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Ruar is a university student from Tarsa on exchange at the University of Wel Timas. He’s an intermediate learner of Saremite, but he’s only ever had the opportunity to use it in classes, so he’s a little nervous about his first conversation with another student. Fortunately, Daru ta-Samat is friendly and helpful, and he can point Ruar in the right direction.
Rúar: Borūz, epez parudidal shur nyer zāt, che…yerogim nyer.
Dārū: Kep pan borū! Parudidal shur, dez nyer? Ekenesh tīzun. Kep zāt jīsez Dārū tā Sámat.
Ruar: Azale, e Dārū. Kep zāt jīsez Ruar tā Uldhir.
Dārū: Azale. Ruwar, dez nyer?
Ruar: Nyer aid. Ru-ar. Zāt yorez aur Tarsa.
Dārū: Aur Tarsa, dez nyer? Pan tedibez tīzun tedbez Saremuz!
Ruar: Siten kerān.
Dārū: Onyek, zhijīse aid zāt “kerān”. Parudidalū nyer!
Ruar: Siten pan, kizu.
Dārū: Laun aid! Lūz dīnor be zūl kaid?
Ruar: Be Retek…108 [pāsh gozhe che tūm].
Dārū: Zāt dīnor be zūl gon. Zhiyor ten zāt!
Ruar: Siten pan!
Dārū: Laun aid — chezi nyer la karedak.
Looks like Ruar’s Saremite is better than he thought, and if he keeps it up, he’ll have a great cultural exchange experience.
Stress in Saremite typically falls on the last syllable of a word if the word ends in a consonant, or on the second-to-last syllable of a word if the word ends in a vowel. There are some exceptions to this, however: in dictionaries and grammars, irregular stress is marked by an acute accent on a short vowel (éken) or a circumflex on a long vowel (tîzun). Suffixes like -(z)un, the adverb suffix (equivalent to English -ly) are usually exempt from the normal rules about stress, but for the benefit of learners, stress will be marked on words with derivational suffixes.
There’s probably too much in this lesson for a real textbook, but here goes.
As you can see, the basic word order of Saremite is subject-verb-object, but this dialogue shows off two of the main variations:
On the first point, note that Ruar’s anxiety about being clear (since his native language never drops pronouns) has led him to overuse his pronouns a little in this dialogue.
Adjectives in Saremite follow the nouns they modify, and by the same token, adverbs follow the words they modify.
All of the verbs in this dialogue except in the stock phrase ekenesh tīzun “welcome” are in the present tense, so we won’t worry about other tenses for the moment. Instead, we get to talk about aspect! And the imperative.
Verbs in Saremite distinguish several possible aspects, which tells you something about how the action is performed. All three aspects appear in this dialogue:
Note that the verb nyer “be” is always habitual.
This dialogue also uses the imperative, used to give commands. The imperative is marked by the prefix zhi/izh- (zhi- before a consonant, izh- before a vowel). Daru tells Ruar, zhiyor ten zāt “come with me”. Commands are typically in the perfective, but may occasionally show up in another aspect.
Verbs in Saremite do not change to match the person of their subject: the verb that accompanies zāt “I” is the same as the one accompanying kerān “you (formal)”. Saremite verbs do change to reflect the number of their subject (see the “nouns” section below for details on number in Saremite), but we’ll get to that later, as it’s slightly more complicated.
Nouns in Saremite change to reflect number. Unlike English, Saremite has three numbers:
This dialogue uses the singular all the way through, except when Daru says parudidalū nyer “[we two] are [two] students”; don’t worry about the dual or plural yet. They’ll be explored in more detail later.
Saremite has neither definite (“the”) nor indefinite (“a, an”) articles: parudidal can mean “student”, “a student”, or “the student”. Context generally makes it clear which is meant.
This dialogue introduces three different pronouns:
Unlike English, Saremite pronouns don’t change form depending on their role in a sentence: that is indicated by word order alone.
The difference between pan and kerān is comparable to the difference between tu and vous in French or du and Sie in German. Pan is used in informal contexts, between friends, and among family members. Kerān is typically reserved for formal situations: talking to a superior at work, to a professor, and similar. Kerān is also usually appropriate when meeting a stranger, but among younger Saremites, pan is increasingly used even when meeting someone new. In this dialogue, Daru requests that Ruar address him with kerān rather than pan.
When in doubt, err on the side of kerān — you will be quickly corrected if your interlocutor feels you’re being too formal.
One common class of words with irregular stress in Saremite is the group of verbs ending in -en (e.g., éken), which are stressed on their second-to-last syllable despite ending in a consonant.
Proper nouns, especially personal names, are often also irregularly stressed; these will be noted when introduced.
Saremite names are accompanied by a patronymic (generally for men, tā followed by their father’s name) or matronymic (generally for women, lis followed by their mother’s name): Daru introduces himself as Dārū tā Samat, i.e., Daru, son of Samat. Saremite-speakers with multiple or no parents of the same gender may use either or both of their parents’ names (though many will have one they default to). Historically, the name of the higher-status parent was used, but this does not apply today except among members of the buratura, the traditional aristocracy.
Fortunately, Ruar also comes from a culture that uses patronymics, so he is able to easily adapt his name to the Saremite style (although Daru might find his father’s name, Uldhir, tricky to pronounce).
Note that patronymics do not function like family names: the proper way to address a Saremite is always by their personal name or full name with patronymic. In a professional context, one might (conceivably) address Daru as “Mr. Daru”, but never as “Mr. ta-Samat”.
When addressing someone by name or title, their name or title is preceded by the particle e. E has no meaning on its own but serves to mark direct address. Note that if a name or title begins with a vowel, e is dropped.
Questions are introduced in standard Saremite with one of two particles, dez (for yes or no questions) and lūz (for open-ended questions, typically involving a question word). These come at the beginning of the sentence, as in lūz dīnor be zūl kaid “where are you going?” and dez nyer “is it?”.
In colloquial speech, the particle lūz is frequently dropped, and in the speech of younger speakers dez is occasionally dropped as well. Since this course aims to teach the standard language, we’ll continue using the question particles for now, but in later lessons you’ll encounter more colloquial usage, so stay tuned!