It Only Takes an “H”

I was working with a translation helper, trying out a phrase for “God looked favorably on ….”.

Glancing at my paper, I rattled off the trail phrase, “In Dios uki kwal in taka.”  “God thought well (of) the man.”

My co-workers and I had gone after this phrase with several helpers, so I was pretty confident that it carried the meaning we were looking for.  My translation helper looked at me kinda funny.  “Uki kwal in taka?” She repeated back in a question.

“Yes,” I said.

“In Dios?” she said, asking if it was truly God who was doing the action.

“Yes, I said. “What does that mean that God did?”

“God ate the man!” she said.

Puzzled, I looked back at my cheat sheet and noticed one letter that I had not pronounced.  I laughed.  “Yes, that means God ate the man.  But, I wanted to say, ‘In Dios ukíh kwal in taka.’” I prominently pronounced the “H.”

She laughed.  “Oh, that means that God thought well (of) the man.”

“Great!”  I thought.  But, I’ll have to be VERY careful to pronounce that “H”!