Spoonfed Lesson 9: Under the Weather

penoli means “sick” or “ill.” After the long hike outside the city, you wake up feeling terrible. With the -a ending, penola = illness, sickness. With the -o ending, penolo = to fall ill.

mopusa means “body” or “physique.” You have a fever – your whole body burns. With the -i ending, mopusi = physical, bodily.

pinaka means “head.” Your head pounds with fever. With the -o ending, pinako = to lead. With the -i ending, pinaki = leading, chief.

sitala means “hand” or “palm.” A local person arrives and examines your hand, checking your temperature. With the -o ending, sitalo = to grab, to handle.

manonpa means “mouth.” The healer asks you to open your mouth so she can look inside. With the -o ending, manonpo = to taste. With the -i ending, manonpi = oral.

lomato means “to heal,” “to cure,” or “to treat.” The person examining you is a healer – puna-lomata (person-heal). With the -a ending, lomata = cure, remedy. Now you can form tana-lomata = medicine (thing-heal) and ketuma-lomata = hospital (building-heal).

piketu means “must” or “need to” – a modal preverb that goes before the verb, like latu (want to) and nusitu (can). The healer tells you that rest is essential. piketu munoso = must sleep. With the -a ending, piketa = need, necessity.

nilapu means “for” in the beneficiary sense – who benefits from an action. nilapu sa = for me. The healer prepares a remedy just for you. With the -o ending, nilapo = to help, to assist.

sukonu means “finish” or “stop” – an aspect preverb like matilu (begin) and kapitu (already). sukonu munlo = finish eating. Aspect preverbs go in the aspect slot, before any modal: tense, then aspect, then modal, then negation, then verb. With the -a ending, sukona = ending, conclusion.

topenka means “pain,” “ache,” or “injury.” You describe your symptoms to the healer. With the -o ending, topenko = to hurt, to injure. With the -i ending, topenki = painful, sore.

mantipa means “blood.” The healer checks your blood as part of the examination. With the -o ending, mantipo = to bleed. Now you can form mopusa-mantipa = heart (body-blood).

tinlona means “tooth” or “fang.” The healer examines your teeth and mouth carefully. With the -o ending, tinlono = to bite, to chew.

lanpota means “nose” or “snout.” Your nose is stuffy and you cannot breathe well. With the -o ending, lanpoto = to smell, to sniff.

kiteni means “angry” or “furious.” Your friend Sima is frustrated that you fell ill and the journey is delayed. With the -a ending, kitena = anger, rage. With the -o ending, kiteno = to anger, to enrage.

pukoso means “to die” or “to perish.” The healer reassures you firmly. pukoso is always intransitive – you can only die yourself. To express “kill,” you must use the causative pattern: pa peto pa: pa pukoso = she causes: he dies. With the -a ending, pukosa = death.

pesinto means “to warn,” “to endanger,” or “to threaten.” The healer warns you not to go hiking again until you recover. With the -a ending, pesinta = danger, hazard. With the -i ending, pesinti = dangerous, hazardous.

nupatu means “billion.” The final magnitude quantifier. With all five magnitudes you can now express any number: nasasu (10), netepu (100), nipolu (1,000), nomipu (1,000,000), nupatu (1,000,000,000). Fractions use tonilu (of/partitive) before a magnitude: tonilu nasasu = one-tenth, tonilu netepu = one-hundredth.