I Dance Can Not

Each language has its own structure.

One of the earliest features of this language that I noticed is that the negation word comes at the end of a sentence, as in:

      “Geba Israelo dii puna bet-beta tu Opo ba prepak dii moo.”

       “People Israel the did exactly-in-accordance-with God said 

        the not.”   

        The Israelites did not do exactly as God had said.

Another feature I’ve noticed is that the word used for being able to do something well or knowing how to do something (“beta”) comes after the verb, as in: 

“Ringe hama beta koto moo.”

“He search-for can lice not.”

          He’s no good at searching for lice.

My favourite recent example of complicated sentence structure is as follows:

“...Roki Tina prepak, ring ha-tatak emsiken beta Juli 

fi di wae dii moo...”

“...Roki’s Mom said, she leave behind alone can Julie 

at stream the not...”

...Roki’s Mom said she couldn’t leave Julie 

behind alone at the stream...

With sentence structures so different from English, it’s no wonder I frequently get my words mixed up! But then again, compared to two years ago, when I knew not a single word in my new language...I’m well on my way now. And I trust that I’ll continue to improve, with time and practice. :)