But these articles do not add anything whatever to the meaning. If an artist were to paint four pictures of Abraham,
- sitting at the door of the tent,
- sitting at the door of a tent,
- sitting at a door of the tent,
- sitting at a door of a tent,
all four views would be alike, and each would be precisely the same as if he had received the briefer description, "at door of tent, " or "at tent door."
,,Oma" is another kimafal, and as it immediately follows teneda it must answer the question "whose tent ?" Its root, om, we recognise as meaning he ; therefore oma means "his" and refers to teneda. So that we now have the full meaning of the first clause: "Abraham once sat at the door of his tent."
The next word valadöl must be a participle as it ends in -öl, which is like our "-ing." Valad we find in the vocabulary to mean awaiting ; valadön, to wait for, to await, to attend. Therefore valadöl must mean either "waiting for," "awaiting," or "attending."
Now he who awaits or attends must await something or some one ; that is, valadön is the kind or verb which is called transitiv ; it may have an object. This object must be in the kimifal ; that is, must end in i or is. Looking further along we find such a word, foginelis. The s tells us it is plural. The i that it is in the objectiv or kimifal. This leaves us foginel. The ending el refers to a person, and often corresponds to er in English. We find fogin to mean "a foreign country," for which there is no one word in English. Foginel means a foreigner, stranger, one from a distant country.
The words ,,valadöl foginelis" mean "awaiting strangers." The three words segun kösöm omik, as they come just after valadöl, must modify or explain its meaning. Segun is found to be a preposition meaning "according to," and kösöm, a noun in the kimfal, "custom," ,,segun kösöm" must be "according to custom." The ending -ik tells us that omik is an adjectiv ; as adjectivs always follow the words they qualify it must describe kösöm. We know that ,,om" is "he," and that ,,-ik" is "pertaining to ; "
