Taurahe/Lessons

he tekio chi shuhalo

walk with the Earthmother

Alphabet and Pronunciation
The sounds of Taurahe fortunately overlap a lot with the sounds of English. The chart to the right gives the entire rundown of every sound in Taurahe. Because Tauren haven't historically kept written records, there is no official alphabet or spelling system, so the letters have been especially chosen to match the English pronunciation as best as possible. The only unfamiliar letter may be <θ>, which is just the "th" sound. At the beginning, newly introduced words will be written out phonetically.


 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; float: right;"

!Phoneme !English Approximation !Example !Meaning
 * m || meat || mago || fruit
 * ŋ || thing || nosθoki || head
 * p || spot || papa || droplet
 * t || stop || talne || stick
 * tʃ || chop || chagi || snack
 * k || skip || kakam || strider
 * f || after || tefθa || not
 * θ || thin || θavi || rose
 * s || sore || sθachi || basket
 * ʃ || shore || shujimi || mine
 * x || loch || homashi || hide
 * v || vase || vashshi || spirit
 * ð || there || digo || yesterday
 * dʒ || jump || hakaji || arrow
 * ɣ || go || goma || fat
 * l || bull || lapo || stone
 * ɹ || rope || roha || powder
 * a || father || alo || path
 * i || fleece || iche || white
 * e || face || e || that
 * o || goat || ormi || bird
 * au || cow || auli || water
 * }
 * v || vase || vashshi || spirit
 * ð || there || digo || yesterday
 * dʒ || jump || hakaji || arrow
 * ɣ || go || goma || fat
 * l || bull || lapo || stone
 * ɹ || rope || roha || powder
 * a || father || alo || path
 * i || fleece || iche || white
 * e || face || e || that
 * o || goat || ormi || bird
 * au || cow || auli || water
 * }
 * a || father || alo || path
 * i || fleece || iche || white
 * e || face || e || that
 * o || goat || ormi || bird
 * au || cow || auli || water
 * }
 * o || goat || ormi || bird
 * au || cow || auli || water
 * }
 * }

Introductions

 * hau - "hello"

The simplest way to greet someone is to say hau [khow]. It is just a generic expression like "hello" or "hey". You may hear Tauren use the word mou [moh] to greet each other. It is a familiar term that you should probably not use until a Tauren uses it to greet you first.

One of the most useful phrases for a beginner is wa kei ma? [wah KAY ee mah], which means "what is it?" or "what is this?". The simplest response would be ... kei ma., "It is a ...".

http://i.imgur.com/HId27sRm.jpg

Wa kei ma?
 * ''Mrahi kei ma. [MRAH khee] "This is a tree."

http://i.imgur.com/64fhUzQm.png

Ke wa kei ma? "And what is this?"
 * Shuhalo kei ma. [shoh HAH loh] "This is a Tauren."

Sometimes of course, you might get a different answer.

http://i.imgur.com/k7MBsoim.jpg

Wa kei ma?
 * Takomago. [tah KOH mah goh] "I don't know."

A similarly useful phrase is wa kei ma chi?, [chee], meaning "who are you?". The response will be ... kei ma go, "I am ...".

Wa kei ma chi?
 * Baine Pauhateke kei ma go. [BEYN pow kha TEH keh] "I am Baine Bloodhoof."

Try to respond.

http://i.imgur.com/T1jrugVm.png

Wa kei ma chi?
 * ... kei ma go.

In addition to your name, you could also describe your combat class, or dwasfi [DHWAH sfee].

The four traditional classes, for which Tauren have simple words, are:
 * shaman - "shaman" [SHAH mahn]
 * sfiti - "hunter" [SFEE tee]
 * modoli - "warrior" [moh DHOH lee]
 * garan - "druid" [GAH rahn]

Tauren may also be:
 * anshimoteke - "paladin" [AHN shee moh TEH keh]
 * motifo - "priest" [moh TEE foh]
 * sxerarimodoli - "death knight" [skheh RAH ree moh DHOH lee]
 * monk - "monk" [MOH nahkh]

But as a non-Tauren you may be:
 * meijishaman - "mage" [MAY ee jee SHAH mahn]
 * kalamosfiti - "demon hunter" [kah LAH moh SFEE tee]
 * rog - "rogue" [rohg]
 * meijiwarlok - "warlock" [MAY ee jee WAHR lohkh]

Try to respond to the question with your class.

Wa kei ma chi?
 * ... kei ma go.

See if you can understand the gist of this conversation

Hau. Kada kei ma go.
 * Hau, Kada. Tapa kei ma go.

Tapa, wa kei ma dwasfi chi?
 * Garan kei ma go. Wa chi?

Shaman kei ma go.

Describing things with kei ma
First off, it will be useful to know some basic vocabulary for this lesson.

shuhalo - "tauren"

akalake - "man"

θalo - "woman"

pisxa - "girl" [PEE skhah]

galo - "boy"

rochi - "animal"

mrahi - "tree"

ala - "good"

sθiga - "bad" [STHEE gah]

picha - "small"

gava - "big"

ichi - "white"

orkwa - "black"

rofa - "brown"

The syntax of kei ma expressions can seem tricky at first. Compare the following examples.


 * Akalake kei ma. "That is a man."
 * Rochi kei ma. "That is an animal."
 * Kei ma mrahi. "That is the tree."
 * Kei ma θalo. "That is the woman."

Taurahe doesn't have words for "a/an" or "the". Tauren use different syntax instead. If a noun comes before kei ma, it means "a" thing. If it comes after kei ma, it means "the" thing. Try to translate the following ideas.


 * Kei ma rochi.
 * Pisxa kei ma.
 * Shuhalo kei ma.

When we use kei ma to describe things with adjectives, the noun will always come at the end.

Kei ma gava a mrahi. "The tree is big."

As you can see, the syntax is again different than in English. Instead of "X is Y", the format is Kei ma Y a X. Because there are two phrases after  kei ma (the adjective and the noun), the word a here shows that the noun is the subject of the sentence. What do the following sentences mean?


 * Kei ma rofa a rochi.
 * Kei ma picha a galo.

Lastly, we can link two nouns together. Consider the pair of sentences:
 * Shuhalo kei ma. "That is a tauren."
 * Kei ma θalo. "That is the woman."

We can just glue the two sentences together via kei ma to link "tauren" and "woman" together.

Shuhalo kei ma θalo. "The woman is a tauren."

Do you know what these phrases mean?
 * Kei ma ala a pisxa.
 * Shuhalo kei ma galo.
 * Wa kei ma rochi?
 * Kei ma picha a rochi.

Pronouns and kei ma
Earlier we learned that kei ma go means "I am." and wa kei ma chi? means "what are you?". These phrases used pronouns, which can substitute for nouns, but behave differently syntactically.

go - "I"

chi - "you"

ana - "we"

chake - "you all"

When paired with an adjective, pronouns appear directly after kei ma, instead of after the adjective like a noun would. For example,


 * Kei ma picha a rochi. "The animal is small."
 * Kei ma chi picha. "You are small."


 * Kei ma gava a mrahi. "The tree is big."
 * Kei ma ana gava. "We are big."

Attributive adjectives
Despite the confusing syntax of Taurahe we've gone over so far, attributive adjectives are formatted basically the same way in English and in Taurahe.


 * gava rochi - "big animal"
 * orkwa mrahi - "black tree"
 * picha pisxa - "little girl"

See if you can figure out what these sentences mean. http://i.imgur.com/2DfDlVdm.png
 * Gava rochi kei ma kodo.
 * Picha akalake kei ma go.
 * Ala galo kei ma picha shuhalo.
 * Orkwa kodo kei ma gava rochi.