| Basic
Sandhi Rule & Short Stories, from
"Textbook of Modern Leteral Taiwanese" 1990, by Professor K-H Liim |
| -------------
<Black.is
Taiwanese text, and. Blue
is English instruction or translation >--------------.
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Quick Search: Preface- - 1Basic Sandi Rule and Short Sentence- -Short Stories Audio-Lessons: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 In this book, the phonetic letter [ø] is used to emphasize that in some part of Taiwan it is pronounced like [er] in English, but it may be pronounced as ordinary [o] in other places. |
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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Preface
Mother tongue is a colloquial language of sounds. The Modern Literal Taiwanese (MLT) is the most ideal language of spoken Taiwanese. It is a language based on every definite word with fixed meaning. When we want to lean Taiwanese with this Modern Literal Taiwa- nese, we should (1) memorize the spelling and meaning of every word in the sentence, (2) study the sequencial arrangement of words in accord with the grammar, and (3) familiarize the customary mood and expression of Taiwanese people in speaking. Thus, we will understand the reading and compositioon of Taiwanese sentence. furthermore, to be able to recite the sentence before an audience, we should understand the tonal expression of each word at a specific position of the given sentence, and know well the possible change of the tone of the word. |
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This book is written for students who have learned from their teacher some
characteristics of the Taiwanese tones, or have studied the preceding book
of this series and understand already the eight tones of words.
They can learn here the characteristics of Taiwanese vocabulary and sentence.
This book is also able to be used as an introductory textboo of Taiwanese;
in this case, however, it may require a proper teacher to teach him the
exact pronunciation.
In the following sections, let's review the specific portions of Modern Literal Taiwanese. A. Latinized Writing of Taiwa- nese Word --- TMSS (the Taiwa- nese Modern Spelling System) |
|
The writing specification of Taiwanese word in Latin spelling is called
the Taiwanese Modern Spelling System (TMSS).
The Modern Literal Taiwanese (MLT) since 1943 has established |
for every Taiwanese word a specific spelling in accord with its pronunciation. |
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For
instance, kao
is "dog", zao is
"to run", ciao is
"bird", haghau is
"school", kaohoe is
"church", and lauxlaang is
"old man". Here we see the sound [au]
in "dog", "to run", "bird", and "church" is a forcibly pushed out sound,
and is given the spelling of ao;
but it is a medium flat sound in "school" and is a downward voice
in "old man", which are given the spellings of au
and aux.
The spelling in MLT is based on pronunciation of the whole word. In this manner, a petit dog is written as kaw'ar which is derived from kao+ar, and an old man lauxlaang is derived from lau+laang, and school junitor hauxkafng from hau+kafng In this way, foregoing syllable in bisyllable or polysyllable words always change its voice ans spelling. To pre- vent difference in local sounds, MLT established a legal scheme for tone changes. An inportant idea is that although MLT defined unified spelling for those words, it did not compel people to read them in unified way. Everybody is allowed to pronounce each word freely with his native sound. It is also allowed to write a propper phonetics for prefered sound. What sort of phonetics is up to the people. It is, however, recommended to write the nified seplling of MLT in official or ordinary documents. B. Letter & Standard Pronunciation of MLT MLT uses 27 letters, that is one letter more than English alphabet. |
| The letter is an old Norwegian
letter The Italic letter "v" ub TMSS a nasal sound to the followed vowel. |
An example is kviaa for "to walk". In typewriting, we can use "v" instead. The use of this Italic letter was derived |
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from
Japanese Kana of "ng" in 1943.
. (1) In the above table, consonant letters are: b. c. g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, s, t, and z. Vowel letters are: a, e, i, o, ø, u and w, y. (2) A consonant letter becomes a nasal consonant letter by adding h, such as ch, kh, ph, th and zh. Adding the letter v after a consonant letter makes a nasal consonant, including: cv, chv, gv, hv, kv, khv, pv, phv, sv, tv, thv, zv, and zhv. (3) A, e, i, o, ø, u are simple vowels. Except those, m and ng become simple vowels, as in m "don't" and hng "far". Two or more vowels composes complex vowels. Adding m, n, or ng after a vowel constructs a post-nasal vowel. (4) Vowel letters w and y are Raised-tone vowels from Fundamental- tone vowels u and i. These two kind of vowels are as follows:
Raised-tone spelling of all vowels are compared with their Fundamental-tone |
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| spelling in the above
table. In this table, the spelling
øe
is
used to express that the word is read by people as either o
or oe.
(In documents
|
where no ø is used, it is generally written as oe). to Lesson-Search |
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(5) The letter x
in the alphabet is a soundless tone-letter to produce a forcibly suppressed
sound. This is called as a Pushed-Down tone. Such as:
poxsox
(steps),
taixcix
(matter).
(6) In contrary to this sound, a Pushed-Up tone is constructed for a, o, ø, m, and ng by adding the tone letter r. The products are: ar, or, ør, mr, ngr, and arm, arn, arng, iar, iarm, iarng, oar, oarn, orng, iør, iorng, etc. The Pushed-Up tones of e, i, and u are not constructed with r. Instead, special spelling of ea, ie, and uo are used. The extension of these usages are: oea, øea, ae, oae, uie, iuo, and ao for oe, øe, ai, oai, ui, iu, and au, For all post-nasal spellings, however, r is always used, e.g., irm, irn, erng, iern, urn, iarm, iarng, etc. (8) Easily readable spellings are such as laang, kaau, kiuu, koo, which are called Bend tones. Double vowels are the characteristics here. Exception is the Bend tone of ø, which is øo as in words: øo, bøo, and høo. Often neglected tone is the Bend-Up tone, which is a Bend tone first and followed with a Pushed-up tone. (9) Shortly cut sounds are called Stops. Mandarin does not show this sound clearly. In Taiwanese. there are High-Stops and Low-Stops, as follows:
MLT is composed of words with |
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| Latin spelling. To read such a sentence, it is sometimes not neccesary to recite every word clearly and accurately as it stands independently. |
The point is to understand by vision. |
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Thus,
it is important to memorize the word spelling by sight.
There are some examples of sentence, words in which are most common wrods in Taiwanese language. So please remember those common words by mind, till you can write down as you think about the word. "To read by vision" is the education- al keypoint of MLT. In reading other sentences, what do catch our sight are those common words. Take them as the center of recognition, go to under- stand thoe whole sentence. Whenever there is a name of a person pr a pronoun, it will be the eyecatcher. Followings are such pronouns: [personal pronoun] goar (I), lie (you), y(he), yi (she), goarn (we), larn (we), lirn (you) yn (they) [indicative pronoun] zef (this), hef (that), cit'ee (this one). hit'ee (that one), ciah'ee (these), hiah'ee (those), [interrogative pronoun] symmih (what), sviaflaang (who), taf'ui (where), tangsii (when), zvayviu (how) To talk about two things together, we use the following conjunctionsand prepositions: [conjunction and prepositiong] kab (and with), koq (also), iafsi (or), ar (and), mxkuo(but), in'ui (because), sof'ie (so), afnny (thus),na (if), ciu (then), to (then), ia (too),ma (also), lorng (all), tuix (toward), tuy (from), kaux (till), ti (at), tngf (when), nar (as if), juo (more), chinchviu (like) Specially important for visual reading is the proverbs. It is always followed |
| by a central verb
on behavior or action. A proverb is, thus,
a keyword for the meaning of the sentence. [proverb] boeq (want to), m (don't), boo (not intended to), u (intended to), aix (like to), mx'aix (dislike to), boboeq (not want to), kohboeq (want again to), teq (is doing) MLT bestows the Taiwanese written language a difinitive grammar |
grammar in such a way. This is an indispensable element for the modernization of Taiwanese language. September, 1990 by Liim, Keahioong |
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.
.vVocabulary
&
. .Short.Sentence Most Taiwanese words are const- ructed from two characters. To show that the first character is not an independent word, we change its tone and suggest it is not yet completed. For instance, when zhao "grass" and zhoaf "flower" are combined to show "unworthy flower", the combination is made by changing the tone of "grass" and gives zhawhoef. We say that there occurs a tone-change in order to bind them together. People gown in Taiwan are accus- tomed to this tone-change and can change the preceding sound properly. The MLT recognizes that this tone-change is an important characteri- tics of Taiwanese, and includes it perfectly into the word spelling. For standardize the spellings, MLT adopts a "formalized rule for tone-changes" as shown in the following tables. Here we see, the tone-changes of Fundamental tone (upper-most line), of four aadjutant tones (middle two lines), and of two Stops (lowest line). Lesson 1 shows the formal tone- change when a single character is followed by -ar, Lesson 2 shows that the last character does not change tone, and Lessons 3 and 4 show the unification of two characters. |
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There are in Lessons 4 to 12 the
practice of short sentences. Words in the midst of a sentence may change their last tone in accordance to their grammatical situation. However, the word which has to be changed may be intentionally kept its sound if the speaker want to emphasize that word. This tone change of words in sintence is a form of liaison that is special to Taiwanese language. Grammatically, the subject of a sentence should keep its sound. This is a general rule. But in conversation, a personal pronoun as the subject may change its tone to express politeness of the speaker. This is, however, forbid- den in recitation. A sentence is constructed with words. The MLT demand to write a sentence with original spellings of those words. Never change the spelling because the tone of the word should change in conversation. A special phonetical system called "phonetogram" is used to suggest the true pronunciation of the whole sentence. The "phonetogram" means graphical phonetics of Taiwanese. This is used to let readers lean Taiwanese |
| conversation in Lessons 5 to
8. Any phonetics is but an annotation. Only MLT
sentence with TMSS should appear in Taiwanese documnents. In
Lessons 9 to 11, liaison symbols are added into
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the rather long sentences to assist recitation of our readers. to Lesson-Search |
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. . Lesson
1
= Tøe-1 Khøx = Toex'id Khox Basic Sandhi Rule on Adding "ar" <-(.
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| [ | to Lesson-Search |
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¶ .biø(temple) = bio .biøx'ar (small temple) . . .biøx'ar-mngg <-( (gate of a temple) ¶ .o (taro) .ox'ar (ordinary taro) . . .ox'ar-pefng . . . . (taro-icecream) ¶ .chiu (tree) .chiux'ar (small tree) . . .chiux'ar-khaf . . . . (under the tree) . ¶ .voar (bowl) .voaf'ar (small bowl) . . .voaf'ar-lai . . . .(inside the bowl) ¶ .ciao (bird) .ciaw'ar (small bird) . . .ciaw'ar-siu <-( . . . .(nest of bird) ¶ ..ie (chair) .y'ar (small chair) . . .y'ar-terng (on the chair) [tone-change rule] Fundamental tone --> Pushed-down tone . . . . . . . . .bio -->biox'ar, o --> ox'ar, chiu --> chiux'ar. pushed-up tone --> Raised tone voar->voaf'ar, ciao->ciaw'ar, ie-->y'ar |
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¶ ..zhux (house) .zhuo'ar(small house) . . .zhuo'ar-thafng <-( (window of house) ¶ .ixn (stamp) .irn'ar (hand stamp) . . .irn'ar-taai . . . . (stand for stamps) ¶ .phaux (fire-cracker) .phao'ar . .(children's fire-cracker) . . .phao'ar-sviaf . (sound of fire-cracker) . ¶ .kii (flag) .ki'ar(hand flag) . . .ki'ar-pox . . . .(cloth of flag) ¶ .øee (shoes) = oee ..øe'ar (small shoes) . . .oe'ar-toax <-( . . . .(shoestring) ¶ .zuun (ship) .zun'ar (boat) . . .zun'ar-cviw (oar of a boat) [tone-change rule] Pushed-down tone --> Puzhed-up tone . . . . . . .zhux --> zhuo'ar, ixn --> irn'ar, phaux --> phao'ar |
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¶ .ciøh (stone) = cioh .ciøq'ar (stone chips) . . .ciøq'ar-phvix <-( (flat fragments of rock) ¶ .chiøq (ruler) = chioq .chiøh'ar . (measuring stick) . . .chiøh'ar-ky . . . . (measuring stick) ¶ chiøh(grass mat)=chioh .chiøq'ar (home mat) . . .chiøq'ar-ie . . . . (mat chair) ¶ tøq(table) = toq .tøh'ar (desk) . .tøh'ar-bin(surface of desk) ¶ .iøh (drug) = ioh .iøq'ar (medicine) . . .iøq'ar-tøe <-(. . . .(medicine bag) ¶ .hiøh(leaf) = hioh .hioq'ar (small leaf) . . .hioq'ar-au (back of leaf) tone-change rule] High-Stop ---> Low-Stop . . cioh --> cioq'ar, chioh --> chioq'ar, ioh --> ioq'ar, hioh --> hioq'ar Low-Stop ---> High Stop chioq --> chioh'ar, toq --> toh'ar |
| back to Lesson-Search |
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. Lesson 2
= Tøe-2 Khøx = Toexji Khox Word Construction with a Frontal Modifier <-( . ¶ .zhao (grass) .hoezhao(floral grass) . . .naseg-zhao (blue grass) ¶ .aw(cup) .te'aw(tea-cup) . . .peqseg-aw(white cup) ¶ .tøf(knife) .katøf .(scissors) chiwsut-tøf(operation knife) ¶ .naa(basket) .iø'naa (cradle) bøefzhaix-naa.(market basket) ¶ .svix(fun) .khøesvix(fan) hangloo-svix.(fan for stove) ¶ .voar(bowl) .pngx'voar(rice bowel) . hui'ar-voar (porcelain bowel) <-( word construction] .hoezhao = hoef-zhao, 'aw = tee-aw, katof = kaf- tof, io'naa te= ioo-naa, khoesvix = khoef-svix, pngx'voar = png-voar [pronunciation] [nasekzhao], [peqsek' aw], [chiwsudtof], [boefzhae'naa], [hanglosvix] , [hui'af'voar] |
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¶ .tefng (lamp) tiexntefng(electric lamp) . . .ciaobeeng-tefng <-( (illuminating light) . ¶ .loo (stove) .hoefloo (fire stove) . .chiwthee-loo(hand stove) . ¶ .kiuu (ball) .khiekiuu .(balloon) kannar-kiuu(Rugby football) . ¶ .ti (chopsticks) .zhati (wooden chopsticks) chviuxgee-ti.(ivory chopsticks) . ¶ .sii (spoon or key) .thngsii(table spoon) <-( ¶ .sii (spoon or key) .søfsii (key) word construction] .tiexntefng = tien-tefng, hoefloo = hoea-loo, khiekiuu = khix-kiuu, zhati = zhaa-ti, thngsii = thngf-sii, sofsii = sor-siir [pronunciation] [ciaobengtefng]. [chiw- theloo], kannafkiuu] |
| [ | back to Lesson-Search |
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. . . . Lesson 3
= Tøe-3 Khøx = Toexsvaf Khox Sandhi Rule in construc- ting a Two-syllable Word <-( ¶ .ho-svoax(rain-unbrella) hoxsvoax (unbrella) . . .jidsvoax (parasol) ¶ .mngg-sør (door-rock) .mngsør (rock) . cthoah'ar-sør(drawer-rock) ¶ .sii-zefng (time-clock) .sizefng .(clock) taang-zefng (copper-bell) ¶ .ie-liaau (stool-long) .yliaau (long stool) ¶ .zhaa-søef (wood-comb) .zhasøef (wooden comb) ¶ .tee-kor (tea-kettle) .tekor (tee kettle) zuie-kor (water-bucket) . . .zuykor (water bucket) <-( |
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. ¶ .tee-koaxn (tea-pot) tekoaxnn(tea pot) . . .guny-koaxn (milk pot) . <-( ¶ .høea-thvoax (fire-coal) .høefthvoax (coal) . .bu'iefn-thvoax (smokeless coal) ¶ .hvi-kaw (ear-hook) .hvixkaw .(earing) tiorhii-kaw (fishing hook) ¶ .bak-kviax (eye-lens) .bagkviax (glasses) pvoarsyn-kviax. (mirror for half-body) ¶ .barng-tax (mosquito-net ) .bafngtax (mosquito net) ¶ .titw-bang (spider web) <-( back to Lesson-Search |
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. . Lesson 4
= Tøe-4 Khøx = Toexsix Khox . ¶ .hwn-zhoef (smoke-blow) hunzhøef (smoking pipe) . <-( ¶ .hofng-zhøef (wind-blow) .hongzhøef (kite) . ¶ .kau-zheq (thick-book) .kauxzheq .(thick book) ¶
.chiu-ky (tree-branch)
¶
.biin-zhngg
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. Lesson 5
= Tøe-5 Khøx = Toexgo Khox . . . . . . . Short Sentence . . . with Phoneogram , , , , , , , 1. Y si laang. .[ !i sila^ng] He is a person. <-( , 2. Goar mxsi hii. .[ goa+ !msihi^i ] I am not a fish. 3. Larn lorng si Taioaan-laang. .[ lan+longsi tai!oanla^ng ] We are all Taiwanese people. 4. Ciaf u toaxciaq kao. .[ cia!utoaciaqkau+ ] Here is a large dog. <-( 5. Hiaf ma u toaxciaq kao. . .[ hiama !utoaciaqkau+ ] There is also a large dog. 6. Hiaf ia u søeaciaq kao. . .[ hia !ia !u soe+ciaq kau+ ] There is a small dog, too. <-( 7. Lie bøeq symmih? .[ li+boeq simmih ] What do you want? 8. Goar bøeq cidtex pviar. .[ goa+boeqcidte+pvia+ ] I want a piece of cake. 9. Yn ia bøeq pviar. .[ !in !ia boeq pvia+ ] They want cakes, too. 10. Lie bøeq, iar m? .[ 1i+ boeq !ia !m ] You want, or not? back to Lesson-Search |
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. . Lesson 6
= Tøe-6 Khøx = Toexlak Khox . . . . . . . . Verb , , , , , , , , , 1. Y khix haghau. [ !iki+haghau] <-( He goes to school. 2. Lie laai zwjid'øh. .[li+ laizujid!oh] You came to sunday school.. 3. Yn khix iuotixhngg. .[ !inki+!iu+ti hng^g ] They went to kindergarten. <-( 4. Goarn mxsi hagsefng. . . .[ goan+ !m si hagseng ] . . We are not students. 5. Goar si haghau ee lauxsw. . .[ goa+ si haghau !e lausu ] <-( I am a teacher in the school. 6. Yi si iuotixhngg ee a'ii .[ !i si !iu+ tihng^g !e !a!i^i ] She is a lady-teacher in kindergarten. <-(7. Ti zwjid'øh, u hagsefng kab .lauxsw. .[ ti zujid!oh / !u hagsengkip .lausu ] In the kindergarten, there .are schoolboys and teachers. 8. Ciaf ia u acie kab køkøf. Yn .lorng si lauxsw. .[ cia !ia !u !aci+ .kab koko / !in long si lausu ] Here are also sisters and .brothers. They are all teachers.. |
| 9. Larn ti zwjid'øh
bøeq thviaf-.korsu,
ia bøeq
chviuokoaf..
[ lan+ ti zujid!oh boeq tviako+su/ !ia. boeq cviu+koa ] In the kinder-garten, we listen into stories, and also sing songs. 10. Abuo zhoa goar laai ciaf. Atiaf ti zhux^nih. |
[ !abu+zoa goa+ lai cia / !atia ti zunih ] Mama brought me here. Papa is at home. back to Lesson-Search |
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. .Lesson 7
= Tøe-7 Khøx = Toexchid Khox . 1. Cit, Nng, svaf, six, go, lak, chid, pøeq, kao, zap. [ cid / nng / sva / si / <-( .go / lak / cid / poeq / kau+ / zap ] One, two, three, four, five, six, .seven, eight, nine, ten 2. Kin'afjit si symmih'jit? Kin'afjit si Lefpaix-jit. [ kin!ajit si simmih jit / kin!ajit si lepaijit ] .What day is it today? It is Sunday today. 3. Min'afzaix si symmih'jit? Min'af-zaix si Pae'id. [ min!azai <-( .si pai!id ] What day is it .tomorow? Tomorow is Monday. 4. Pae'id si sioxngkhøx ee tøex'id .jit. [pai!id si siongko !e .toe!id jit ]Monday is the first .day of school. 5. Pae'ji, Pae'svaf, Pae'six, pae'go kaux Pae'lak. . .[ paeji / paesva / paesi / paego <-(kau+ paelak ] .Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday till Saturday. 6. Cidjit, nngxjit, svajit, siejit, goxjit, .lagjit, lofngzorng u chitjit., [ cidjit / .nngjit / svajit / si+jit/ gojit /lagjit / .longzong+ !ucitjit ] .One day, two .days, three days, four days, five .days, six days, it is seven days .together. |
| 7. Lirn tngfkhix
zhux^nih, tiøh koaikoay, tiøh
thvia'oe.
.[ lin+ tngki+zunih / tioh koaikoai / tiohtvia!oe ] .You return home, should be well-behaved, should be obedient. |
[note] Paix-1 = Paix-id = Pae'id etc., cidjit = 1-jit, nngxjit = 2-jit, etc. |
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8. Abuo si lie ee lauxbuo, atiaf si .lie ee lauxpe, køkøf si toaxhviaf, .acie si toaxcie. <-( .[ !abu+ si li+ !e laubu+ / !atia .si li+ !e laupe / koko si . toahvia / !aci+ si toaci+ ] .Abuo is your mother, atiaf is your .father, kokof.is elder brother, acie .elder sister. 9. Zhux^nih iao u siofti kab .siofmoe. .[ zunih !iau !u sioti .kab siomoe ] In the home, you <-( .have still younger brothers and .younger sisters. 10. Larn-taixkef bøeq svathviax, .afnny ciaq øe ho padlaang ølør. [ lan taike boeq svatvia / !anni .ciaq !oe ho la^ng !olo+ ] .We all must love each other, so .will be praised by others. 11. Toax ti Bykog ee laang si <-( .Bykog-laang, toax ti Jidpurn ee .laang si Jidpurn-laang. .[ toa+ ti bikog !e la^ng si .bikogla^ng / toa+ ti jidpun+ !e .la^ng si jidpunla^ng ] 12. Seakaix u kuynax'ciorng ee .laang. Yn ee phøehw, bøsiang .seg. Yn lorng si larn ee peng'iuo. |
| [
Se+kai !u
kuinaciong+!e
la^ng / !in !e
poehu
bosiangseg
/
.!in long si lan+ !e peng!iu+ ] . .The world has several kinds |
of people. Their skin are different in color. They are all our friends. back to Lesson-Search |
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. . Lesson 8
= Tøe-8 Khøx = Toexpoeq Khox . <-( 1. Jidthaau tuy tangpeeng khie^laai. . Y tuix saipeeng løh^khix. . [ jidta^u tui tangpe^ngki+lai / !i .tui+ saipe^ng lohki ] The sun rises from the east. It sets down to the west. 2. Peng'iuo tuy Jidpurn laai, yn .laai ciaf hofngbun. Min'afzaix <-( ciu bøeq køq tuix Auciw khix. .[ peng!iu+ tui jidpun+ lai cia .hongbun / min!azai ciu boeq koq .tui !auciuki ] .Our friends came from Japan, .they came here for a visit. .Tomorrow they will leave for .Europe. |