Kotava for English Speakers

This learning course is inspired by Margarita Madrigal and Language Transfer.

With very little grammatical explanation, you will begin to internalize the language. Don't try to memorize anything! Just take your time and really think through how to translate the phrases. And mistakes are ok! Each lesson will build upon what you learned before it. Think of this course like a puzzle. You are building neural pathways :)

Table of Contents

• Lesson 1
• Lesson 2
• Lesson 3
• Lesson 4

Lesson 1

The phrase I want is kuraní

The phrase you want is kuranil

The word for see is ken

To negate a verb, you place me before it.

Think of saying "meh" in a negative way!

The word for that is bancoba

The word order in Kotava is free, but different from English. The verb usually goes last. Try to guess how you would say the following:

The negative always goes right before the verb. Can you guess how to say the following?

In this lesson, you have learned:

• kuraní
• wí
• bancoba
• me

Lesson 2

To ask a question, you simply put the question particle ka at the end of the sentence.

The word for yes / correct is bana

Take your time with the following!

There are no infinitive verbs in Manmino. You just stack up the verbs one after the other.

To say "I want to see", it would literally be like "[I see] <- want".

"[I see that] <- don't want"

The word for but is dan (pronounced like "dah-n")

In this lesson, you have learned:

• ka
• bana
• dan

Lesson 3

The past tense is expressed with the -le particle that goes after the verb

Take your time with this one!

The word for no is sala

In this lesson, you have learned:

• sala
• -le

Lesson 4

You can speak in the future tense by adding the particle -kalu after the verb.

In this lesson, you have learned:

• -kalu