Common Phrases

Phrase	English
aiya(e)	Hey (lit. "blessed"), used to address a person
davae naia	Good evening (lit. "sweet night")
deles aiye	Greetings! (this is less formal than "Deles silam" but stronger than "Aiya")
deles silam	Good day, (lit. "good time", this phrase contains no notion of time)
deles necat	Goodbye (lit. "ending time")
meria naia	Goodnight
deles cherae	Good luck! (lit. "Chance time")
erates file	Congratulations! (lit. "Be proud!")
naete	Please
fila(e)	Thank you
neis	You're welcome
Jena aiye	Blessed be Jena!
ser(ae)	Mr/Ms
nec	used for negation, eg. nec mindaleis = I dislike
nec	No
sil	Yes

Note: letters in brackets indicate the letter to be added for the word's feminine form.

Suffixes

For individuals:

• -wivan : underling, honorific used for someone beneath your standing
• -modin : equal, honorific used for someone equal to your standing
• -kin  : lord, honorific used for someone of higher standing i.e a superior or noble
• -karan : king, reserved honorific for the Matis king

For adjectives and passive forms

• -a  : masculine singular
• -ae : feminine singular
• -ai : plural (masculine or feminine)

For nouns

Note: matal = to fight

• -e  : singular
• -ei  : plural
• -ena  : a contraction of "-e nar". Marker indicating a person performing an action, eg. matalena = the (male) warrior, one who fights
• -enae  : feminine form of -ena, the person performing the action is a female, eg. matalenae = the (female) warrior
• -enai  : plural of -ena, eg. matalenai : the warriors
• -a/ae/ai : marker, used in the passive voice, to indicate the person or object undergoing an action, eg. matala = the battle, the fighting

For verbs

Note: mindal = to love;

• -eis  : present tense and infinitive marker (does not conjugate), eg. mindaleis = I love
• -eiti : past tense marker, eg. mindaleiti = I loved
• -ias  : future tense marker, eg. mindalias = I shall love
• -ates : imperative marker, eg. mindalates = love!

Articles

	Article	Meaning
Definite article:	i	the
Partitive article:	di	of

Notes on articles:

• There is no indefinite article, eg. "i ende" means "the heart" while "ende" can mean either just "heart" or "a heart"
• The partitive article can also be used meaning "from" or "by", eg. "tuleiti di Zora" means "I came from Zora"

Pronouns

Personal pronouns

Word	English
ne	I, me
le	you (singular)
se	he, she, it
nye	us
lye	you (plural)
sye	they

Possessive Adjectives

Masculine Singular	Feminine Singular	Plural	English
na	nae	nai	my
la	lae	lai	your
sa	sae	sai	his, her, its
nya	nya	nyai	our
lya	lya	lyai	your
sya	sya	syai	their

Note: Possessive adjectives agree with the number and case of the noun they modify, eg. na mane e nai sanei = my food and my thoughts

Examples:

• sa nar : his homin
• sae narae : her homin

• la mindalena : your lover
• lae mindalenae : your lover

• na mindala : my darling
• nae mindalae : my darling

• na mate : my labour
• nai matei : my labours

Interrogative pronouns

• ma  : which/what?
• il  : when?
• lar  : where?
• manya : how?
• ye  : who?

Derivatives:

Word	English
mailya	everything
mamine	something
mane*	anything
ililya	all the time
ilmine	perhaps
ilne*	ever
larilya	everywhere
larmine	somewhere/anywhere
larne	nowhere
manyailya	by all means
manyamine	somehow
manyane	by any means
yeilya	everyone
yemine	someone
yene*	anyone

* By adding "nec" in front of these words the word is negated, eg. nec mane = nothing; nec ilne = never; nec yene = no-one

Demonstrative pronouns

• tana : this, that, these, those, etc

Note:

Other pronouns

• ena  : there
• hya  : here

Prepositions

• a  : to, at, by
• an  : towards, upwards (motion)
• apa  : against, on
• ento  : after
• epe  : before
• ilya  : with
• imi  : in, on, aboard
• ten  : for, towards

Conjuncations

• cil  : or
• e  : and
• nan  : but
• nasie : because

Adverbs

• anda(e) : far, long
• ata  : still, again, yet
  • ata-  : prefix which gets the meaning of English "re-"
• hara(e) : near, short
• Ilya  : together
• uvea  : many, much
• yale  : finally, at last
• laye  : very
• sin  : as well

Numerals

Matis	English	Number
0	mane	zero
1	mine	one
2	ate	two
3	nele	three
4	came	four
5	leme	five
6	ene	six
7	ote	seven
8	tole	eight
9	nere	nine
10	caine	ten

References

Matis Language