Saturday, July 14, 2007

Guaraní

And now, an introduction to the beautiful language of Guaraní

Yes: Heê
No: Nahaniri

Who, what, where, when, why:

Mava, Mba'e, Moô, Araka'e, Mba'ere

numbers:
1 peteî
2 mokôi
3 mbohapy
4 irundy
5 po


the personal pronouns are
I - Che
you - nde
he\she\it - ha'e
we - ñande (inclusive) ore (exclusive)
you all - peê
them - ha'e kuera


The verbs come in three different types
areals, aireals, and chendalles

areals you add:
Singular Plural
1st person a ja\ña ( for oral\nasal words) ro (exclusive we)
2nd person re pe
3rd person o o

the aireals are the same, but its ai, rei, oi, etc.

the chendalles you just add the personal pronoun and then a word

che kane'o is I am tired, it is like estoy cansado in spanish
but for the third person it isn't just ha'e

you add an i: ikane'o
but for words that begin with vowels you add an ij- if its oral or iñ- if its nasal

and the most important phrase you need:
aipota peteî cerveza penguino rumbyicha
which means: I want a beer like a penguin's ass , which during the summer is apparently quite the necessity.

one of the great things about guaraní in paraguay is that a lot of the jokes and sayings like that are in guaraní

to make things be in the future you add -ta to the end if it is an affirmative statement and -mo'aî if it is a negative statement

for the past when you are asking, you add -ra'e, but when you are responding you add -kuri.

and then there are many, many ¨particles¨ that are little words that indicate things like time, location, desire, necessity, emphasis, and many other things.

-se indicates desire
-ne indicates necessity, and -chene indicates lack of necesity
-hiná indicates an action in progress

Voluntariokuera Cuerpo de Pazndive omba´apo campope opytyvô hagua paraguayokuera
Volunteers with the Peace Corps work in the country to help paraguayans


But all in all learning two languages simultaneously is easier than I thought it would be.

2 comments:

Rob said...

Get some audio on there, i don't know what the words should sound like...i think i sound like some sort of tropical bird.

rasny@aol.com said...

Very impressive grasp of an exotic language. One of the econ dev projects should be starting a band and recording Guarani songs. Sounds like you're having a lot of new experiences. Hopefully the local beer is good. The brewery was probably built by Germans a long time ago. Reid returns Monday from a month in Europe with Amanda, his gf. They started in St. Petersburg and finished in London.
Good luck and have fun. (When will we see the Paraguayan GNP increase as a result of your activities?)
Idan###

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