Parseltongue: And how to speak it

Chapter 6: Lesson Two And Si and Esh- words

Now that you know the basics of how words are pronounced and how sentences are performed in vocabulary, it's time to learn some vocabulary!

We will start with some words that would be considered "pronouns" in English and then move onto words that would be considered adjectives and adverbs in English. But also, we will learn the way Parseltongue grammar classifies words: a standard feature of Parseltongue grammar is you can usually tell the type of word it ends with by its ending​. Sentences in Parseltongue usually start with one of two words: Tasi (which means "This") or Fasi (which means "That"). It should be stressed that there are no equivalents of the words "the", "a", or "an" in Parseltongue; snakes use Tasi or Fasi instead.
Tasi and Fasi are considered "si-words" in Parseltongue because they end in "-si".
(NOTE: Tasi and Fasi are used for singular subjects only. You will learn about other "si-words", such as the number words, in later lessons.)
This - Tasi
That - Fasi

Esh-words (roughly: interrogative pronouns)

Often you'll want to ask questions in Parseltongue, such as if you want to learn something from our class snakes! As you can see to the right, many of the basic question words in English have direct equivalents in Parseltongue. However, Parseltongue places these words at the end of sentences instead of the beginning.

For example, the question "Who is that?" is glossed as "That who?" and therefore translates into Parseltongue as "Fasi haʃ?"

Note that the basic question words end similarly to the Parseltongue word for 'question'; Parseltongue speakers will often refer to the question words as "ʃ-words" or "esh-words", analogous to "the 5 W's" of who/what/where/when/why in English. However, Kestnaʃ​ itself is NOT considered an "ʃ​-word" but rather a noun.
Who - Haʃ
What - Teʃ
When - Fiʃ
Why - Vuʃ
Where - Doʃ
How - Baʃ
​Question - Kestnaʃ