Mirad Grammar/Lesson 5

Lesson 5: How old are you?

In this lesson, you will learn how to count and deal with numbers. You will also learn to conjugate verbs in the perfect aspect.

Dialog

Dialog 4 between Bob and Mary: How old are you?

SPEAKER	MIRAD	ENGLISH
M	Et se duhojaga?	How old are you?
B	At se ulo (jabi) jaga.	I'm forty years old.
M	Hwiy! Et se elo jabi gajaga vyel at.	Wow! You are twenty years older than I.
B	At te, oy et gay agso ig.	I know, but you too will grow quickly.
M	Hus se vyaa. Et tambesaye hia dom ji duhogla jabi?	For how many years have you been living (= you have lived) in this city?
B	At voy te vyavay, oy at saye him ji gla jabi.	I don't know exactly, but I've been here for many years.
M	Et bayse hogla tudi?	How many children do you have?
B	At bayse iwa twudi ay awa tuyd. Yit se eb iwa ay yowa jabi jaga.	I have three sons and one daughter. They are between three and five years old.
M	Av hus, et sayo tadxwa gwoy ji yawa jabi, vao?	So, you will have been married for at least six years, right?
B	Vay yewa. Yata aa tud taja ewa jabi jo ha tadien	Actually seven. Our first child was born two years after the marriage.
M.	Hyay. At oztasaye. Sa fia daler bay et. Hoy.	Great. I have gotten tired. It was good talking with you. Bye.

Grammar Notes

Perfect Aspect Verbs

In the past lessons, you learned the simple and progressive aspect tenses of the verb. Here you will learn the perfect aspect, which act just as the perfect tenses in English (I have studied, I had studied, I will have studied, and I would have studied). The sign of the perfect aspect is the infix ay (as opposed to ey, the infix for the progressive aspect tenses).

Here is a chart showing the new set of tenses (active voice only):

Perfect Aspect Tenses

ASPECT / VOICE / MOOD / TENSE	INFINITIVE = ser...to be STEM+INFIX = s+ay-
Perfect Active Indicative Present	at saye....I have been
Perfect Active Indicative Past	at saya....I had been
Perfect Active Indicative Future	at sayo....I will have been
Perfect Active Hypothetical (Conditional)	at sayu....I would have been

Examples:

• At tambesaye him ji glaj.....I have lived here for a long time.
• Et saye fua.....You have been bad.
• At voy tayu hus.....I would not have known that.
• At jay tajayu haj hu et pyua ela jabi jaga.....I had been born already when you reached twenty-one years of age.
• Be ata tajjub, at tejayo ilyo jabi.....On my birthday, I will have lived thirty-five years.

Counting and Telling One's Age

A full explanation of numbers and counting can be found in the chapter on Numbers. The units, when counting, end in -wa. The teens end in -lo, -la, -le, -li, etc. The hundreds in so, -sa, -se, etc.

The question for asking someone's age is usually Et se hojaga?....How old are you?

The answer is usually phrased as At se x-number (jabi) (jaga).....I am x-number (years) (old) where either word in the parentheses can be omitted. The Mirad word jabi means years and jaga means old or of age. So, to say I am forty-two years old, you would say At se ule jabi jaga or just At se ule., or At se ule jaga.

The word jaga can just be the adjective old, the opposite being joga....young. Jag as a noun means age. An old person is jagat, while a youth is jogat.

The "dimension" jag (age) can be prefixed with all the h- deictic prefixes and all the quantitative prefixes like ga, go, or gla. For example:

• duhojaga?....how old?
• hijaga....this old
• hujaga....that old
• hejaga....somewhat old
• gajaga (vyel)....older (than)
• gejaga (vyel)....as old (as)
• gojaga (vyel)....less old (than)
• gwajaga....eldest
• grajaga....too old
• grojaga....minor
• glajaga....very old

All of the above terms and others can be pronominalized animately or inanimately:

• Grojagati voy upo.....Minors will not come.
• Hujagasi se vua.....Things that old are ugly.

The word joga, when referring to things can be translated as new:

• At ayse jogas av et.....I have something new for you.

When joga applies to people, it means young:

• Hijuba jogati te glos.....The youth of today know little.

Adding Gender to Nouns

Nouns do not have inherent gender in Mirad. For example, tad simply means spouse (husband or wife).

To make a gender-neutral noun masculine or male, insert a w just before the stem vowel.

• tad....spouse becomes twad....husband

Similarly, to make a gender-neutral noun feminine or female, insert a y just after the stem vowel or vowel cluster:

• tad....spouse becomes tayd....wife (tayd is pronounced exactly like Am. Eng. tide)

Other examples:

• tud....child

• twud....son
• tuyd....daughter

• tob....person, human being

• twob....man
• toyb....woman

Singular personal pronouns can be genderized similarly:

• it....he or she, him or her

• wit....he or him
• iyt....she or her

• at....I or me (gender unspoken)

• wat....I or me, being a male
• ayt....I or me, being a female

• et....you

• wet....you, being a male
• eyt....you, being a female

The plural personal pronouns yat, yet, and yit stay gender-neutral.

Deictic pronouns can be genderized unless the deictic prefix begins in hy-:

• hut....that person, he or she, him or her
• hwut*....that guy, he or him
• huyti....those gals, they (being females)

* The hw is pronounced as Am. Eng. wh in where.

Quantitative Deictic Determiners

Determiners specifying quantity and answering the question duhogla (how much) are show in the following chart:

Quantitative Deictic Determiners

CATEGORY	ADVERBIAL / ADJECTIVAL DETERMINER	INANIMATE SINGULAR PRONOUN	INANIMATE PLURAL PRONOUN	ANIMATE PLURAL PRONOUN
Interrogative	duhogla? how?/how much?/how many?	duhoglas? how much?	duhoglasi? how many	duhoglati? how many (people)?
Relative	hogla how...as/as much...as/as many...as	hoglas as much as	hoglasi as many as	haglati as many (people) as
Definite	hagla how/as much/as many	haglas as much	haglasi as many	haglati as many (people)
Indefinite	hegla somewhat/some/some	heglas some	heglasi some	heglati some (people)
Proximal	higla this/this much/this many	higlas this much	higlasi this many	higlati this many (people)
Distal	hugla that/that much/that many	huglas that much	huglasi that many huyglasi so many	huglati that many (people)
Intensive	huugla so very, so much, so many	huuglas so much	huuglasi so many	huuglati so many (people)
Distributive	hyagla totally/all/all	hyaglas all of it	hyaglasi all of them	hyaglati all of them
Indeterminate	hyegla however/any/any	hyeglas any of it	hyeglasi any of them	hyeglati any number of them
Negative	hyogla none	hyoglas none of it	hyoglasi none of them	hyoglati none of them
Identical	hyigla as/as much/as many, equally	hyiglas the same amount	hyiglasi the same number	hyiglati as many (people)
Non-Identical	hyugla not as much/not as much/not as many	hyuglas a different amount	hyuglasi a different number of things	hyuglati a different number of people

Examples:

• At se huugla iva van et upa.....I am so happy that you came.
• Hyagla ata tixuti se fia. Hyoglati se fua.....All of my students are good. None of them are bad.
• Yat ayse higla drari.....We have this many pencils.
• At ta hyigla dudi vyel et.....I knew as many answers as you.
• Duhoglati te eta tajjub?....How many people know your birthday?

Vocabulary

Nouns:

• jag....age
• taj....birth    (tej....life, toj....death)

• tajjub....birthday

• tadien....marriage   ( < tad....spouse, twad....husband, tayd....wife)
• tud....child    (twud....son, tuyd....daughter)

Adjectives:

• iva....happy (vs. uva....sad
• jaga....old (vs. joga....young

Verbs:

• ter....know (a fact)
• tajer....be born (tejer....live, tojer....die)

Determiners/Adverbs:

• duhogla?....how (many/much)    ( du....say + ho-....which + gla....much, many, very )
• duhojaga?....how old    (du....say + ho-....which + jag....age
• jay....already
• gay....also    (gey....even)
• glaj....a long time    (vs. gloj....a short while)
• gaj....more, further, still    (vs. goj....no longer)
• gway....mostly    (vs. gwoy....at least)

Prepositions:

• ji....since    ( ju....until)
• ja....before   ( je....during, jo....after)

Pronouns:

• jogat....youth
• jogas....something new
• jagat....old person

Interjections:

• hwiy.......wow!    (hwuy.......woe!, yikes! )

Quiz

Fill in the following blanks with the Mirad equivalent of the underlined English:

1 Yat him av ser bay yeta tudi.....We have come here to be with your children.

2 Et duhogla tixuti be hia tistam?....How many students have you taught at this school?

3 Duven et eta tamyex?....Have you done your homework?

4 Ha gwajaga tixut be ata tistam se .....The oldest student at my school is nineteen years old.

5 Eta tuxut tuxaye be hia tistam ?....How many years has your teacher taught at this school?

6 bi yet te ata dyun?....How many of you know my name?

7 Gla jagati jabi ja van et taja.....Many old people had lived years before you were born.

8 Iva tajjub! Et se hij?....Happy Birthday! How old are you now?

9 Eta tuyd . Se uva jub.....Your daughter has died. It is such a sad day.