Smarkaka, salwa! Shaja kam-kamya warshtas warhamas : su . “Hello, all! Today we’ll be talking about a very common word : su.”
The base meaning of this word is “good”, though you’ll hear it in all sorts of contexts. Su warja “Good job” Su charda-ha yawdata “You fight with a good heart” Cha dijam su “Here the earth is good” or all by itself Su “Good!” or “Awesome!”.
As with many of the other words introduced so far, this word has cognates throughout Indo-European, though especially in Sanskrit & Greek. In Sanskrit, it’s identical to the Wenja form, and in Greek it’s eu- as in eu-phemism or eu-logy. Because the Greek form has an e- at the beginning of it, This form is reconstructed as PIE *h1su-.
But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We know that this word is actually derived from the verb ‘to be’, PIE *h1es-, which is continued by English is, Latin est, Greek esti, and Sanskrit asti (among numerous other words). This may be a bit of an oversimplification, but the basic idea is that “that which exists” = “that which is good”.
And what about the verb ‘to be’ in the world of Oros? Well, in Izila ‘is’ is just as it was in PIE — Bátaris hrégnis hesti “Batari is a queen”, but in Wenja it’s rarely used. To say “I am Takkar” Takkar normally just says Mu Takkar, except in very formal contexts, such as when he meets Sayla for the first time: Takkar hasam. Or the first time you meet Tensay: Wal shnar? Nay! Tinsay hasam!There’s one other place you’ll hear hasa in Wenja. When the Wenja are very excited, you’ll hear them exclaim “Hasa!” While literally meaning “It is!”, it has a different sense when used: “It is good! Huzzah!”
Tu sakwan prasti!