Mele
mele
- (num.) one thousand
- (adj.) one thousandth
Mele i fatu kavi.
“One thousand is a big number.”
Notes: And its iku looks like a cage that houses a wild beast! RAAAAAAAAAAWRRRR!
Nothing much to say about today’s word. It’s a placeholder word, since I found myself without much time today. Bleh. So it goes… Should be asleep already. That’s the kind of day it is.
November 17th, 2011 at 10:58 pm)
Sleep well.
1,000 and 100 look good.
And I imagine some fun puns could be made, at least in my ideolect, where the Kamakawi 1,000 is pronounced the same as the English word for a pitched battle. (mele, I think – never could spell it)
One other question – with phrases like “This is my girlfriend” – if said in Kamakawi, can it also be used affectionately to refer to one’s wife? or would that be seen as insulting?
November 18th, 2011 at 1:02 pm)
The word you’re looking for is “melee”, and in Kamakawi, the vowels are actually going to be a little lower and a little shorter than they are in English (the Kamakawi e is closer to the “e” in “get” than the “e” in…well, “melee”).
And, no, I can’t imagine one using that phrase with one’s actual wife. After all, etymologically, it essentially means “pretend wife”. That’ll get you a night on the couch!
November 18th, 2011 at 6:09 pm)
re “melee”…thank you.
Hm, so all the lines in modern comedies about “they’re so in love it’s like they’re boyfriend and girlfriend” (etc along those lines) would just have the Kamakawi scratching their heads and going “*rolls eyes* foreigners.”
November 18th, 2011 at 7:27 pm)
Ha, ha! It’d just be a further level of removal (i.e. pretend pretend boyfriend and girlfriend). That’d be pretty funny!