Proto-Mila Coursebook Chapter 3: view article

Chapter 3 ‘to be’ with a preposition

If we want to translate the sentence I am in the house we see that this is a different form of sentence. Unlike I am happy or I am a man we do not have an attributional descriptor (happy or man) instead we have a description of location, in this case in the house. Using the description in Chapter 2 we therefore have nowhere we can place the grammatical information of I am. We therefore need to add some information.

Let us first deal with the prepositional phrase in the house. The dictionary form for house is ‘lugla’ implying that its base form is LKL. To include the prepositional information of in we modify the base form by adding ‘ir-‘ (this does not take the stress). In the house thus has the modified base form irLKL which gives us the form ‘ilúgla’ once it has undergone syllabification. This form with ‘ir-‘ is a modification of position, and expresses not only in, but also on and at. Prepositional forms always come after a subject at the beginning of a sentence. In this case we do not have a subject (as we have a pronoun) so it comes at the very start of the sentence.

As we mentioned there is nowhere to include the information I am using our existing structure, so we introduce a descriptor to deposit our grammar. In this case we translate the sentence I am the person. Person has the base form LLL, so I am the person has the modified base form of áLLL which gives the form ‘álu’.

This means the sentence I am in the house becomes ‘Ilúgla álu’. The following will give the different forms:

I am in the house ilúgla álu
you (singular) are in the house ilúgla lála
he/she/it is in the house ilúgla lulál
we are in the house ilúgla áluda
you (plural) are in the house ilúgla lálit
they are in the house ilúgla lulálda

These forms are very common and are usually reduced in speech, the long forms are considered rather old-fashioned or overly formal and should only be used in very formal situations. The reduced forms are:

álu al
lála la
lulál lal
áluda áda
lálit lat
lulálda láda

If we add a subject, we do say as described in Chapter 2. So the sentence The man is in the house would be translated ‘Lúric ilúgla lal’

Vocabulary:
book piɟla
bridge sugla
chair luka
cloud hicsa
dog juda
field kiɟla
horse jukha
knock riɟla
room lukpa
sky huhka
sun kuhta
table ku(l)ma
tree juka
water sizma

Exercise 1

Translate into Mila:
1 You boys are in the room. (Lídic ilúkpa lat.)
2 The woman is on the chair. (Lúmic ilúka lal.)
3 I am in the field. (Igíɟla al.)
4 The girls are at the river. (Lúmdic izíska láda.)
5 We are at home (in the house). (Ilúgla áda.)
6 You (singular) are at the table. (Igúma la.)

This is fine for if we are talking about animate objects, but we cannot for example use a form similar to The dog is the person in the house. Here we would have to translate The dog is the animal in the house. The base form for animal (or living being which is not human) is JJJ so the long forms are ‘ájij, jája, jijáj, ájijda, jájit, jijájda’. Again these forms are shortened in this position to give ‘aj, ja, jaj, ájda, jat, jáda’. So the dog is in the house is translated as ‘Júdic ilúgla jaj’.

This still cannot cover all situations. If we want to say the coin is on the table we would need to say the coin is the thing on the table. However we must first decide where exactly the pen is, depending on whether the speaker can reach the pen from where he is standing, whether he can see the pen, or whether it is absent from sight. For abstract concepts these fall into the out of sight construction. The following forms are used for each (the short forms are given in brackets):

within reach within sight out of sight
I átit (at) ácic (ac) ápup (ap)
you táta (ta) cáca (ca) pápa (pa)
it tidát (da) ciɟác (ɟa) pubáp (ba)
we átita (áta) ácicta (ácta) ápupta (ápta)
you tátit (tat) cácit (cat) pápit (pat)
they tidáta (dáta) ciɟácta (ɟáta) pubápta (báta)

Exercise 2

Translate into Mila:
1 The dog is in the water. (Júdic izízma jaj.)
2 The book is here on the chair. (Píɟlic ilúka da.)
3 The book is there (I can see it). (Píɟlic ɟa.)
4 The book is (elsewhere) on the table. (Píɟlic igúma ba.)
5 The clouds are in the sky. (Hícsic ihúhka ɟata.)

Exercise 3

Translate into English:
1 Júkhic igíɟla jaj. (The horse is in the field.)
2 Lídic izúgla láda. (The boys are at/on the bridge.)
3 Kúhtic ihúhka ɟa. (The sun is in the sky.)
4 Líjdic ilúka dáta. (The clothes are (here) on the chair.)
5 Ríɟlic igúha ba. (There’s a knock at the door lit. A knock is at the door.)

We have met the prepositional modification which indicates in, at, on. The following will give some additional afix modifications and some examples:

English Mila Example Translation
under up- ublúka under the chair
in front of uh- uhkúma in front of the table
among -ss júkisa among the trees
from/made of -r kíɟli from the field
kíɟni made of brass

Exercise 4

Translate into Mila:
1 The dog is under the table. (Júdic upkúma jaj.)
2 The clouds are in front of the sun. (Hícsic uhkúhta ɟata.)
3 The fruit here is (are) from the forest (formal) (Múkhic jíjgi tidáta.)
3 I am in the forest, among the trees. (Ijíjga júkisa al.)
4 The boat here is made of wood. (Súgic júki da.)

Translate into English:
1 Kúhtic hícsisa ɟa. (The sun is among the clouds.)
2 Uhkúha lálit. (You all are in front of the door. (formal))
3 Súgic izizma upsúgla ba. (The absent boat is in the water under the bridge.)
4 Lúlisa la. (You are among the people (in the crowd).)
5 Lúkic júki kíɟnila dáta. (The chairs here are made of wood and brass.)

One final preposition worth noting, though it often comes with verbs of motion is:

towards -j kuhíj towards the door

It should be noted that unlike the other prepositional affixes, this one attracts stress, meaning the syllable which contains ‘j’ will have the main word stress. The reason we are mentioning this now is because it is also used to address people, so has the function of a vocative. If we wish to address our mother, for example, in English we would just call mother! In Mila however we need to say it is towards mother with it being what will next be said, so something abstract. This then forms a sentence in its own right. This will thus be translated as ‘luhmíj ba’. ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article

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