Talking Rock in Kenda Soro 2

Continuing from previously, the next two sentences in Soronen Kidi.

Likasaya soronen ŋeŋihe kidilo, sadu sorove, “U! Soronen kidi diŋi?”

I with my hand picked up the rock that could talk, and said to it, “Hey, are you a talking rock?”

The first clause in the second sentence starts out with another example of body part metonomy and with =ya, which only ever attaches to a rational agent. The subject of the first clause is our rock, modified by a relative clause. This is the same relative clause as in the first sentence. It is still potentially a talking rock. It’s identity has not yet been confirmed.

The second clause is an example of speech, using the verb most often used with speech, namely =vi OUT. This is because speech is considered to be sound, and sound is generally emitted by something. The emitter, when indicated, is marked by =ya, because speech is a characteristic of rational animates. The audience is marked with =du, for a goal or not yet attained destination. One doesn’t assume that one’s words have reached a destination.

The third clause is the direct speech. Direct speech is indicated with intonation and a juxtaposition of clauses. The speech starts with the attention-getting interjection u! and continues with a question of identity. Here we lose the relative clause and ask directly if the rock is word-having.

Kideya evi, “La! Soronen kidi liŋi!”

The rock said, “Yes! I am a talking rock!”

And the rock says yes! Identity confirmed. The inanimate plural pronoun refers to speech in general.