Mini: How to order food at a restaurant

Ordering food at a restaurant is basically asking for things. And, of course, understanding what the waiter is telling you:

Notice the second sentence. In Mini you can just chain verbs, no need for any intermediate words. They just work! Let’s see another example of this by ordering something:

You can chain together as many verbs as you want. Let’s order some tacos:

Mini is a small language and it does not have the letter “c”; among others. In this case, and with any foreign word, you have two options: use it as is or minify it. If you choose to use it as is just write it or say it as it is done in the original language. Ignore any Mini pronunciation rule. If you choose to minify it then follow the following long and laborious process:

  1. Change any letters to ones in Mini. Try to use letters that match the pronunciation of the word in the original language. For example, “taco” becomes “tako”.

Wait, it wasn’t a long process at all. For pronunciation you can either try to match the original language or follow Mini rules: stress in the second to last syllable. These minified words work the same as any other Mini word: They can be nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs depending on the particle that it is marking them (a, e, i, o).

Let’s continue ordering food for ourselves and for an imaginary friend:

Notice here instead of minifying we are directly translating and making new words with compounds:

Finally, notice how we are using “an” to join sentences and food items.

Food is its own vast world. There is no clear rule on how to translate each concept. Remember to use the dictionary before trying to do it on your own, that word may already be there. Here’s a list of dishes (and beverages) to make you hungry:

Finally, a conversation:

Grammar

Verbs and tense

Verbs don’t specify the tense, this can be understood from context. For example this simple sentence can be in any tense:

Nevertheless, if context is not enough or an explicit tense is needed one uses a multitude of words before the verb to explicitly mark it.

Simple present:

Simple past:

Present perfect simple:

Past perfect simple:

Imperative:

Chaining

Notice that you can just chain verbs after the “i”:

Adjectives and adverbs

For an adjective precede a noun with a word. For an adverb follow a verb with o and a word. In Mini they are just modifiers:

Questions

Simple yes or no questions are formed by adding a “?” or some form of confirmation with either “no?”, “ja?”, “u ke?” at the end:

For open questions one uses “ke” (what) and adds other words to make the other question words:

Conjunctions

They are:

Some examples:

Dependent clauses

Use “ke”:

Compound words

Given the limited vocabulary of Mini, one can create new words by composing them:

These words behave the same as any other word in Mini:

Singular and plural

Every noun in Mini is both singular and plural:

Plurality is usually clear from context, otherwise you can use number words and quantity words like “mui”, “some”, “meno”.

Foreign and non-mini words

Proper nouns and foreign words can be written and pronounced as they are in their original language:

Or you can choose to minify the word following this formula:

  1. Prefer to use letters and ortography from Mini: America, Amerika.
  2. If you can translate one or more words directly, do it: New York, Nu York.
  3. If the word has a historic latin or romance-like, use that as base: Deutschland, Germania, Germania.

Then we can write:

Pronunciation is free in this case. You can say it like in its original language or follow Mini rules (stress in the second to last syllable).

Exercises

Translate the sentences:

  1. mi i vole a jusi de longo-midori-melon.
  2. si i vole bibe a kafe.
  3. Here is the menu.
  4. mi i kan mira a menu?
  5. Mia likes beer.
  6. Eggs with sausages.
  7. tortija de patata.
  8. They wanna eat cheese empanada, fruit, and eggs. Also, I want a coffee.
  9. tu i favo a polo?
  10. ale man i favo a pisa?
  11. What does she want to drink?
  12. niku-sando e bon-aroma.
  13. This has cheese.
  14. Are they ready?
  15. I wanna eat tacos.

Notes


Published: 251211