I say tomato you say pomidor

Posted on 30 Jun 2018 @ 12:22pm by Commander Allyndra illm Warraquim & Ensign Mimi
Edited on on 21 Aug 2023 @ 2:49pm

1,825 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 16 - A Far Sun
Location: USS Schofield - Sickbay
Timeline: MD 09, 1510 hrs

[ON]

Stuck for something to do for the afternoon and with John on duty right now Mimi decided to see if Allyndra was interested in doing anything.

=/\= Ensign Mimi to Commander Warraquim.=/\= she said after tapping her combadge.

Allyndra was slowly it seemed getting back into the duties of a medical officer rather than a command officer. Her back hurt, the wings almost having grown out from having them removed for the trip to the planet. When Mimi called it was a blessed relief. She needed a distraction.

=^=Yes Mimi anything wrong?=^=

=/\= Do you have any plans for this afternoon? =/\=

=^=I have virtually nothing but shuffling PaDDs around. Come on by any time=^= Allyndra responded.

=/\= I will not be long, Mimi out =/\= Mimi closed the comm, picking up a blank Padd she slipped it into her pocket and headed for the door.

She went back to work until the sickbay doors opened and she saw Mimi. "Come on in," she called and waved. "How have you been?"

Lumela Allyndra, Li an kusla. Mimi replied speaking in Nekomi and hoping Allyndra would remember what she had taught her and respond in kind. Miten son anda?

Allyndra raised her brows and sat back. Oh goodness she thought, she had not kept up with learning Nekomi and probably forgot half of what little she learned. "Lumela Mimi, and I think I need refresher. Have a seat."

"We can do another lesson if you want?" Mimi offered.

"Indeed, I need a refresher." Allyndra waved at the seat. "Help yourself to the replicator while I drag my mind for fare anda kerera Nekomi?

"Kerero" Mimi corrected, she headed to the replicator for some tea and was soon heading back towards a chair. "So what would you like to learn about today?"

"Ah! Fare anda kerero Nekomi," she said it slowly. "By the Twins, I think I have got it."

Mimi chuckled slighly, "It will come quicker to you eventually." She sat down on a chair near Allyndra. "So, subject for today? We have done numbers, parts of the body, a little on food and drink, hello, goodbye and things like that. What do you think?"

Allyndra thought a moment. "Well sort of the basics but we have not really handled what I would call conversational. Just talking everyday things, holding a conversation such as we are having now."

"Nik Mimi, val li saada anda nekateri keksi?"

"Very good." Mimi said before switching to Nekomi. "Nyas diolch anda, Li an isuna."

Allyndra puzzled that one over for a bit. She was not completely sure. "Umm...not sure. I think something like a no in there and you are fine. So let me guess no thank you, I am fine? Teki li saada dipris zuzen?"

"You are right." Mimi said switching to english so she could explain easier. "But Zuzen is for giving a side or direction like 'my right arm'. If you want to say someone is right or correct you use Oikea" She took a sip of tea then spoke again. "You can use either word but using Oikea is......better."

Oikea.... Allyndra repeated and then stopped. "I am sorry, I think I have pretty much reached the end of what I know. Hmmm..." she mused a moment. "Let us try something a bit more complicated. There is on my world a prayer, it goes: 'Haku ala Hakuina ena A'oe ea po'lealu, Houniana eta hap elalu pillia'tu din'atu L'ani. Mai Po'lealu'." Allyndra said the Akkadian in the full sing song of formal Akkadian which Mimi had heard before. She then said, " In Federation it translates somehting as 'Lords and Ladies of Light and Darkness, from earth you raised us up so we could touch the sky. From earth we came, to sky we go, and then return back to earth. Accept my thanks for the gift of flight and grant that another year be given unto me. So how would that sound in Nekomi?"

Mimi sipped her tea as she thought about it. "That is a hard one, there are a few words there we do not have in Nekomi like 'earth' but we would use Dupris maapera which means 'the land' and we have no title like a lord."

Allyndra nodded and repeated Dupris maapera. She nodded as she let the phrase go around her head. "That is beautiful bit. Well guess something like leader. I am curious though did the Nekomi not have any sort of religion?"

"I think in the long distant past we had a couple but as far as I can remember they are not spoken about any more." Mimi replied. "They stopped being..... Important."

"Interesting, my kind has petty much moved past but there are still times. Anyway, getting away from the lessons. Let me think..." Allyndra spent a moment and then asked, "Nekomi anda curla zen lie baya saareke sa dupris meri si li oroitu."

"Daai, ta lie oikea." Mimi replied. "Are you sure you're not learning without me? There are words there that I have not taught you."

"I will admit I have had the universal translator teach me a bit. It just takes a bit of use for me to start getting the memory neurons going. I will say that it is an beautiful language. I am sure I am making mistakes. So guide me on."

"I would not... trust the universal translator, it does not give very accurate translations." Mimi remarked. "Even after eight years."

"Well then, what have you for me. If I was on the Nekomi home world and someone just wanted to ask me who I was, that sort of thing."

"Well lets say a young nekomi woman like me comes up to you excited about meeting someone new." Mimi said.

"Alright, sounds good."

"We were always taught as children to.... greet people properly, older Nekomi are less..... formal unless they need to be so... Lumela, sayan ingoa lie Mimi. Mosti lie andar ingoa?"

Allyndra turned the words over in her mind. Some she knew some she was not so sure about. "Hello, my name is Mimi. What is yours?" Allyndra sort of translated what she thought Mimi said.

"That is right, how would you reply?" Mimi asked.

"Lumela, sayan ingoa lie Allyndra," Allyndra replied and added "Pilyesd dia topatu anda."

"Kaayo baik Allyndra." Mimi said before switching back to english. "I think you will be able to speak Nekomi very well soon."

"Well maybe enough to get by like a five year old," She laughed. She thought a moment and wondered about something professions. She remember that that Mimi told her they did a lot of fishing but there had to be other things. "So how would you ask someone's profession. Like I am a fisherman, or a weaver or keeper of knowledge?"

Mimi smiled, Allyndra was asking some good questions. "Asking someone their job we would say along the lines of Suuren fare anda tehda. Simply 'where do you work."

Allyndra dutifully repeated back the words. That only answered part of the question. "What about professions. Not just where do you work or maybe I am just to tied to my way of thinking."

"A fisherman might say li tehda runga dupris lautan or Runga dupris paatikai.

Allyndra thought a bit and said, "Well tehda from the first time means to work, and runga dupris is common to both so I am going to say it means something possessive. So the different part is lautan and paatikai. The universal puts lautan as sea. So I am going to hazard, I work on or with the sea?"

Mimi smiled. "Very good. Lautan is sea or ocean and Paatikai is the plural of boat or ship. So the second phrase was 'on the boats'

"So if I heard someone say either then would it mean more or less the same as far as profession in general?"

"Yes." Mimi replied. "Fishing is the main job on the big seas of home."

"Understood. Now I will need some help. For me, on the Galileo, I would say something like li tehda runga dupris... something medical and at home it would be something like knowledge, scribe or similar."

"You could use kurat or kurativi which are 'heal' and 'healer' but you would have to say something like Li kurat jende 'I heal people'" Mimi explained.

"Kurat to heal. Alright, think I have that part." Allyndra then chuckled as a thought came into her head. "You must tell me as close as you can 'I want to water dance'."

Li vuoi dia adapa dejot." Mimi said after thinking for a moment. "You know, you have mentioned water dancing a few times but I have not seen you do it yet."

Allyndra shook her head, "Go a little slower. LI is 'I', 'dia' I think is to do something or do I have that wrong. As far as water dancing? Really? Well perhaps when we are done can go to a holosuite and I can show you. One of the things that I find relaxing."

"That translation was word for word." Mimi told her. "Li vuoi dia adapa dejot 'I want to water dance.'" She spoke it a little slower this time.

"Ah," Allyndra repeated the phrase. "I suppose if I said that to any other Nekmoi they would look at me like 'what is that?' Well that is more complicated than I think I am ready to tackle. Let me see, how about: 'could I have some tea?', or whatever equivalent that your kind has."

Mimi thought for a moment. "I think we have something similar, we called it cay-tra. you can add cold or hot water to it and I was told it tasted very nice. We could not get it to grow on Kemi though. So I have never had it."

"Hmmm.......wonder what it tastes like?" Allyndra mused for a moment. "I think I need to take a break, to try to get what I can settled. Would you like to see a water dance and maybe we can continue the lesson then. Let me refresh my mind?"

"I would love to see you water dance Allyndra." Mimi said smiling widely.

"Well then let's take a short break and come on."

"Lead the way." Mimi said after she finished the last dregs of her tea.

[OFF]

--

Ensign Mimi
Operations Officer
USS Schofield

Cmdr Allyndra illm Warraquim
Chief Medical Officer
USS Schofiled

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