100 superwords: Part 4

In today's superwords we are going to learn some greetings and interrogative words:

• nire: who, alive
• ño, ñongwane: how
• meden: which
• medente: where
• dre: what
• ñobätä: why
• nuäi: how much
• ñantörö: hello!
• köbö kwin: good day!
• ja tuaita: see you!

Now let's see some interesting details:

• Nire: When pronounced "NI-re" it means "alive", for instance "jondron nire" > "thing alive" > "animal". On the other hand, when pronounced "ni-RE" it means "who", for instance "¿Ye nire?" > "¿That who?" > "¿Who's that?". When we read that word, we don't hear it's pronunciation, so we can only determine it's meaning by context. 
• Nire, meden: Who, which. It is used twice to convey plural. For instance, "¿Nire nire tä sribire sete?" > "¿Who are working there?" o "¿Jondron nire meden meden tä nüne nöbätä?" > "¿Which animals live in the water?" Notice "ñöbätä" comes from "ñö (water)" + "bätä (about)" and it is different from "ñobätä (why)"
• Nuäi: In the Ngäbere language, words that have to do with numbers are a bit more complicated than in English or Spanish. For now just remember that you can only use "nuäi > how much" to ask about money and hours. For instance, "¿Jondron ye nuäi?" > "¿How much is that thing?" And also "¿Ora nuäi?" > "¿What time is it?"
• Köbö kwin: It literally means "Day good" and can be used as a greeting at any time of the day. You can add the time of the day to be more specific: "Köbö kwin dekä" > "Day good morning" > "Good morning". Similarly, after noon you would say "Köbö kwin dere", and when it's dark "Köbö kwin deu"

You know, feel free to ask or comment.

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