well will defeat the enemy.

• naku nayo ke yakokua na tikuyetle inapua

sister 1s.GEN O strawberry-all 1s pick-PST-REL eat-PFV

My sister has eaten all the strawberries that I picked.

If both subject and object of a transitive relative clause are represented by the same pronoun, the relativized noun will be assumed to be the subject of the subclause. In order to relativize the object in such a situation, the subject must be represented by one of the reflexive, or reciprocal pronouns instead, which explicitly refer back to the subject of the matrix clause:

• aye tanako ke tlaka eha hyokatle mata

past fight-AG O man P.3s attack-REL kill

The warrior killed the man who attacked him.

• aye tanako ke ha tlaka hyokatle mata

past fight-AG O 3s man attack-REL kill

The warrior killed the man whom he attacked.

Relativization of oblique participants works very much the same way as relativization of subjects and objects, but the repeated pronoun needs to appear inside a prepositional phrase or coverb phrase which shows the role of the relativized noun within the subclause.

• ikamahi ena nasayetle

PROX-city-DIM P.1s be.born-PST-REL

This is the village in which I was born.

• ke taku tlakayo na tlayayetle nya teki matapua

O brother man-GEN 1s wed-PST-REL by enemy kill-PFV

The man whose brother I married has been killed by the enemy.

• iyoma ke yomatle ta’ena nya uapa talaue

today O day-REL 2s-P.1s for visit come-VOL

Today is the day on which you want to come and visit me.

In case a relative clause would contain only the subject and an intransitive verb phrase, speakers of Kala are likely to use an attributive construction instead. If the attributed verb phrase contains more than one verb, all of them need to appear in the attributive form.

• na ke nahi amyan pesoue

1s O girl like-ADV meet-VOL

I want to meet a girl who is friendly. (lit. a friendly girl)

• kola sima ke ina kapyatli

AG-INDEF sit O food receive-FUT

Anyone who is sitting quietly gets food.

Note that both relative clauses and attributive constructions tend to be avoided when they refer to the subject of a sentence. Instead, the semantically ‘attributive’ verb describing the subject is treated syntactically as forming a sequential or simultaneous event together with the main verb of the sentence:

• tahi pina ke kema unya

boy smart O task understand

The smart boy understands the task.

Adverbial clauses

Kala has several different ways to express adverbial elements – adverbial suffix, adpositional phrases, serial verb constructions, and full-scale adverbialized subclauses. For most types of adverbials, more than one of these methods can be used. Because an adequate description of this gets rather lengthy, and because it presupposes an understanding of how serial verb constructions work in Kala, it is described in a later section of this document. Adverbial constructions which are valid constituents typically appear near the beginning of a sentence, with adpositional phrases preceding subclauses, but they may be topic-fronted for emphasis. If several adverbial constituents of the same syntactic type are present, they are generally ordered place → manner → reason → purpose → result → time.

Copular Sentences

The copula a (to be; exist; yes) is not used as it is in English. It is primarily used to affirm Yes/No questions. ta inaye ka (Did you eat?) a (Yes.) However, it can be used to add emphasis or nuance to a descriptive phrase. In an adjectival predicate the verb [to be] is not normally used.

• ha kiha

3s tall

She is tall.

• tomua nya itsaka yasue

rent for PROX-house cheap

The rent for this house is cheap.

Questions

There are two types of questions: Polar, those which may be answered "yes" or "no," and those which require explanations as answers.

Polar questions

Any statement can become a polar question by adding the interrogative particle ka at the end of the sentence.

• mita ina

dog eat

The dog eats.

• ta ke tlo’o anyaye

2s O elephant see-PST

You saw the elephant.

• mita ina ka

dog eat Q

Does the dog eat?

• ta ke tlo’o anyaye ka

2s O elephant see-PST Q

Did you see the elephant?

Content questions

Questions that give a list of possible answers are formed like polar questions, with the conjunction ue (“or”) introducing each alternative (which must appear in the form of a noun phrase).

• ta ke nkapa ue maya inuue ka

2s O beer or.EXCL water drink-VOL Q

Do you want to drink beer or water?

• uala ta ke sinka mataye ue empa ma koma ka

truly 2s O lion kill-PST or.EXCL flee CONJ hide Q

Did you really kill the lion, or did you run away and hide?

Open content questions are most easily formed with the correlatives, such as ko (“person”), mo (“place”), to (“manner”), etc. These correlatives always appear clause-initially:

• ko ta ka

person 2s Q

Who are you?

• to kihu ka

manner weather Q

What's the weather like?

• itla ka

this Q

What is this?

• to taku tayo ka

manner brother 2s.GEN Q

How’s your brother?

The other type contains a question word and is followed by ka:

kanyo	Kala	gloss	English
object	ke mita ina ka	O dog eat Q	What does the dog eat?
person	ko ina ka	person eat Q	Who eats?
possession	koyo mita ina ka	person-GEN dog eat Q	Whose dog eats?
manner	to mita ina ka	manner dog eat Q	How does the dog eat?
place	mo mita ina ka	place dog eat Q	Where does the dog eat?
reason	nye mita ina ka	reason dog eat Q	Why does the dog eat?
time	ama mita ina ka	time dog eat Q	When does the dog eat?
amount	uku mita ina ka	amount dog eat Q	How much/many does the dog eat?
which	ula mita ina ka	INDEF dog eat Q	Which dog eats?

Comparison

In Kala the concepts of comparative and superlative degree of an adjective (verb) are merged into a single form, the elative. How this form is understood or translated depends upon context and definiteness. In the absence of comparison, the elative conveys the notion of “greatest”, “supreme.”

• tsaka hayo ke nayo tahaka

house 3s.GEN O 1s.GEN big-AUG

His house is bigger than mine.

• iyapo ke tsaka tayo pakoha

PROX-building O home 2sg new-AUG

This building is newer than your home.

• ke mauam tayo yanahu

O flower.PL 2s.GEN yellow-EXT

Your flowers are the most yellow.

• mitala ke yetlam hikyahi

dog-INDEF O DIST-4pl old-DIM

Some dogs are less old (younger) than others.

When comparing the amount of involvement of several participants in a transitive verb, an appositional construction is used with competing subjects, and complement clauses are used with competing objects:

• tsaneya ke ona pa’e naku hayo itsaha

Jane O mother other.than sister 3s.GEN love-AUG

Jane loves her mother more than her sister does.

• imukuhi ke asua uahe tleno telaniha

PROX-blade-DIM O leather instead.of timber cut-nice-AUG

This knife cuts leather better than it cuts wood.

Indirect Objects

Kala verb phrases have only a single object slot. As a result, the recipient of a ditransitive clause needs to be introduced with the help of an adverbial preposition. The same strategy is also used to introduce other participants in oblique roles.

• ka’e – to; toward [Dative]
• ma’a – with; using [Instrumental] / with; together [Comitative]
• mue – without; lacking [Abessive]
• nya – for (the benefit of) [Benefactive] / by [Passive]
• -hue – at; in; on [Locative]

Dative

Dative participants can be marked with ka’e (“toward; to”), nya (“for; by”), or be syntactically indicated.

• ntahi ke ina ka’e mita yeta

child O food toward dog give

The child gives food to a dog.

• katiko nya ntakum tsani

old-AG for sibling-PL tell.story

The old man recites a story for the siblings.

• ikema nya ena enke

PROX-task for P.1s easy

This task is easy for me.

• teki ke kama na’amyo tanyaye

enemy O village 1pl.EXCL.GEN destroy-PST

The enemies destroyed our village.

Instrumental

Instrumental participants can be marked with ma’a (“with; using”), nya (“for; by”), or be syntactically indicated.

• ona ke ntahi ma’a tlimu nohya

mother O child with blanket wrap

The mother wraps the child in a blanket.

• tsani nya ntaha moyapua

PROX-task for P.1s easy

The story has been written by the elder.

Comitative

Comitative participants are marked with the preposition ma’a (“with; together”), and anticomitative (or abessive) participants are marked with the preposition mue (“without”).

• na ma’a amyako nayo ke masa tasa

1s with friend 1s.GEN O deer hunt

I'm hunting deer with my friend.

• ha ke naha mue ta ka’elaye ka

3s O river without 2s toward-MVT Q

Did she go to the river without you?

Locative

Locative participants can be marked with a variety of adverbial prepositions, most typically -hue (“at; in; on”). See also: 5.1) Locative verbs.

• taku nayo ke poti patlahue patsi

brother 1s.GEN O goat field-LOC herd

My brother is herding goats in the field.

• nam tlatsahue masetli

1pl fire-LOC dance-FUT

We will dance near (at) the fire.

Semantic Fields and Pragmatics

Kala, like all languages relies on the relationship of meanings instead of meanings in isolation. Additionally, morphemes tend to have a range of meanings that exist on a spectrum. A morpheme often can only be defined by its relationship to other morphemes within an utterance, or to other words of a similar semantic field.

One example would be in discussing temperature. Of course there is a system of degrees, but that is a quantitative statement, a qualitative statement would be more relative and open to interpretation.

English divides temperature into "hot, warm, cool, cold", while Kala has just sitsa, tlolo, and manka. However, these can be expanded to be more specific;

• manka – cold
• tlolo – cool; warm (mild)
• sitsa – hot; heat

Using the augmentative -ha and the diminutive -hi adds even more nuance to expressing temperature. mankaha (or mankampa, mankahu) being the coldest, and sitsaha (or sitsampa, sitsahu) the hottest means that tloloha is closer to sitsahi and tlolohi is closer to mankahi. This means that tlolotso (mild-middle) is likely how someone would describe their ideal temperature.

• ya iyoma kihua tlolotso!

VOC PROX-day fine.weather mild-middle

Oh, how today’s weather is so mild!

Of course, some meanings do exist in a binary state;

• asa - alive / kupa - dead

Meanings may also be divided into non-linear semantic space — e.g. color, social classes, directions, parts of the body, time, geographical features.

Numbers

Kala uses a base 10 number system. The basic numbers are as follows:

Kala	number	English	Kala	number	English	Kala	number	English
ye'o	0	zero	tsa'o	6	six	nya'o	500	five hundred
na'o	1	one	ka'o	7	seven	tle'o	103	(one) thousand
ta'o	2	two	pa'o	8	eight	mue'o	104	ten thousand
ha'o	3	three	sa'o	9	nine	kye'o	105	(one) hundred thousand
ma'o	4	four	ue'o	10	ten	nte'o	106	(one) million
ya'o	5	five	nye'o	100	(one) hundred	hue'o	109	(one) billion

Forming Larger Numbers

• uena'o - eleven / 11
• taue'o - twenty / 20
• nyeka'o - one hundred seven / 107
• hanyetauetsa'o (long form) / hatatsa'o (short form) - three hundred twenty six / 326
• tsatletauema'o - six thousand and twenty four / 6024

Long form numbers are used in formal situations, including financial transactions, especially involving large sums. Short form numbers are used in everyday speech and when calculating basic math.

Other Number Forms

Kala	number	English	ordinal	multiple	fractional
na'o	1	one	kina'o first	tina'o once	-
ueta'o	12	twelve	kiueta'o twelfth	tiueta'o duodecuple	iueta'o a twelfth
yauema'o (yama'o)	54	fifty four	kiyama'o fifty fourth	tiyama'o 54 times	iyama'o a fifty fourth
nyetsa'o	106	one hundred (and) six	kinyetsa'o 106th	tinyetsa'o 106 times	inyetsa'o a 106th
katle'o	7000	seven thousand	kikatle'o seven thousandth	tikatle'o 7000 times	ikatle'o 1/7000

Math Operations

Kala math is fairly basic and relies on particles and verbs to express functions. Notable is the use of the copular a to express the result of an equation.

Addition uses ma (and; also). There is no specific order to the numbers in the phrase/equation. Subtraction uses ma (and; also) and a negative form of the smaller integer. There is no specific order to the numbers in the phrase/equation.

• ta’o ma ya’o ke ka’o a

two and five O seven COP

2 + 5 = 7

• ka’o ma ta’ok ke ya’o a

seven and two-NEG O five COP

7 - 2 = 5

Multiplication uses ma (and; also) and a multiple form of one of the integers. There is no specific order to the numbers in the phrase/equation. Division uses ma (and; also) and a multiple-negative form of one of the integers. There is no specific order to the numbers in the phrase/equation.

• ka’o ma tita’o ke uema’o a

seven and multiple-two O fourteen COP

7 x 2 = 14

• hata’o ma tisa’ok ke ma’o a

thrity-two and multiple-eight-NEG O four COP

32 ÷ 8 = 4

Writing system

Kala conscripts are many and varied. Rather than multiple pages explaining each of them, this page serves as a working list with a consistent example across each script. The most commonly used script is the Hangul adaptation for Kala.

Han Moya

Han Moya is an adaptation of Hangul for writing Kala. It is written horizontally, in lines running from left to right. It can also be written vertically in columns.

consonants

• ㄱㄲㄴㄷㄸㄹㅁㅂㅃㅅㅆㅇㅈㅉㅊㅋㅌㅍㅎ

k nk n t nt l m p mp s ns a ts nts ts` k` tl p` h

/k~g ᵑk~ⁿg n t~d ⁿt~ⁿd l~ɾ m p~b ᵐp~ᵐb s~ʃ ⁿs~ⁿʃ - ts~t͡ʃ ⁿts~ⁿt͡ʃ tsʰ~t͡ʃʰ kʰ t͡ɬ~tl pʰ h~ɦ/

The adaptations of doubled consonants are used word initially to indicate prenasalization. Medial occurrences of nasalized syllables are written across syllables.

Example:

• 까바 - nkapa - alcohol; liquor / 단가 - tanka - eagle; hawk; falcon

• 감바 - kampa - Cheers! / 쁘라 - mpula - lamp; lantern; light

vowels

• ㅏ ᅶ ㅐ ㅑ ᅸ ㅓ ㅕ ㅗ ㅛ ㅜ ㅟ ㅠ ㅡ ㅣ

a ao ai ya yao e ye o ao yo ua uai ue u i

/a~a: aʊ̯ aɪ̯ ja~ʲa: jaʊ̯~ʲaʊ̯ e~ɛ je~ʲɛ o~o: jo~ʲo: wa~ʷa: waɪ̯~ʷaɪ̯ we~ʷe: u~u: i~ɪ/

• ㅘ This is pronounced /wa/ in Korean because of the order of the vowels; however, because obsolete jamo are difficult to type and look junky as images, in Kala, this is used for /aʊ̯/ when typing. It is rarely seen due to the diphthong itself being uncommon.

Examples

• 어하 거 거하 가먀터 하요 마아 타감 뱌사하먀여

eha ke keha kamyatle hayo ma’a tlakam pyasahamyaye

[eːɦa kɛ keːɦa kamʲaːt͡ɬe haːjo maːʔa t͡ɬaːkam pʲaʃahamʲaːjɛ]

P.3s O body stun-REL 3s.POSS with man-PL be.popular-AUG-CAUS-PST

Her bewitching body made her very popular with men.

Examples

• seko saye puani nahayo yalaye ma ke tsa’eto omoye

scorpion along bank river-GEN walk-PST and TOP across-way think-PST

A scorpion was walking along the bank of a river, wondering how to get to the other side.

• haye seko ke tsola anyaye

sudden scorpion TOP fox see-PST

Suddenly, he saw a fox.

• seko nya tsa’e naha amo ua’e muta tsolayo kanyoye

scorpion for across river carry on back fox-GEN ask-PST

He asked the fox to take him on his back across the river.

• tsola kye ak na’eta amo yatli ta’ena kute nuesitli

fox IND.SP COP.NEG 1SG-P.2SG carry if.X.then.Y 2SG-P.1SG sting drown-FUT

The fox said, “No. If I do that, you’ll sting me, and I’ll drown.”

• seko kye na’eta kute yatli nam nuesitli

scorpion IND.SP 1SG-P.2SG sting if.X.then.Y 1PL drown-FUT

The scorpion assured him, “If I do that, we’ll both drown.”

• tsola pue omo nkataye

fox after think agree-PST

The fox thought about it and finally agreed.

• ya seko ua’e muta tsolayo uayaye ma tsola yokomuye

VOC scorpion on back fox-GEN climb and fox swim-begin-PST

So the scorpion climbed up on his back, and the fox began to swim.

• me tsa’etsohue nahayo seko ke tsola kuteye

however across-half-LOC river-GEN scorpion TOP fox sting-PST

But halfway across the river, the scorpion stung him.

• tsola ike sunu ke sila hayo yeno ka’e seko muka kye nye ta’ena kuteye ka ima ta nuesitli

fox while poison TOP vein 3SG.POSS fill toward scorpion face IND.SP reason 2SG-P.1SG sting-PST Q now 2SG drown-FUT

As poison filled his veins, the fox turned to the scorpion and said, “Why did you do that? Now you’ll drown, too.”

• seko kye na’i ke to nayo tlinapayek

scorpion IND.SP 1SG.REFL TOP way 1SG.POSS stop-able-PST.NEG

“I couldn’t help it,” said the scorpion. “It’s my nature.”

Lexicon

See also: Lexicon, Kala thematic lexicon, and Kala etymological lexicon.

A small sampling of Kala lexemes.

• pa - although; even though; even if
• pa'a - be well-ordered; regular; organized
• pina - be clever; intelligent; wise
• punka - fruit; fruit tree
• mpana - wide; broad; extensive; vast; width
• tanko - group; organization; team
• tepe - conceal; cover; shield; shelter
• tiku - extract; withdraw; pick-up
• tona - tuna
• ntela - interact; interplay; interrelated
• kanyo - question; ask; raise a question
• kemu - experience; undergo
• kinyo - intervene; get involved
• kona - dress; skirt
• kunye - moon; lunar; satellite
• kuya - green; foliage; verdant
• nkanu - short [in height and from end edge]
• makua - iron; press; smooth out
• menka - cotton
• mosukua - Moscow
• mutla - be absolute; unconditional
• napo - turnip
• ne - indirect object particle
• nota - lie; be in horizontal position; horizon
• nyalo - call; number; telephone
• sahe - across; opposite; other side
• sipanya - Spain
• sokyo - helium
• suama - sew; seam; mend; stitch
• hasu - conjecture; guess; supposition; assumption
• hilo - plaza; public square
• hueta - testicle
• tsame - accumulate; collect; gather; cluster
• tsemu - jam; marmalade
• tsitli - farm; ranch
• tsuto - be curly-haired
• tlato - recite rhythmically; chant; intone
• tlehe - esteemed; honest; candid; sincere
• tlokua - everybody; everyone
• ato - that way [over there]
• atsa - disc; rotate; wheel
• esue - fail; lose
• ila - sail; fly; navigate
• otso - wolf; lupine
• ulo - crop rotation
• uatli - inferior; of lower quality
• uetsi - dispirited downcast [idiom]; in low spirits
• yatso - ferment; brew; make honey; liquor
• yopi - mail; post [office]