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As for the Kamakawi word "nelimilen," glossed as "martyr," I'd have to look it up in my Comprehensive Dictionary of the Kamakawi Tongue, which I keep next to my Encyclopaedia of Tlön, Uqbar, and Orbis Tertius. However, I've lent both books out, so I'll just have to guess as to the origin of this word, for I rather doubt that it's related to the word for "witness," as is our word "martyr." Here are some possibilities: 1) Nelimilen is the word for "beached whale," as well as for the folkloric Spirit Nelimilen who tricks whales and sailors into crashing upon the shore. Eventually the word came to mean anyone who saw or almost fell victim to such a calamity. 2) Nelimilen was the name of a famed fisherman long ago who was obsessed with hunting the Great White Squid. In this epic tale, still memorized by Kamakawi children to this day, Nelimilen ends up dying in his quest to slay the Great White Squid. A famous quotation from this poem (which, alas, I only have in the English translation) runs as follows: "He tasks me! He tasks me, and I shall have him! I'll chase him round the Moons of Fith and round the Sheli Maestrom and round Solresol's flames before I give him up. Prepare to alter course!" The name Nelimilen is no longer given to Kamakawi children, but, however, the name of his young cousin still is. This younger cousin is mentioned in the first line of the poem -- "Call me Ikemahel." 3) Nelimilen is a very, very old borrowing from Middle Zhyler which has completely been assimilated into the Kamakawi collective. As for the rest of these lessons, as we all know, I'm a very bad typist (at least in English), and a very bad speller (especially in English). So, alas, I actually knew that the word Spanyän meant Spain ... though no matter how many times I read my translation, my brain did not seem to know. (I read each of my emails about four times, and I still don't catch these mistakes). I most certainly knew Suzette's last name, considering that I have her dictionary on one of these shelves beside me. I agree with Alex though ... the Volapük lessons would be extra fun if Samül and his family just blasted off into space. I consider Volapük to be a steampunk language, so I expect goggles, corsets, giant steam powered spiders, Queen Victoria in a rocket powered zeppelin fleet, and other feats of improbable science with my Volapük, thank you very much. I'll look at Kash when I have a moment. Personally I would prefer to look at lessons of personal languages, or at least less widely known languages, since there are already communities around for Klingon and Volapük and the like. Kash does get extra points for having words for Dragons -- kundapor and açakon -- though I can't find a word for "clockwork," "ballet," or "princess," which surely should be part of any basic vocabulary. Speaking of basic vocabulary, I always find it funny word words are listed in the first lesson of a language. It seems to give a feel to each language. In these first lessons, this is how we're introduced to these languages: Klingon: tooth, hit, hand, language ... Borg: airlock, assimilate, conquer, prosthesis ... Láadan: tired, woman/person, sibling-by-birth, grass ... Volapük: student, university, town, Spain ... Tsolyáni: pen, paper, book, floor ... Kamakawi: fish, mushroom, lava, martyr ... Alas, happiness is not the mushroom ...