Is that good-tasting?

When someone is eating, you can ask them about how it tastes in x̄á’islak̓ala. It would go like this:

begʷánem 1: sílu ’íxp̓a (Is that good-tasting? Yes or no)

begʷánem 2: ’nna, ’íxp̓u (Yes, it is good-tasting now)

The x̄á’isla word for person is begʷánem, below is an audio recording you can listen to and hear how everything is pronounced.

Spoken, recorded and edited by Ab Morrison-Hayward.

The word /si-/ is an interrogative phrase that’s used for general questions, the suffix /-lu/ has to do with location and specifies that it’s close to the person you’re asking. The word ’íxp̓a means “good-tasting” and the /-a/ at the end also indicates that it’s a yes-or-no question. So a more literal translation would be something like “Is that (close to you) good-tasting? Yes or no.”

Due to the sentence structure, the person asking the question would be expecting a yes-or-no answer in reply. It’s important to know this so that you will be prepared to answer appropriately. The person who’s eating would start answering with /’nna/ for “yes” (assuming that it does, in fact, taste good), followed by ’íxp̓u. The /-a/ changes to /-u/ because the person is in the process of eating. This suffix is related to /-lu/, thereby matching the situation and grammar.

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