Sônnavend ja sôndag — The Weekend #
Daily-life prose stretch II under college/DAILY-LIFE-BRIEF.md — the same narrator as
daily-life-workday.md, off the clock: errands and money, the house, the beach, guests and music,
and the slow Sunday. Play is where a language shows its warmth registers; errands are where it
shows its numbers. Canon-only (v5.77); gaps harvested below.
1 · Sônnavend, matī — the errands.
Sônnavendôl mä magā kuni klôk deveñç — nagu kuning! Tôl turgôlô. Mä komprā pat, vôidôt, kalāt, ja kōk läpxôs per. Kôg maksā elva rā; mä maksā dünak ja sāmā jedôn drobô. Komprāji tēdô män: "Moin! Samā nagu alatü?" — "Samā nagu alatü."
On Saturday I sleep till nine — like a king! Then to the market. I buy bread, some butter, some fish, and a cake for the kid. It all comes to eleven rā; I pay with a twelve and get one back in change. The stallholder knows me: "Morning! Same as always?" — "Same as always."
2 · Kōtôl — the house has its own list.
Kōtôl naisô jubā tȫdô: tä pesä klamôtôd ja finestôd, mä panā kambôrd ôigus. Läpx "abī": tä kōrrô ümbär ja kantā. Lôunāl mēg küpsā kōkôn — läpx panā liig magūsūt, muidū.
At home the wife's already at it: she washes the clothes and the windows, I put the rooms right. The kid "helps": runs around and sings. At midday we bake the cake — the kid puts in too much sweet, of course.
3 · Strāndôl — the sea is free.
Pǟrast mēg kǟvô strāndôlô. Sol! Lopõks! Mer um kylm, agā läpx vōigā nagu kalā; mä vōigā hetk ja tôl istā rāndôl. Naisô lugē; mä nǟgô lainôd, ja makā midagü. Se um se: makā midagü, kôg pǟvô. Sellü tȫ mä volē elkü pǟvô.
Afterward we walk to the beach. Sun! At last! The sea is cold, but the kid swims like a fish; I swim for a moment and then sit on the shore. The wife reads; I watch the waves and do nothing. That's the whole thing: doing nothing, all day. That's the job I'd take every day.
4 · Vespôrôl — guests, music, the long table.
Vespôrôl tulē külalüd: nabôr, dva amīkôd, ja vana talçāji, ken parlā liig mult agā tēdô kôgõn. Mēg sȫ, jōdô olūtôt ja vīt. Amīk spēlā instrumentôn, naisô kantā vana kançōn, ja lopõks kôg kantā — mal, agā rôimõ. Läpx dansā kuni tä langô. "Skōl!" — "Skōl!" Havs tulē tard.
In the evening the guests come: the neighbor, two friends, and the old teacher who talks too much but knows everything. We eat, we drink beer and wine. A friend plays, the wife sings an old song, and by the end everyone's singing — not correctly, but happily. The kid dances till she drops. "Cheers!" — "Cheers!" Good-night comes late.
5 · Sôndag — the slow day.
Sôndag um lent pǟvô, ja se um ses tȫ: lent um. Kafē, pa, vaikõ kōt. Mä lugē; läpx pēlā etāxôl. Pǟrast lôunāt mä kǟvô rāndôlô, vana nabôrôk: tä kalāstā, mä istā. "Sāmā miskü?" — "Midagü. Agā se äb um se." Mēg istā kuni vespôr.
Sunday is a slow day, and that's its job: being slow. Coffee, bread, a quiet house. I read; the kid plays on the floor. After lunch I walk to the shore with the old neighbor: he fishes, I sit. "Getting anything?" — "Nothing. But that's not the point." We sit till evening.
6 · Ja tôl — mōndag.
Vespôrôl mä valmistā klamôtôd demās per. Nixō: mōndag tulē, muidū. Agā nū kōt um vaikõ, läpx magā, ja mēg istā veel hetk. "Jôvā vekk?" dī naisô. "Jôvā vekk." Se um kôg, ja se piisā.
In the evening I lay out clothes for tomorrow. Anyway: Monday's coming, of course. But right now the house is quiet, the kid's asleep, and we sit a moment longer. "A good week?" says the wife. "A good week." That's all, and it's enough.
What the weekend exercises #
- Money in dozenal, in passing: elva rā; maksā dünak "pay with a twelve" (comitative -k as instrument), jedôn drobô "one back in change" — the base-12 economy working in a market sentence, no ceremony.
- The benefactive, now canon: kōk läpxôs per "a cake for the kid" (§1) and klamôt demās
per "clothes for tomorrow" (§6) — the postposition per (
../coursebook/Part One) takes the linking -s and marks the intended recipient, cleanly distinct from eest "in exchange for." An earlier draft dodged this hole; the ruling filled it. - do/make and bad, now canon: makā midagü "do nothing" (§3) and kantā mal "sing badly" (§4) — the general verb makā and the evaluative mal (the missing pole of jôvā) landed in the same ruling. The language can now answer Mis sä makā? "what are you doing?"
- Warmth registers: nagu kuning (like a king), nagu kalā (like a fish), mal agā rôimõ (badly but happily), kuni tä langô (till she drops), se piisā (it's enough) — small-scale figurative language, no coinage.
- The play and house lexicons hold: spēlā instrumentôn, kantā kançōn, dansā, pēlā, vōigā, kalāstā, skōl for leisure; pesä (wash), etāxô (floor), vī (wine), finest, kambôr, kōk for the home — all already canon.
Gap-list (updated — the ruling that followed this text closed the top three) #
| # | Gap | Where it pinched | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | benefactive "for" | §1 kōk läpxôs per; §6 klamôt demās per | ✅ CLOSED — postposition per (+ linking -s), distinct from eest |
| 2 | "to do / make" | §3 makā midagü "do nothing" | ✅ CLOSED — makā (Low German maken) |
| 3 | "bad / badly" | §4 kantā mal "sing badly" | ✅ CLOSED — mal (Romance mal), invariant adj./adv. |
| 4 | "to rest / take rest" | §3 said it by picture (makā midagü "do nothing") | ⟨open — or bless the idiom and skip the verb⟩ |
| 5 | "like/love (a thing)" | §3 sellü tȫ mä volē (want) | ⟨open — the affection verb for things vs people⟩ |
| 6 | "weekend" as a word | the title still says sônnavend ja sôndag | ⟨open — compound needs an "end" noun ruling first⟩ |
Register: metrolect. This was the text that surfaced the benefactive, do/make, and bad/badly holes;
the fills above are now in the coursebook, and the prose has been updated to use them — the corpus
and the dictionary moving together. Companion pieces: daily-life-workday.md (I), this (II),
school-morning.md, doctor-visit.md.