Yang miskitu bila man ra lan mai daukaisna

That means "I'm going to teach you miskito." Actually, I suppose proper English would be "I'm going to teach Miskito to you." Whatever.

Let's go over a couple of the basics first. To start, if you've ever learned any Spanish, you know that the pronunciation of vowels doesn't change from one word to the next. Same with Miskito. Here's how it works:

a = ah
i = long e (we)
u = oo (chute)

Correct. Only three vowels. Thing is, Miskito only has like 60 years of being a written language so some of the kinks are still being worked out. So sometimes people will throw an 'e' or an 'o' in somewhere in speech or writing. Also in writing, they might make two words into one word or drop a letter off of a word, making you think you're learning a whole different verb conjugation, when in reality it's just a spelling mistake. Not that that's happened to me or anything.

Here are the other 14 letters that Miskito employs:

B, D, H, K, L, M, N, NG, P, R, S, T, W, Y

The only words I can think of that have 'ng' have it at the end. I'm not sure why the 'g' isn't considered a separate letter. The 'w' can have the typical English pronunciation like in 'water' or it can be a 'u' sound like in iws (pronounced EE-oos), which is a command that means sit down.

The 'h' is a breathy sound from the back of the throat. I forget what that's called. Ever watch Hey, Arnold! on Nickelodeon when you were young? ...Or, like, last week? Anyone? No? Well, I'll explain it this way anyway. The bully character in the show, Helga, is secretly in love with the main character, Arnold. Everytime Helga goes into a monologue with herself about how much she loves Arnold, this creepy kid with glasses comes up behind her, breathing down her neck. It's kinda weird. But anyway, the point is that the "h" sound is supposed to be like that creepy kids' breathing. If you haven't seen Hey Arnold! and don't know what I'm talking about, I guess you're SOL. Or you can think of the 'h' in the word 'have', but instead of being at the beginning of the word, the 'h' is somewhere in the middle of the word or at the end.

The hard part about learning Miskito is that there aren't a whole lot of gringos that come through looking to learn the language, so it's barely taught. I guess there probably aren't a ton of people that can really teach the English language so well either, so it's not like it's specific to the Miskito people. Maybe all the multimedia stuff (movies, music, games) just seems to make English more accessible. Anyway, here are some basic words in Miskito.

Au - Yes (kinda sounds like 'ow' when you say it fast, but most people say aaauu)
Apia - No (not to be confused with the Spanish apio [celery])
Naksa - Hello
Aisabi - Goodbye
Nahki sma? - How are you (sma comes from the verb kaia, which means to be. Can someone give me a language where the verb 'to be' isn't irregular? I know they must exist, I just don't speak them. Why did so many people insist on making one of the most basic verbs in their language NOT follow the rules for a regular verb?! English, Spanish, Miskito - the verb 'to be', 'ser/estar', and 'kaia'? All irregular in the present tense. Oh, quechua, too - the indigenous language in Ecuador. What a dumb thing for languages to do).

Ok, I'm done with my tangent.

Yang - I, me, mine
Man - You, your
Witin - He/She, Him/Her, His/Her
Pain - Fine, good (pronounced 'pine')
Saura - Bad
Anira? - Where
Ahkia? - When
Dia muni? - Why
Nu apu - I don't know
Dia takisa? - What's up
Diara apu - Nothing

You'll notice that there are English-sounding words in Miskito (pain/fine, nu/know). The Miskito that is spoken in Port differs from true Miskito spoken in some communities here in the RAAN (North Atlantic Autonomous Region). Both English and Spanish have been incorporated into the local Miskito. Here are some more examples. See if you can guess what they are. The English translation follows below:

1. mabil
2. bas
3. ais
4. ansa munaia
5. antin takaia
6. lait
7. park
8. sus
9. raun
10. il
11. snu
12. plawar
13. markit
14. gabamint
15. nisan

1. marble
2. boss
3. ice
4. to answer
5. to hunt
6. light (electrical as opposed to tingni [natural light])
7. fork
8. shoes
9. round
10. hill
11. snow
12. flour
13. market
14. government
15. nation

The problem with all these words is that people then think it should be easy for me to learn the language! Admittedly, having a knowledge of English and Spanish makes it considerably easier for someone to learn Miskito than someone who has no knowledge of neither English nor Spanish. Still, there are so many grammatical differences, it's not a quick translation.

One of those grammatical differences is verb placement. In Miskito, the verb falls at the end of the sentence. For example, Yang markitra auna means 'I'm going to the market.' But as you can see, market is not at the end of the sentence; the verb is. Literally, the Miskito translates as 'I market to going', where the ra attached to markit means 'to.' It's tough to get in the habit of putting the verb at the end of the sentence. You really have to alter your thinking in trying to construct statements.

Miskito also employs infixes. In English, we only have prefixes (before the word) or suffixes (after the word). But miskito throws stuff in the middle, most commonly for indicating possession. Here's an example:
English - eye ; my eye ; your eye ; his/her eye
Miskito - nakra ; naikra ; namkra ; witin ai nakra
But possession indicators aren't ALWAYS infixes either. Sometimes they're suffixes. Example:
English - mother ; my mother ; your mother ; his/her mother
Miskito - yapti ; yaptiki ; yaptikam ; witin yaptika
But the confusion doesn't stop there. There are irregulars, too.
English - name ; my name ; your name ; his/her name
Miskito - nina ; nini ; ninam ; witin nina
So you can kind of see the pattern of the indicators of the first person having an 'i' (ai, ki, i) and the second person having an 'm' (am, kam, m), but the third person isn't so easy to peg down, and I'm yet to learn any rules for when to use which indicator. Just a lot of memorization.

It can be entertaining to learn Miskito, though, too. I already talked about some of the English words that have been incorporated into Miskito, and there are plenty more where those came from. There's danz pulaia (to dance), which literally means 'to play dance.' Ser munaia (to share), which literally means 'to do share.' And win takaia and lus takaia (to win and to lose), which literally mean 'to go out win' and 'to go out lose.'

But there are also some 'combo verbs' as I call them (verbs that have two words), that are kind of interesting when you look at their literal translation. Here are some of my favorites:

1. Aisi kaikaia - to pay attention. Aisi means father and kaikaia means watch or see, so the literal translation of aisi kaikaia is 'to watch father.'
2. Latwan kaikaia - to love. Latwan means pain, and we know kaikaia can mean see. So to love someone is to 'see their pain.'
3. Makabi walaia - to question/ask a question. Makabi is wisdom. Walaia means to listen. To ask someone a question means you 'listen to their wisdom.'
4. Bila kaikaia - to wait for someone. Bila is mouth. So when I tell you to bili kaiks (wait for me), I'm literally telling you to 'watch my mouth.'
5. Luki kaikaia - to think about. Luki comes from the verb lukaia, to see or believe. Luki kaikaia literally means 'to see a thought.'
6. Kupia krawaia - to remember. That's the translation I was given. The dictionary has kupia krawaia as to wake up. Either way, the literal translation is cool. Kupia means heart and krawaia means the wind is blowing. So whether it means 'I wake up' or 'I remember', kupi krawisa literally means, 'the wind blows my heart.'

So the Miskito is coming along alright. I'd like to be able to speak it better, but I've admittedly been more focused on my Spanish since I'll actually be able to use that back in the States. And since no one keeps appointments or has a good grasp on how to teach the language, I'll keep picking up bits and pieces where I can, and maybe by the time I have to leave I'll have a good grasp on it!