Minglish leh Mavena

MCS anga ka DC hrawn hmasak ber Dr Naveen Aggarwal khan thu a sawi dawnin, Ṭawng min lehsak rawh, a ti ṭhin a. Ka huphurh ṭhin. Ṭawng pangai hi chu ṭawngkam thiam vak lo pawhin a leh ve mai theih. Mahse medical doctor a ni a, science term hman a ching kha chu vawi 2 vawi 3 hnuah chuan, “Sir if you’re planning to use science words in your speech, can you let me know in advance?” ka ti a. “Sure, what words would this include?” a ti a. Ka ngaihtuah a. A last speech ah khan “photosynthesis” tih a hmang tawh a, thumal hnih khata lehlin mai ngaihna a awm meuh lo kha a ni a. “Anything more complicated than photosynthesis” ka ti chu a nui ringawt.

Mizo ṭawng hian a daih lo ṭhin a ni. Word tam tak hi Mizo ṭawngah seng luh zung zung mai hi a finthlak, ka ti ta a.

Bill Bryson hian Mother Tongue tih lehkhabu a ziak a, English word leh phrase hrang hrang lo chhuah dan a study hrep hnuah a lakkhawm leh comment zuina te a ni a. Hetiang lehkhabu leh hmanlai Reader’s Digest te han chhiar hian Sap/English ṭawnga thumal tam tak an lo chawr chhuah dan te hi a ngaihnawm duh phian a. A ngai ang anga an seng luh loh pawh tlema her danglam hretin ṭawngkam an lo seng lut a, ṭawng a lo hausak phah duh khawp mai a. Ṭawngkam ṭhenkhat kum tam a lo vei a, a awmzia lehling thawk thawka lo evolve chho a awm a, a ṭhen lah a root word hriat theih tawh lo khawpa lo sap ta te a awm bawk a.

Mi tam takin sapṭawnga word ṭhenkhat hi vai ṭawng aṭanga lak a ni tih pawh kan hriat loh a tam ka ring. Word ṭhenkhat entirnan karma, purdah, yoga, bazaar, pajama, bandh, bungalow tih te hi chu a la vai sounding deuh hlek a, kan la risk dik thei ang a. Shampoo, sachet, juggernaut, thug, dacoit, jungle, cheetah tih te hi chu India ram ṭawng atanga sapṭawnga lut an ni tih risk nachang kan hre vak tawh lo ang.

Hman aṭanga ka thuvawn chu Mizo ṭawngin a daih loh chuan ṭawng dang hman mai tur. Mizo ṭawnga sawifiah a harsat zawk chuan ṭawng dang nen ṭankawp mai tur. Khawvel changkanna in min awp a, netizens kan nih vek deuhthaw tawh na ah hian tumahin Login, Password, Enter, Captcha, User ID, online, social media etc. te hi “Mizo ṭawng lo chuan ka hrethiam lo”, kan ti tawh lo. A ṭulna in min man a, kan thiam a, kan ṭawng a ni ve tawh mai. Lo in lak vai ṭingṭang chiam hian Mizo ṭawng a that zawk dawn AVBT.

Rawng tih te pawh hi Bengali ṭawng kan lak hi a nih hmel a. Ṭing, dum, sen, pawl, eng, etc te chu kan nei, a hlawma sawina hi Bengali ṭawng tho a ni kan hman. Mahse kan seng lut a, Mizo ṭawng a ni mai. Hmm.

Ṭawng chungchang ka sawi chiam nachhan zawk erawh chu uite thar ka nei a. Thil eng eng emaw han zirtir dawn hian buaina chen ka nei a. 1 na ah chuan Sapṭawng hi ka first language a ni lo a, urgent deuh hlekah chuan Mizo ṭawngin ka au chhuak. 2 na ah chuan ka khawvela mi tam zawkin sapṭawng an hmang lo a, ka uite min enkawl sak laia command an pek theih na tur a ngai a. 3 na ah chuan uite rilru tlemin a hriatthiam tur zirtir a ngai.

Sapṭawng chuan zirtir ila chuan go, sit, fetch, jump, run, come etc a tih theih mai tur kha Mizo ṭawng chuan a sak tlat. Uite rilru a tam si lo a, thui deuh zirtir a har a, one word command hi ngaihtuah fuh a har. 

Hei vang hian negative command atan, urgent deuh hlekah sapṭawnga “NO” tih hi ka instinct a ni ve tak si lem loh ah chuan “Het” hi a chhuak awlsam ber a, chu chu kan in zirtir ta a. Het tih lohah chuan “suh” hi a thiam bawk a (ani uite luhlulin a awih duh leh duh loh chu thuhran), chuvang chuan hemi te 2 hi negative command atan ka zirtir a. Maven hei chu ei chi a ni lo, tih kha awmzia a awm lo, a hrethiam lo; Maven ei suh, tih kha chuan ei ka phal lo tih chu a hrethiam ve mai. Hett hi chu sawifiah vak ngai lo in ka ngai. 

Positive command ah pawh “Ṭhu rawh” tih kan in zirtir a, one word command a “sit” tih ka zirtir dawn em ni aw, ka ti ka ti a. Mahse ka kaa ri awlsam zawk leh midang tan pawha chhuak awlsam zawk, two word command in “Ṭhu rawh” tih kan in zirtir a. “Chibai” tih hi chu sawi vak tur pawh ka hre lo, two syllables ni mah se, one word a nia, a sapṭawng pawhin a awm chuang lo a. “Fetch” tih hi a har ta a ni. Kan la ti fuh thei meuh lo. Ball vawma chhar nachang chu a hria a, a bak hi kan la thiam dun vak lo. Mizo zingah an uite light off/on tir thiam te, eng eng emaw la tura tirh theih te an nei thin a, kan in zirtir ve thei ngut ang e maw.

Beisei a sang vak hran lo.

Ṭawng chungchang hi la zirchian leh tur a ni. A ngaihnawm duh riau.

Pet People

I’ve recently been accused of making all my posts about my new puppy. This is true. I’ve made a lot of videos because he does really cute shit which I find truly fascinating. He throws tantrums, complains/cries when he’s lonely, learns new tricks quickly, sleeps a lot, has only two energy levels – 0% and 100% – and also doesn’t ever bark at anyone. He does argue and howl passionately back when he’s angry but that was not really the point of me getting him in the first place.

Which was to make noise. A guard-dog, basically. I wanted a dog to bark at strangers or just generally act as an audio alert, an alarm system if you will, when people approach the house. His name was also designed to convey this – Brave Guardian. Or as the Mizo version of the BINGO song named the puppy: Venthiam Huaisena. Mavena for short.

Safe to say Mavena is not a guard dog. Not yet, at any rate.

I find it interesting though how true it is when people say pets tend to start acting like their humans. I thought about it and although I cannot say whatever I said of him in the first para are my traits too, I’ve noticed how very territorial he is. Just like me, he likes to take ownership of whatever he thinks is his – a ball, his dog chew toys, an old kitchen scrubber, pieces of old linen strings, old brushes, Ducky the plushy, etc. He just collects them in one place all the time. I find this oddly charming because this is me too.

I like to cherish what I own and I like what I like.

For this same reason, I thought about our other pets too. Simi is Feli’s cat and the pair of them just roam about everywhere at all the odd hours; you don’t even know when they come home. Snowy and Chia are Lee’s dog and cat and all of them can sleep at the drop of a hat. Nixi and Momo were my cats and both girls were fiercely independent and also high-strung. Lulua was Feli’s and he was extremely stubborn.

I also got to wondering how our pets would talk if they could. Based on their own little quirky personalities. 

I believe Mavena would just jumble up his words and be very emotional and no one would really understand him. Nixi and Momo would have been eloquent speakers, and used hi-fi languages and speak in Old Mizo, probably. Lulua was a Punjabi boy; no one in Mizoram would have understood him. Simi would hardly talk, and if she did, probably spoke without bothering to enunciate, and probably her favourite word would be the Japanese “Mendokusai”. Chia probably talked like a Gen Alpha kid, all fancy Minglish, or Mizo with the elite accent. Snowy probably just talks a lot, with no beginning or ending, and turn a one-liner into two paragraphs. I don’t know. I’m assuming.

It’s just one of those things to do with pet ownership. There’s just a lot that ties us together, pet people. An extremely unifying factor. We just bond over pets. And you’ll realise a lot of us don’t even consider us Dog People and Cat People per se; we are Pet People. I’d pet a rhinoceros if I could. When the snake guy Roma held it steady for me, I pet a King Cobra as well. I just really like animals and want to be their friend.

Which is also why I don’t eat dog and cat meats, as a lot of other pet owners too. It is hypocritical but I can’t bring myself to eat an animal whose species I call pet. Duck meat, too. I had a pet duck once. My parents turned it into curry while I was in school. That was traumatizing. I’ve never eaten duck. I always say if ever I go to Beijing, I will try Peking Duck, but otherwise, I’m happy to not eat duck ever.

I forgot what I was talking about.