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Lesson 2: Markers

How to Use This Lesson

Every lesson is divided into four sections. Please move through them in this order: Grammar, Vocabulary, Exercise, Review, and then Exercise and Review once more to see how much you've improved.

Do not try to memorize! Just read through the content attentively. We will have plenty of exercises and reviews later!

Markers

The words in Oravia are flexible, and the same word can play different roles depending on the sentence.

For example, the word mo can mean both to eat or food.

So how do we know which one?

We use markers! Markers indicate what the word is doing in the sentence.

i indicates verbs. For example,

i mo

always means to eat. But this is hardly a sentence: eat what? For that, we use e. e indicates the direct complement of the verb. For example,

i mo e mo

means to eat the food. Notice that we don't use articles!

This sentence still sounds incomplete. You may wonder: who eats?

a indicates the subject, usually who is doing the action. You may say,

a nim i mo e mo

Can you understand this sentence? It means "I eat the food". In this case, you could omit a, e, or both. Hardly anyone would think the food is eating you!

So, the sentence pattern is:

a [someone] i [verb] e [something]

If it's helpful to you, here's some mnemonics:

Actor
Initiate
Engaged

Also, because we have the markers, the word order is flexible.

a nim i mo e mocen
        =
e mocen i mo a nim

I eat chocolate

So you can use whatever order feels most natural to you!

Now, take a look at the words that we saw last time:

Oravia English
mogali coffee
mocen chocolate
moyi sugar
moval ice
mouje drink
moulu milk
Singular Plural
nim (I) nima (we)
run (you) runa (you all)
hay (he/she/they) haya (they pl.)

Can you say "she eats chocolate?" Notice that there is no verb conjugation.

How about "we drink chocolate?" Remember, the words have flexible use!

Now try to create a sentence using what you've just learned, or 3 if you're up for a challenge!

a [someone] i [verb] e [something]

That's it for grammar today! Let's move on to the next tab: Vocabulary.

The MO Cluster

We are going to dive deeper into our first cluster! Look at the list of words below.

Remember, do not try to memorize them. Just read it through attentively.

Oravia English
molban cup
molcui bowl
molvou bottle
moaria apple
moalen banana
moanih berry

What do you think the words that start in MOL have in common?

How about MOA, what do you think it means?

MOA and MOL are subclusters! They indicate subdivisions within the MO cluster. Each cluster can have between 0–4 subclusters. Subclusters are usually indicated by the third letter, completing a syllable. For example, with a cluster like MO, you could have subclusters that sound like MOL-ban, MOA-ria, MOU-je... but you would generally not have a subcluster like MOG-ali, because the third letter here is starting another syllable.

🌍 Sound Connections

Moa means banana plant in Polynesian roots, and indicates all fruits in Oravia.

Banana is Moalen (moa + len). Len is like Latin longus (long), which is the root of the word longitude in English.

So let's take a look at some other words:
yalen = long (quality + long), just like moalen = banana (fruit + long).
yogali = brown (color + coffee), just like mogali = coffee (food + coffee).

We will now move on to the Matching Game Exercise. Sometimes, the game is about recognizing the meanings behind certain syllables, rather than learning words. On the next page, you will see many different words you do not need to memorize. Instead, try using the subcluster sounds we just learned to figure out which word corresponds to which meaning.

Matching Games

Time to practice! Match the Oravia words with their English meanings.

If you don't remember or make a mistake, that's totally fine! We will have plenty of opportunities to practice. Right now just give it a try.

Click one word from each column to match them. The game will check automatically when you select both words.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Matching Games

Time to practice! Match the Oravia words with their English meanings.

If you don't remember or make a mistake, that's totally fine! We will have plenty of opportunities to practice. Right now just give it a try.

Click one word from each column to match them. The game will check automatically when you select both words.

After completing the Exercises and Review, try it again to see how much you've improved.

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Review Missed Words

This section shows only the words you got wrong during practice. If you didn't miss any words, this will be empty - great job! 🎉

🎉 Lesson 2 Complete!

If you missed any words, check the Review tab to practice them again.

Come back tomorrow for Lesson 3.