a few last mallorquín phrases...

Before I say adéu (goodbye), I want to leave you with a few last Spanish and Mallorquín phrases that tickle my fancy:


ya te digo cosas : (Spanish) literally, "I am already telling you things" or "I already tell you things".  In America, we'd probably translate this to, "We'll have a meeting soon," or "We'll talk about it later."
     "Ya" in Spanish can mean "already", as in something that happened IN THE PAST already, but it can also mean "presently" or "soon" (IN THE FUTURE).  In that case, ya is kind-of like the word ahora, which means "now" or else "within the next few hours."  Both time phrases are flexible.  
     "Te digo cosas" or "Te diré cosas" is what my supervisors always tell me when they say they'll tell me what we're going to do the next day.  For example, I ask, "What are we going to do tomorrow in class?  Do you want me to prepare a special lesson?"  "Hmm, I don't know.  Well, we'll talk about it later. (Te diré cosas)."


estar hecho polvo : (Spanish) literally, "to be made dust" or "to be made into dust".  This can be used for people: "Estoy hecho polvo!" means "I'm super tired!"  And also for things: "El libro está hecho polvo," means "That book is dog-eared and ratty," And countries: "Después del tsunami, Japón ya está hecho polvo," "After the tsunami, Japan is now in ruins," And news: "La noticia nos hizo polvo," "The news shattered/devastated us."  This term is not to be confused with echar un polvo, which is a very vulgar term meaning, "to screw (someone)."


llueve sobre mojado : (Spanish) literally, "It's raining on top of wet" or "It's raining on ground that's already wet", meaning "it's going from bad to worse," or  "that's the icing on the cake".  It can also mean "it's already affected me so much, it doesn't matter," or "like water off a duck's back."


ya éramos muchos, y (encima) parió la abuela : (Spanish) "There were already a lot of us, and (on top of that), Grandma had a baby," meaning "the problems are piling up" or "that was the straw that broke the camel's back".


escaquear / escaqueón: (Spanish), meaning "to slack off" / "slacker".  This is the opposite of empollón, "a brown-nosing nerd."


And now for a bit of Mallorquín grammar:
     Remember, Mallorquín is a dialect of Catalan.  On Mallorca, everyone writes in Catalan, but the spoken language is completely different.
     For example, the definite articles (in English: "the". In Spanish: el, la, los, las).  In classical Catalan, the definite articles are el, la, l' (before nouns beginning with vowels), els, les.  In Mallorquín, the definite articles are es, sa, s', es, ses.  This would be easy enough to remember: in Catalan, "the chair" is la cadira, so in Mallorquín, it's sa cadira.  Other nouns, though, have sounds that change.  El cotxe, "the car," turns into es cotxo.  Some words are completely different: "the cat" in Catalonia is el gat, but in Mallorca is es moix.  Some nouns are only used with la, even on Mallorca: "the sea" in all Catalan speaking areas is la mar.  If the noun  begins with a vowel, in Catalan the article changes to l', for example, l'amic, "the friend".  In Mallorquín, s'amic.  However, if it's plural, masculine, and begins with a vowel, in Catalan you say els amics, but in Mallorca, they add a t: ets amics.  If it's plural, masculine, and begins with a consonant, you just use es (the singular masculine form): "the books" are es llibres in Mallorquín, and els llibres in Catalan.  If you use the word amb "with", then the sound changes to so (singular) and sos (plural), and you don't actually say amb, you say en.  So, "I go by car" is literally said "I go with my car," Jo vaig en so cotxo.  (Jo vaig amb el cotxe in Catalan).  "I'm with friends" is Jo som en sos amics. (Jo sóc amb els amics in Catalan).


There's probably even more to the game, but this is all I've been able to pick up in eight months (about the definite articles; I do know more than just how to say "the").  I can hold mini-conversations in Catalan, and I can follow everybody elses' conversations pretty well.  If I ever come back (someday! sometime!) I'll jump right back into figuring out this fascinating language.  For now, it's time to say adéu, mos veiem. (bye, see you soon).