Food and Drink
I eat bread.
Frimbim nenda.
... beef.
... bova.
... apples.
... malam. [The collective plural ending is -m.]
... beans.
... fabacham.
... eggs.
... chabam.
Vocabulary note. Names of terrestrial species are normally derived from their scientific names: e.g. bovinae, Malus domestica, Fabaceae, in these examples.
What are you eating?
Frimbisie cha?
What do you eat?
Frimbisi cha?
Word order. Word order in Gilkesh is VSO (verb-subject-object); in a question, the interrogative word goes in the position where you would expect the answer.
What are you drinking?
Nangisie cha?
I'm drinking water.
Nangimie aba.
I'm drinking beer.
Nangimie kasha.
Plurals. The collective plural ends in -m, and is used when two or more objects are considered as a group. The discrete plural, which ends in -n, refers to two or more objects considered individually.
I went to the store, and bought a dozen eggs and three oranges.
Ganmidim marchara, ka sambidim chom-min chabam ve esh citran.
Chom-min means 12 (chom = 10, and min = 2). In this example, eggs are customarily sold by the dozen and so "a dozen eggs" is a single unit and takes the collective plural (chabam). Oranges, being purchased singly, take the discrete plural: three oranges = esh citran.
