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Maka

Glyph of the word 'maka'.

maka

  • (n.) crab
  • (nm.) a boy’s given name

A male liki maka ie tinitié li ia.
“And a crab shall hold your sword.”

Notes: And a charming crab at that! Take a look at this picture of the interior of a typical medieval Japanese house at the Huntington:

A crab statue in a house.

What a helpful little crab! I think it is a sword-holder (why would the pincers be upturned thus?), and if so, well done! It’s the most unique sword-holder I’ve ever seen.

I’ve still got a lot more pictures from the Huntington; I’ll eventually get to them all.

Today’s iku is a pretty standard ikuiku, but the line in the middle there has two duties: (1) to fill up the space, and (2) to remind one of the glyph for ka, giving this iku a slight phonetic component. This was one of the first iku I designed for Kamakawi. It’s an old friend.

For more information about the name Maka, see its corresponding entry in the baby names section.

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This entry was posted on Monday, January 31st, 2011 at 3:26 am and is filed under Dictionary, Foma, Ikuiku, M. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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2 Responses to “Maka”

  1. Ka kavaka Anateleu ti:
    February 2nd, 2011 at 12:23 am)

    That sentence sounds like part of a prophecy, or possibly a curse!

  2. Ka kavaka David J. Peterson ti:
    February 2nd, 2011 at 12:31 am)

    Perhaps it was the first part of a curse… Let’s see if we can fish up the rest:

    And a crab shall hold your sword,
    And a starfish will affix itself to the front of your shield!
    And though you may seek to unfasten your belt,
    Lo! An octopus shall hold it fast!
    And in the shadows, the eels will hiss,
    And the sardines will snicker behind your back,
    Insulting your weight and calling into question
    The content of your character!

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