Miskito/Lesson 1

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	Miskitu Aisas! Miskito Language Course
Pronunciation		1	Nini Mary sa
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Contents			My name is Mary

[edit] Is

Study	What do they mean? John is big. Luis is small. He is Pedro. She is Susan. She/He is young. She/He is poor. My name is Mary. My child is small.
Jan tara sa. Luis sirpi sa. Witin Pedro sa. Witin Susan sa. Witin tiara sa. Witin umpira sa Nini Mary sa. Tuktiki sirpi sa.

Practice

Make a list of the words in these sentences and try to learn their meanings.
Hide the meanings of the model sentences and try to remember what they mean.
What do the following mean?

Witin sirpi sa.
Tuktiki tiara sa.
Nini Jan sa.
Pedro umpira sa.

Answers

She/He is small.
My child is young.
My name is John.
Pedro is poor.

The verb usually comes at the end of a Miskito sentence. The first verb form you will learn is sa is. The subject often comes first in the sentence.

Notice that Miskito grammar makes no gender distinctions. Both she and he are expressed by the same Miskito pronoun, witin.
Notice that nini and tuktiki both mean my... (something), and both end in -i.

[edit] This and that

Study	What do they mean? This is John. This is my child. That is Lucia. That is my mother.
Naha Jan sa. Naha tuktiki sa. Baha Lucia sa. Baha yaptiki sa.

Practice	What do these sentences mean?
Naha sirpi sa. Baha nini sa. Naha yaptiki sa.
Answers This is small. That is my name. This is my mother.

The demonstrative pronouns are naha this and baha that.

[edit] The

Study	What do they mean? The woman is young. The man is young too. The book is big. This book is small.
Mairin ba tiara sa. Waitna ba sin tiara sa. Buk ba tara sa. Buk na sirpi sa.

Practice	What do these sentences mean?
Waitna ba umpira sa. Mairin ba sin umpira sa. Mairin na yaptiki sa.
Answers The man is poor. The woman is poor too. This woman is my mother.

The general definite article ("the") is ba. The article follows the noun. There is another article na which denotes something near the speaker, and so is translated by "this".

Notice the parallellism between the demonstrative pronouns naha, baha and the articles na, ba!

[edit] A

Study	What do they mean? Susan is a woman. My mother is a woman too. My father is a man. This is a book. This dog is an animal.
Susan mairin kum sa. Yaptiki sin mairin kum sa. Aisiki waitna kum sa. Naha buk kum sa. Yul na daiwan kum sa.

Practice	What do these sentences mean?
Pedro waitna kum sa. Naha yul kum sa. Baha daiwan kum sa.
Answers Pedro is a man. This is a dog. That is an animal.