'ȳdragon' - 'to speak'

[livizza]

Hi!

I'm slightly confused:

1. According to wikipedia http://wiki.dothraki.org/High_Valyrian_Vocabulary#Y


'Quptenkos Ēngoso ȳdrassis?' stands for 'Do you speak the Common tongue?'.


So I found out "ȳdrassis" is the Aorist form, 3rd person singular of ȳdragon. But WHY?
'Do you speak..' would be 'ȳdrā', wouldn't it?

2. Another one with 'ȳdragon', according to http://www.dothraki.com/2013/04/sesir-urnebion-zȳhon-keliton-issa/ would be:


'Ydra ji Valyre?' - 'You speak Valyrian?'


What does "ji" stand for? ..as I can't find it anywhere:/


THANKS.

[livizza]

ah, ok.. concerning 1. I found out that the Aorist time is timeless. (I thought it's a perfect form)

Still, 2. I don't get..


thx!

[Qvaak]

Ya. "Quptenkos Ēngoso ȳdrassis?" is not a question about what's happening now, but a question about a general fact, a capability, so aorist is needed.

Ji is an article (you'll sometimes see it elided to j'). Kraznys speaks Astapori Valyrian (http://wiki.dothraki.org/Astapori_Valyrian_Vocabulary), which is practically a different language - just close enough that it's not totally inconceivable that the unsullied and Kraznys understand Deanerys and Daenerys understands them. Note, for example, that Kraznys starts the sentence with the question word ydra, while in HV ȳdrassis comes at the end of the sentence.
Meereen Valyrian, on the other hand, is very close to Astapori Valyrian, but such murky and lossy dialect that Daenerys cannot follow it (and we too are having hard time).

Hrmph. I should really try to waken Mad Latinist. I know a lot about Dothraki, only little about Valyrians.

[livizza]

Hehe. Thanks a lot!! :-) Wake him :-P


Ok. So High Valyrian is like standard (High) German, and Astapori or Meereen Valyrian is like any regional dialect such as spoken in, let's say, Vienna -which is easier to understand-, or Vorarlberg -which is almost impossible to do so:))-, respectively.

Another question about Astapor(i Valyrian):
What's "sa", as in 'Sa tida' - 'It is done'? ( http://www.dothraki.com/2013/04/sesir-urnebion-zȳhon-keliton-issa/ )
..As I can't find it in neither the Astapori Valyrian- nor the High Valyrian dictionary.