In some cases, the modifying word alters the meaning of the noun in other ways. Normally the word most (bridge) refers to a structure that you might find across a river or a road, but a zub most is a bridge used in dental work. The context of the word zub (tooth) generalizes the meaning of most to include anything that "bridges" a gap. Similarly, in the phrase pel fok, the word pel (fur) expands the meaning of the word fok (seal, member of the genus Phoca) to include all pinnipeds (such as fur seals, members of the subfamily Arctocephalinae). Can you guess what the phrase simba fok means?
Common noun phrases that are relatively simple can be written as a single word. For example, reg means "king, queen, monarch", and ala means "area, place, region, extent", so the compound reg ala (usually written regala) means "kingdom". Another example: tir means "animal, beast (excluding humans)", and menc means "person". The compound tirmenc means "animal-person" (or "furry" to anthropomorphic fans), such as werewolves, centaurs, toons, and the people portrayed in anthropomorphic animal art.
The exact meaning of a two-word phrase can be arbitrary. Is an oliv tcipe a warbler that eats olives, or a warbler the color of olives? In this case, you simply have to know that there is a species (Peucedramus taeniatus) called the Olive Warbler in English, which doesn't eat olives or live in olive trees, isn't actually olive-colored, and may not even be a warbler after all! Similarly, flying lemurs (vol maki) don't fly and aren't lemurs, and an English horn (Éngland horn) isn't English or a horn. When a noun is used in an inaccurate or metaphorical sense such as these, it is customary in Eklektu to modify it with a root such as sa (resembling) or fo (false, not authentic), if the true meaning may be unclear (satcipe, samaki, sahorn).
Another possibility for names that are difficult to translate, such as the olive warbler, is to invent a new Eklektu name, such as "Black-masked Orangehead". The disadvantage of such names is that they may not be easily recognizable, but on the other hand, only English-speakers would recognize oliv tcipe in the first place. (The Spanish name is chipe ocotero.) It might be tempting to simply concatenate the words for black, mask, orange, and head: mel mask zigi pen, but this would be wrong. First of all, an olive warbler is a bird (orn), not a head (pen). But writing zigi pen orn for "orangehead" doesn't solve the problem either. The word zigi modifies the entire phrase pen orn, not pen by itself. It is necessary to use the combining suffix -a to indicate that the subphrase zigi pen modifies the word orn: zigi-pena orn (roughly equivalent to "orange-headed bird"). But if you're talking about birds, you don't necessarily want to keep repeating the word orn all the time. The suffix -n makes a concrete noun out of the adjective phrase you just made: zigi-penan "orangehead" (or "something with an orange head"). Remembering to add -a to the initial subphrase also, the full name of the Black-masked Orangehead in Eklektu is mel-maska zigi-penan.
A prepositional phrase is just a noun phrase preceded by one or more prepositions: ni kust "in the bush", kum mik pod "with small feet". Prepositional phrases modify the preceding noun phrase: mel-maska zigi-penan ni kust "the olive warbler in the bush", gra kan de ya sestra "my sister's gray dog". But prepositions can also be made into suffixes by adding -a, and there is a special suffix -da that is a contraction of -de+a. So another way to write these compound phrases would be: kustnia mel-maska zigi-penan and ya sestrada gra kan. The -da ending can be thought of as equivalent to English 's in phrases such as ya sestrada sinda blu-yana kan "my sister's son's blue-eyed dog".
Vocabulary for Lesson 2
blu blue de of Éngland horn English horn fok seal (animal) gra gray he Éngland England horn horn (musical instrument) kan dog kum with kust bush maki lemur mask mask mel black mel-maska black-masked menc person mik small most bridge ni in, at, on oliv olive (tree, fruit) oliv tcipe Olive Warbler (Peucedramus taeniatus) orn bird pel fur pelfok fur seal pen head pod foot reg king, queen, monarch regala kingdom sa resembling sestra sister simba lion simbafok sea lion sin son tcipe American wood-warbler tir animal, beast (excluding humans) tirmenc animal-person, furry vol to fly; flying volmaki flying lemur, colugo ya I, me, my yan eye zigi orange (color) zigi-penan orangehead (Olive Warbler) zub tooth zubmost dental bridge
Onward to Lesson 3.
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