ipiminaminasi — Greetings. Sompo (So) and Masaray (Ma) are college classmates. After graduating in early June, Sompo takes Masaray to Orchid Island. When they arrive at Sompo’s home, they greet her mother.
Kokay (or akokay) is a common expression for greetings. You can greet anyone with kokay; akokay is often used when you have a closer relationship with the interlocutor. In addition, kokay/akokay can show concern or sympathy (e.g., a relative/friend is hurt, or you have not seen them for a long time).
Kong is used both for greetings and leave-takings. It cannot occur independently; it must follow a term of address (e.g., akay ‘father’, ina ‘mother’, anak ‘child’). It is also used among peers for reciprocal greetings, e.g., kehakay kong “Hello, (male) peer friend” and kavakes kong “Hello, (female) peer friend”. The stress falls on the last syllable of the word preceding kong.
When you mention a person’s name, place the case marker si before it (e.g., si Somapni). You can also put si before kinship/relationship terms to mean “my …”.
If a second- or third-person pronoun follows the term of reference, it means “your/his/her …”.
si is singular; its plural is sira:
The basic word order in Yami is Predicate–Subject. The Subject is the topic of the sentence and is generally coded by nominative pronouns or common nouns. Predicates describe the identity/state/event of the Subject and can be nominal or verbal.
In verbal Predicates describing the Subject’s state, the auxiliary ya often occurs at the beginning. The Subject NP is marked nominative: si before relatives and names; o for others.
When an adverb such as pa “still” or na “already” appears, it follows ya and precedes the main verb.
When the agent is a bound pronoun (e.g., ko “I”, ka “you”), it moves to the second position of the clause. If the agent is not a pronoun, it stays after the Predicate—in Subject position. The Predicate–Subject relation can be viewed as an equation A=B.
In conversation, you can front the Subject or a bound pronoun if it is the discourse topic and the event is current/progressive.
When expressing a reason, the nominative marker o ri “that” (indicating the reason) can be placed before the Predicate; the bound pronoun ko may move after ya.