# Sardo: a mellus biri



## Mangly

Can anyone translate this for me? It occurs in a book by Marco Vichi, ´Il nuovo venuto´ (p. 232), at the end of a conversation between a policeman and a lawyer. The policeman has been asking questions about the affairs of one of his neighbours whose death has been labelled suicide, but about which the policeman has doubts. After the questions, the lawyer (Musillo) is asked not to mention the fact that Piras (the policeman) has been asking questions.
He replies:

´Non dico niente a nessuno, stia tranquillo.´
´Grazie avvocato, se avrò bisogno di lei la disturbo di nuovo.´
´*A mellus biri*´ disse Musillo con un sorriso.

The speakers are Sardinian, so it may be dialect. ´Mellus´ suggest something to do with honey; ´biri´ connected with _bere_, perhaps?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.


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## fitter.happier

Hi!

From a quick Google search, it looks like it's a variation of '_a si biri mellus_', which is way of saying '_I'll see you soon_', but please take this with a grain of salt. Your best bet here is to wait for Blackman -- he's Sardinian, so I'm sure he'll be of great help


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## Necsus

In the meantime, from HERE:
According to them you seem to be quite right: mellus means "meglio", "better" and biri is the verb "vedere", "see". "A si biri" means arrivederci (a se vedere*) so it's very very possible that "a mellus biri" means "arrivederci in tempi migliori" or "see you in better times".


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## shardaneng

Necsus's explanation is quite correct. Just one more thing, Sardinian is not a dialect, is a language.


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## Mangly

Thank you all for your speedy and very helpful replies. These explanations certainly make sense. And apologies to shardaneng for calling Sardinian a dialect; a foolish error, no disrespect intended.


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## shardaneng

Don't worry Mangly, not many know it.


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## Blackman

Luckily I'm not the only one and shardaneng is actually more expert than me in this southern version of the language. 



shardaneng said:


> Necsus's explanation is quite correct. Just one more thing, Sardinian is not a dialect, is a language.


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