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Lesson 58: JE Cluster

How to Use This Lesson

This lesson is divided into six sections. Please move through them in this order: Warm-Up, Vocabulary, Reading, Practice, Review, Flashcards.

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

How much do you remember?

Check the boxes for words you think you know. Then click Show Answers to reveal the meanings.

JE CLUSTER

Today we will look at the JE cluster! Here's a few words:

Oravia English
jelano circle
jenai corner, angle
jenmue left
jenparo front
jenrein between
jentale through

What do you think JE words are about?

🌍 Sound Connections

Tale means cross, through, like Welsh taith (journey, passage).
Paro means front. It comes from Latin pro/prae and Romance para, meaning in front, toward.

Here are other words with these roots:
boetale = hall (house spaces + cross), just like jentale = through (geometrics and location + cross)
varparo = face (face + front), just like jenparo = front (geometrics and location + front)

This cluster has two important words, jetai and jenon.

Jetai means direction, and is used to specify the direction of movement. Compare:

i vanvu en leayo = I run in the park  
i vanvu jetai leayo = I run towards the park

Jenon means path, way. If you use its root in front of a word, you indicate this word as an explicit adverb. Take a look: 

i vanvu yasoi = I run fast  
i vanvu non yasoi = I run fast (way: fast)

This use is an option for when a sentence may be ambiguous otherwise. Notice you may also use a hyphenated expression here:

i yasoi-vanvu = I run fast (fast-run)

You are ready for the reading now!

Now that you know quite a bit, let's take a look at some general discourse guidelines. These are important for communicating fluidly and preventing ambiguity. During the course, you may have noticed a few of these things, or developed an intuition for them. Now we will explore them explicitly, but don't worry about memorizing.

1. Dropping pronouns and subjects

Oravia omits possessives when ownership is obvious: body parts, family roles, clothing, body actions.

farejor i anifi    = mother is coming (not: my mother)
i siur e yesrel    = remove the jacket (not: your jacket)

Many utterances don't have a subject. In this case, an affirmative sentence defaults to I, and a question defaults to you:

i ilianum   = [V] know-not = I don't know
ce i anye?  = what [V] do? = what are you doing?

In longer sentences or narratives, when a subject is introduced, it becomes the subject until another one is made explicit. If the subject changes, you must introduce it. This is true even if you would normally not use I or you:

Haya i ilian e ca i anye     = they know what [they] are doing
Haya i ilian e ca nim i anye = they know what I am doing

2. Sentence structure

Once a subject is active in discourse, you can use a reduced expression referring back to that subject. This is the full explicit way of saying someone is something:

A Lina a roena dia. A hay a toului.
= Lina is a teacher. She is tired.

But since Lina is already the active subject, you don't have to repeat the full structure. You may say instead predicate + pronoun, or even only the predicate:

A Lina a roena dia. Toului hay.

A Lina a roena dia. Toului.
= Lina is a teacher. [She is] tired.

Another way you may change sentence structure is through moving the order around. To do this, you just need to keep in mind that a marker and all the words it introduces form a block. Each block moves as a unit and should not have its contents split.

nim   i copei   en yamirli bo   en mir lidastor
= I searched in my old house for many years

Example of valid orders:

[en yamirli bo] [nim] [i copei] [en mir lidastor]
[nim] [en yamirli bo] [i copei] [en mir lidastor]

This is NOT valid because it breaks a block:

❌ [nim] en [i copei] nim yamirli bo   (en split from its block)

3. Dropping markers

If you have a clear unmarked block, that block defaults to the subject. Because of this, the a marker is dropped most easily:

a miau i bortal = miau i bortal = the cat enters
a miau e muvardur i copei = miau e muvardur i copei = the cat hunts the mouse

The e marker drops when the object is unambiguous. The u marker is rarely dropped.

Dropping markers and words makes the sentence less formal. Besides this, using roots and short forms also makes a sentence less formal. For example:

a nim i dapas i mo -> formal
i pas i mo -> casual

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

Review Missed Words

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

🎉 Lesson 47 Complete!

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

Come back tomorrow for Lesson 48.