LIKE OTHER LANGUAGES, Nabaloi has its own rules – or ‘guides’, for word-formation. For samples, we have:
TO FORM ADJECTIVES. One common way is to get the prefix makin~, then attach it to any noun to capture the meaning of ‘fond of’, to wit:
MAKIN- (MA)MAONG, “fond of blue jeans”; or, Makin- (de)destauran “fond of (going to) restaurants”; or, Makin-(bi)bii/Makin-(da)daki, “fond of girls” and/or “fond of boys”.
ANOTHER WAY IS to prefix the (root) verb with ma- or mala- to indicate the concept of ‘usually-, often- or habitually~ doing’. Our examples: ma-shobda, “always, often, etc., smoking” (n.b. one special feature of Nabaloi – parallel to Gaelic is: how a word is spelled, is not necessarily how it should be pronounced, so that, ma-shobda is ‘lenitized’ to: marubda)!
OR, MADISDISJON/MALISDISJON!, “often, usually, or at times, criticizing”; or, mala-dahkhad, “often overdoing/oversaying, overtreating; [even] inconsiderately overbearing”: or, mala-damsis, “born/has become foolish, naughty, ill-mannered!” Now, let us treat you to some gentler ones:
MATIHBAY, MAADOK, MASENTIL; viz. “usually greeting pleasantly”, “by-nature persuasive”, “thoroughly/truly welcoming/receiving/hosting”, and so on. And then, we come now to: forming nouns, from verbs, to wit:
ATTACH PREFIX. PA~ to the verb, as in the cases of: Panihbay, Panentil, Pangaaddok, pangabak, and so forth. Since said prefix pan~ (or pang~ when attaching verb begins with a vowel) carries with it the meaning of: ‘his/the way of’, ‘his/the style of’, or ‘his/the method of’, the abovementioned from-verb-derived adjectives shall give us: “way of spot-greeting or well-wishing’ (i.e. panihbay), ‘style of welcoming/hosting (i.e. Panentil), ‘method of persuading’ (i.e. pangaddok), and ‘manner/technique of winning’ (i.e. Pangabak), respectively. But reflect now:
IF, UP TO this point of exposition, your blood tingles with Pride as a speaker – or ‘native’ speaker, of Nabaloi – a ‘truly unique, original, native language, how much more if you continue to cite other samples? – more illustrative-examples of those originally-disclosing proofs and evidences?
YES, THAT IS to be understood – in the light of ‘ethnic’ (or national) Pride; but, in fairness to ourselves, to the future generations, and to Humankind itself, it may also be well to ‘review’ our claims for originality. To cite some vulnerable examples:
THE NABALOI EXPRESSION Ara! is also an Expression – for nigh equivalent applications, in Nihongo or Japanese; the Norwegian conjunction og (or ug?) i.e. “and” parallels with Cebuano ug; the Central Kankana-ey preposition ad/ed reminds us of Latin and Italian “to” or “at”; so you say intako ad National Rd Eamos ad/e via Nationale. [L./lt. “Let’s go to National Rd”].
IN THIS DISCUSSION, we have cited Masentil and Panentil – from ‘root word’ sentil. But it also suggests it is no different from the Spanish words/verbs: Sentir and/or Sentirse – both meaning “to feel/sense/hear/reckon”. Ayuhh ay!
