Word of the week: namalima – the cucumber
Our first word of the week is a small lesson in itself: namalima, the cucumber. It is pronounced na-ma-LI-ma, stressed on the second-to-last syllable, like every Senatola word.
How the word is built
namalima is made of two roots:
| Part | Meaning |
|---|---|
| nam | eat |
| -a- | linking vowel, joins the parts |
| lim | green |
| -a | noun ending |
The main word comes first, the describing word after it: a cucumber is a kind of food, a green one. bimalima, grass, works the same way: plant + green.
Apart or together?
Written apart, it is a description: nama limi simply means “green food”, which could just as well be lettuce or spinach. Written together, it is a fixed term, much like an English “greenhouse” is not just any green house.
The nam family
If you know the root nam, you understand a whole set of words at once:
- nama – food
- name – eat
- namara – eater (eat + -ar-, person)
- nameva – dining room (eat + -ev-, place)
- namota – cutlery (eat + -ot-, object)
- duranama – hunger (want + eat)
One last sentence
mi name namalima.
I am eating a cucumber. Literally: I eat cucumber. Verbs never change in Senatola, whoever is eating.