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Lexember 31 for Nómàk’óla


Drawing of a nisse putting a tray of pastries into an oven with a timer on top set to 30 minutes.
Lexember 31

Pénýsonačàòkvánàpáhèšỳmínuuttimiíltumo. “Let them bake for 30 minutes or until they brown.”

Today was a fun one! I created a reflexive form of sóno “to bake” to use it intransitively in this clause. Paired with the imperative pé- and subject index marker -a, it translates to “let it/them bake”.

The preposition čàò- means “near, around”, which is necessary context for what’s coming later in the clause. Its object is a complex noun phrase: kvánàpáhe is “thirty” and it is accompanied by the embedded and linked noun phrase èšỳmínuutti “minutes”. Mínuutti was borrowed from Finnish and is a new addition to the language.

The clause ends with a converb that I created earlier in the month but never got to use until now! Mi- (which can also occur as mì-, mj-, mž-) means “up to” or “until” and is followed by a verb that must work with the same subject as the main clause verb. In this case, the subject is the pastries. The verb íltumo features the verbal resultative prefix íl- and the noun túmo “brown”.

When put together with the earlier čàò- preposition phrase, the interpretation is that you need to cook the pastries for about 30 minutes or until they start turning brown (which may be more or less than 30 minutes).