Kílta Lexember 12: chítas "regret, remorse"

Today's word has a modestly interesting etymology, but it kicked off a bunch of new polysemy for some adjectives:

chítas /ˈtʃiː․tas/ regret, remorse < chíto bite, chew + -as abstract nominalizer

Part of the motivation for this is that chíto also means sting when insects do it.

As is normal with emotion nouns, the verb relo bear, carry is used when one's experiencing it. I use the ablative li for the matter about which one has regrets, and the dative kë for a person who has been wronged.

Mannur në nirika li chítas si relo më.
3PL TOP war ABL regret ACC carry.PFV NEG
They don't regret the war.

Ëlá në atta kë chítas si relo.
3PL TOP father DAT regret ACC carry.PFV
They have regrets about their father.

Regrets have standard lexical collocations, generally adjectives, like: sincere, deep, etc., so I needed to cover that a bit. For a sincere regret, I just chose tásin true. That word is also used to mean something like equal to the task, which is more the sense I was drawing on here.

For other intensity terms I went back to the original meaning of chíto bite, and went with nútokin strong for deep regrets. Kwimin weak can mean mild regret, but more carries the sense of insincere regret. I'm not going to give examples of all of them, but one should give the flavor:

Nútokin chítas ël si sikwa mai nuto.
strong regret 3SG ACC house LAT impel.PFV
Deep regret(s) sent him home.

Nuto covers urge, set in motion, impel, etc.

Kílta Lexember 11: insen - "sink, basin"

More basic household vocabulary today:

insen /ˈin․sen/ sink, basin < in- augmentative + sen cup, bowl

This derivation is pretty transparent.

Insen mai manur si salki re.
sink LAT vegetable.PL ACC place.IMP PTCL
Put the vegetables in(to) the sink.

Imperatives are moderated with the particle re.

Insen si këspin mata li riëlainat no.
sink ACC hot water ABL fill.INF be.PFV
I'll fill the sink with hot water.

The simple future, INF + no, is practically confined to first person subjects, so the subject is unambiguous here. Also Kílta has separate temperature words for water and food. Mahin hot would be used for things or the weather.

Kílta Lexember 10: válekwa "sinecure"

Today I'm going a bit more specialized for Kílta, but still using the derivation I've used a previous post, the -i/ekwa room and building suffix:

válekwa /βaːˈle․kʷa/ sinecure < vál perquisite, privilege + -i/ekwa room, building suffix 

Here I'm using a common enough metonymy of a place for the things that go on there. In this case, it's referring to some sort of official position (possibly governmental, but it could be business, and probably organized crime) that someone has but for which they aren't expected to accomplish much if any work. The position exists to confer wealth and power.

Because it's derived from a location term, expressions with will tend to refer to that origin.

Sím në ronin válekwa nen úri vëchësto.
sím në ronin válekwa nen úri vëch-ëst-o
3SG TOP high sinecure LOC just.now remain-INCH-PFV
He just got a valuable sinecure.

The adjective ronin high is often associated with positions of power (again, a common enough conceptual metaphor). The verb vëcho means remain at the core, but is used for expressions meaning live, dwell.

One might also get kutta vë válekwa a vassal's sinecure, a valuable position that requires the continued patronage of some powerful figure. Any sinecure might be like this, but in this expression the position is precarious.

I still need to work out some nice phrasing for when someone is evicted from a sinecure.