I would like to buy a rug for myself, but I can't afford to. I must save hard if I want these things. There are many other things for sale, too, but I can't afford to buy jewellery or pottery made in Ghonabad or Shahreza.

adebi, adequate

nar, money: nubdi adebi nar, [be able to] afford

peta, if: pepeta, then

yevadi, save sth: yevustadi, must save sth

eher diga, for sale [lit, to be sold]

saqir qoisu, jewellery

i, or

saqir ceva, pottery

raidi, make or do sth: raiga oher, be made in

I confess that I have even thought of stealing from the shop. How could I think such a thing? I am ashamed. I don't know where such thoughts could have come from. Although I haven't stolen anything, I can't hide my feelings of shame.

eyonda, confess, admit: eyonustada, must confess

ha bus, even

lipalesubdi, steal sth

puno, truly: nu ge vegos . . . puno? how could . . .?

e nun, such [a thing]

besuggun, shame: das besuggun; be ashamed

ga, where

yu . . ., yun, although

sqeinmoutti, hide sth

Uzeut

Remarks

1. Cases:

A) genitive -a, (of, from); dative/allative -i, (into, to) prepositional/locative; -o (at, in, on) and instrumental -u (by, with) (see 6 below for affixation).

B) Prepositions often govern cases: au hamojo, on the rug; au hamoji, onto the rug.

C) Inflected nouns are not always governed by prepositions: the genitive -a nearly always stands alone (also see E) below): hamojá, of the rug; when general location is meant, -o may stand alone: sendebbono, at the boarding-house, but au anden yoyevo, on the front steps; hebula syovo, on the map, but au hebula syovo, on [top of] the map.

D) Proper nouns are not inflected; they take the forms aher, iher, oher and uher: iher Pariza, to Paris (or meyoni e Pariza, but not *Parizi). Buhai gives surnames a plural: buhai Saba, the Sabas. If Buhai is inflected, the e particle is inserted: buhali e Saba, to the Sabas. Buhai, the preposition "at" or "chez", is here nominal and so may be preceded by transitives: vaqaindi buhai Saba.

E) Ye may govern the genitive in true cases of possession (it is not necessary when "direction from" is merely indicated): cp, vazancyida ye syirounzon, I walked from the kitchen, with darsede ye pileibbona, the sales assistant from the shop. Dropping the ye gives darsede pileibbona, the shop's sales assistant.

2. Dependent clauses in peta, if, are always followed by pepeta, then: peta buyorgadiva, pepeta abui viorgattiyo, if you watch me, [then] I'll show it to you. Care should be taken not to confuse this "if" with ni, if, whether.

3. A) Use yer[da eher] nubdi, want, when "want to have" is meant.

B) "Could" in nu ge vegos . . . puno, how could [you, etc], is formed with vegos, perhaps. When "could" is the past perfect of "can", -esta is used: vasqoudiyo gon, I opened it then; rah vasqovestadiyo gon, I couldn't open it then; vasqovestadiyo gonien, I can open it now; ni uza vasqovestadiyo? Will I be able to open it? Similarly, -usta is used to mean "have to" or "must", as in duty or compulsion: busqovustadiyo, you must open it. Cyurai is used when "must" means "likely": cyurai abu vayole X, you must be X; vegos when "must" means "might": vegos yoqaindibu, he must have seen you.

C) Svai means "would like": ni svai buhamodi nuri sarat? would you like some coffee?

4. Nur or nura? Use nur after transitives and nura after intransitives: vaibandi nur / vaibanda nura, I ate some. Nura must be used after lone numerals: sunu nura, five of them.

5. Cer rah is used when "not yet" is implied: yu cer rah valipalesubdi nur, yun vadas besuggun, although I haven't stolen anything, I'm ashamed; use aisya rah when "never" is implied: yu vazaranda e nun, yun aisya rah lipalesubdi nur, although I thought about it, I didn't steal anything.

6. Morphology.

A) Y is inserted between affixes and case endings or both and the stem when 1) the radical (levis) is composed of a single syllable: ma > goma+a = gomaya; 2) a recognised diphthong cannot be formed (ai, au, ei, eu, oi, ou): go+esnula = goyesnula; 3) when the third person is prefixed to a verb beginning with a vowel: yo+ibisda = yo-[y]ibisda, he/she feels (they feel).

B) In the genitive (-a), the following modifications are made: 1) consonantal ending, no change: hus+a = husa; 2) single syllable of consonant and vowel (and semivowel), as A) above: ma+a = maya, jia+a = jiaya, pua+a = puaya. 3) polysyllabic word ending in its own vowel (a), add acute sign (á): esnula+a = esnulá; 4) polysyllabic word ending in i or u, no change: beiji+a = beijia, garu+a = garua; 5) polysyllabic word ending in yi or yu, insert y: layi+a = layiya, yeyu+a = yeyuya; 6) diphthongal i changes to l, and u to v: zoi+a = zola, sedeu+a = sedeva; 7) polysyllabic word ending in e or o, insert y: aive+a = aiveya, hamo+a = hamoya.

C) Similarly, for the other cases -i, -o and -u: 1) husi, huso, husu; 2) mayi, mayo, mayu, jiayi, jiayo, jiayu, puayi, puayo, puayu; 3) beiji+i = beijí, hamo+o = hamó, garu+u = garú; 4) beiji+i = beijí but beijio, beijiu and garu+u = garú but garui, garuo; 5) layi+i = layí but layiyo, layiyu; 6) zoli, zolo, zolu, sedevi, sedevo, sedevu; 7) insert y if diphthong or accented vowel cannot be formed: aivei, aiveu, hamoi, hamou, hamó but aiveyo.