Every entry names its part of speech. The dictionary uses these labels:
- Noun: a person, place, thing or idea, such as ia, water.
- Verb, Transitive verb, Intransitive verb: an action or event. Most verbs are simply “Verb”.
- Adjective: a quality. Many Jorai qualities work like verbs, as in Rhade, and are listed as adjectives.
- Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction: words of manner, place, time and joining.
- Pronoun: words for people and things already known, such as “I”, “you”, “this” and “that”.
- Numeral and Classifier: numbers, and the counting words that go with them.
- Particle: small words that mark a question, emphasis or the end of a thought.
- Expressive and Interjection: sound-words and exclamations such as “alas!”.
Verbs in English
English meanings of verbs begin with “To”, as in “To go, to walk”, so a verb is easy to tell from a noun at a glance.
Words made with a first syllable
Jorai builds many words with a short first syllable such as pơ-, tơ-, hơ- or kơ-. Each of these words has its own entry, because its meaning is not always the base word’s meaning.