Class 38 — two conversations under pressure. Most real speech happens when something has gone wrong, and the language of things going wrong has its own vocabulary, its own grammar, and above all its own emotional manners. Lakshmi misses her bus. Later she realises she forgot something at work. Both times Sashmira does something very Malayali — reassures her without quite letting her off the hook. FIVE THINGS WORTH MORE THAN A HUNDRED VOCABULARY WORDS: 1. One borrowed English adjective ridden through the whole become family. ഞാൻ ഇപ്പോ റെഡി ആവുന്നു (njaan ippo ready aavunnu) I am getting ready · ഞാൻ റെഡി ആയിരുന്നു (ready aayirunnu) I was ready · നാളെ ഒൻപതിന് ഞാൻ റെഡി ആയിരിക്കും (ready aayirikkum) tomorrow at nine I will be ready. If you know the English word, the become family will conjugate it for you. 2. NO-BLAME GRAMMAR, and this is a small piece of cultural genius. ബസ് മിസ് ആയി (bus miss aayi) — not I missed the bus, but the bus became missed. ആയി rather than ആക്കി. Things become missed, cancelled, late, broken. മാച്ച് ക്യാൻസൽ ആയി · ഫോൺ ഓഫ് ആയി. English puts a subject in front of the failure; Malayalam very often lets the failure simply occur. Not evasion — a different instinct about how much fault a sentence needs to carry. 3. കഴിക്കാതെ പോകാൻ പറ്റില്ല (kazhikkaathe pokaan pattilla) — you cannot go without eating. Three classes in three words: ആതെ without doing, ആൻ the infinitive, പറ്റില്ല impossibility. And notice: Sashmira is not giving an order. She declares the alternative unthinkable. That is how Malayali affection works. 4. അതുകൊണ്ടല്ലേ ബസ് മിസ് ആയത്? (athukondalle bus miss aayath?) — isn’t that why you missed the bus? Gentle teasing built entirely out of particles. It lets you make a point without making an accusation. 5. കേട്ടോ (ketto) — a warm attention tag. Without it, an instruction. With it, care. One word, an entirely different relationship. Quizzes below. Dr. Reshmi R Nair — SpeakMalayalam.