Spoonfed Lesson 1: A Familiar Face

The Luma greeting. The stem sik means SEE, and the -a ending makes it a noun — literally “a seeing!” Every Luma word must end in -a, -o, -i, or -u. A bare stem by itself is never a valid word.

sa means “I” or “me.” Notice sik now ends in -o instead of -a — the -o ending makes a word a verb. So sika = a seeing, but siko = to see. The same stem changes role based on its ending: -a = noun, -o = verb. Word order is Subject–Verb–Object (SVO), just like English.

tana means “thing.” The -a ending marks it as a noun, sitting in the object position after the verb. SVO at work: sa (I) siko (see) tana (thing).

no is the verb “to be” or “to exist.” In Luma, you never drop this verb — if you want to say something is something, no must be there. The stem is n, and -o makes it a verb.

pa means “he,” “she,” “it,” or “that” — Luma has no gender distinction. Here pa refers back to the tana we just mentioned. This is back-reference: once you introduce something, you can use pa to point back to it.

puna means “person.” We can now see what the thing is — pa (that) no (is) puna (a person). The sentence links back to what we saw with pa, then tells us what it is.

lelo means “to know.” Stem lel + -o verb ending. Simple SVO: sa (I) lelo (know) puna (person). Not just any person — someone familiar.

kenu means “and” — it connects two clauses. Notice the comma before kenu: whenever a -u word introduces a new clause (with its own subject and verb), a comma is required. After kenu, you start a fresh clause with its own subject: sa lelo pa. And pa here refers back to puna — the person we just mentioned.

minena means “friend.” Stem minen + -a noun ending. The pattern is the same as before: subject (puna) + verb (no) + what they are (minena).

tinuma means “name” (as a noun). Stem tinum + -a ending. This stem will show up again in the next sentence with a different ending. In English, you would probably say “I know their name”, but Luma favors brevity. From context, we know which name we are talking about, so we don’t need to specify “their name”, and can just say “name”.

The same stem tinum now has the -u ending: tinumu. In Luma, -u words go before their target, so tinumu goes before the proper name Matu. Every proper name in Luma must be preceded by tinumu.

The second sentence introduces ku, which means “not.” It goes right before the verb: pa ku siko sa = “he not see me.” Like other -u words, ku precedes its target.

moni means “good” or “well.” The -i ending makes a word a modifier (like an adjective or adverb). Modifiers always come after the word they describe. Here moni follows the verb no — “Matu exists good-ly” gives us “Matu is well.” Notice that to use someone’s name as a subject, you still need tinumu before it.

solo means “to say” or “to speak.” Stem sol + -o verb ending. A colon introduces quoted speech, and the quote sits after it.

minsi means “other” or “different.” The -i modifier follows its head: puna minsi = “other person” = someone else. Then no completes the first part. The second sentence uses ku again before the verb: sa ku lelo pa = “I don’t know them.”

sutu means “toward.” It has the -u ending, so it goes before its target — here, pa minsi (that other one). This is the core positional rule at work: -i words follow their head (pa minsi — “that” modified by “other”), while -u words precede their target (sutu pa minsi — “toward that other one”).

Inside the quote, kipu means “owned by” — it marks possession. The pattern is: the thing possessed + kipu + the possessor. So minena kipu sa = “friend of mine” (friend owned-by me). This is head-first order, the same as English “friend of mine” but opposite to “my friend.” Luma always puts the possessed thing first.

The rest of the quote uses what we already know: kenu connects the two clauses, and tinumu Sala introduces the new name.

selami means “happy.” It’s an -i modifier following sika — so sika selami = “a happy seeing” = “nice to meet you.” The colon introduces what is being said, and sutu tinumu Sala tells us who it’s directed toward.