Kamakawi Word of the Day

nina

• (v.) to be sweet-smelling, to be fragrant
• (n.) fragrance (only pleasant)
• (adj.) fragrant

Itilili heka! E nina!
“The air is sweet! And fragrant!”

Notes: A quote from one of my all time favorite movies. Today’s iku doesn’t look too bad for an ikunoala. I’m actually surprised I don’t use this word more.

Today I was having a discussion about terms for “smell” (in English). For me, to say something “smells” is almost always bad (unless it’s followed immediately by a “like” phrase), and the word “stink” is always bad. This isn’t the case, I guess, for a lot of people. For example, lots of people say that garlic “stinks”—people that eat garlic. To me, that’s like saying that a rose is flashy—or even that a rose stinks. The description just doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense. If something stinks, you do not eat it. PERIOD. Not only that, no one could possibly eat it. It’s not a matter of taste. Garlic has an aroma that carries and is distinctive, but so do jasmines. And if you say one stinks, then so does the other.

I swear, people be crazy!

nevi

• (v.) to give
• (n.) giver
• (n.) giving
• (n.) beneficence, charity
• (adj.) given
• (nm.) a man or woman’s given name

A nevi ei i ia ti kaneko.
“I give you a cat.”

Notes: Sometimes things just fall neatly into place.

Today is, of course Caturday (HAPPY CATURDAY!!!). It also happens to be my birthday. As those who follow the blog know, I’ve been trying, recently, to focus on foma to try to finish presenting the rather large orthography of Kamakawi. Could there be some way to take care of all those things at once…?

Remembering that, for some crazy reason, I hadn’t yet done an entry for the word nevi (one of the oldest and most frequently-used Kamakawi words there is—and one of my favorites), I took a look at the entry, and found as a part of the entry the example sentence shown above.

And then looking through the pictures on my phone, I found this as one my most recent Keli pictures:

Happy birthday to one and all! Your present is a cat!

The iku for nevi is built off the glyph for ne, with a little fi made out of the descending bill of the ne seagull. I didn’t think much of this iku at first (it looks slanted), but it’s grown on me. Now when I think of the concept “give”, I think of nevi.

Grammatically, the example sentence is not the usual way you’ll see nevi used. Usually nevi is used serially, with some sort of object from a previous clause taken over as the assumed “object” of nevi. In reality, the grammatical object of nevi is the recipient.

That said, in rare situations (can’t think of a context where this would be the natural form of expression), you can introduce the theme/patient of the verb nevi by means of the preposition ti (the leftover argument marker). And I’m sure that’s why I included the sample sentence I included in my dictionary/grammar document. Why it included cats? Well, they’re pretty outstanding, by all accounts. Had to give something.

natio

• (n.) rack
• (n.) spear rack

Toko ia ie la li’ia ie natio.
“Put your spear on the spear rack.”

Notes: This was a fun one. The iku for natio is the same as the iku for lave, “rain”, but it has the “identity” determinative beneath it. The reason its iku is used is because, coincidentally, the iku for lave (which is an ikunoala) looks kind of like a spear rack (after all, it’s got la right in there). Thus, the iku for natio was born.

natita

• (v.) to snap one’s fingers
• (n.) a finger snap

Oku natita ei tou.
“I can’t snap my fingers.”

Notes: Or at least not very well.

Today’s word is likewise onomatopoeic, but the iku has a different story. Those that remember way back to the word hela (which means “to leap”) may note that the iku for natita is identical. This is because I took a look at it and thought, “Hey! That looks like a hand snapping its fingers!” And so it became the iku for natita (with the identity determinative below it, of course).

nekamelaye

• (v.) to explore, to search through
• (adj.) explored
• (n.) exploration

Pale lapa i nekamelaye!
“A new house to explore!”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

The next couple of Caturdays will feature photos of Keli on her new adventure hut:

Isn’t it fantastic?! Keli loves it! And she has Sylvia Sotomayor to thank! She recently moved, and realized she didn’t want to take her cats’ house, so she gave it to me. I installed it last Saturday, and after a few moments initial hesitation, Keli took right to it, and it’s become her new spot. She climbs all over it and has had a good time playing with the little toy at the top (video forthcoming).

Today’s word is a pretty cool word, I thought, but you need to see the word it’s derived from to make sense of it, and that’ll have to way. Enjoy this fabulous Caturday!

nupa

• (n.) triggerfish

Ka ni’u nupa i’i!
“The triggerfish bit me!”

Notes: The triggerfish is quite the curious fish. Check it out here (nice pictures!). I’ve never swum about with triggerfish, but I imagine if I did, I’d try to give them their space.

By the way, I think this would be a cool crest—and nickname—for a soccer team. For colors, I’m imagining white, gray, gold, black with teal accents. Hmmm… Maybe I’ll have to try to create some uniforms… I think that would be a productive use of my time.

nu’e

• (v.) to pick up (e.g. from the ground)

Ka nu’e pataki ie muve.
“The boy picked up the feather.”

Notes: There aren’t as many iku’ui, I know, but this is a nice example. The glyph is built off of the iku for nu. If it were an ikunoala, it would be either nuli or linu (neither of which exist in Kamakawi). Instead, the combination of the two in a traditional ikunoala way evokes the meaning of li, which is “to take hold of” or “to get”. Thus, the word kind of reads like, “The nu word that has to do with grabbing”.

na’u

• (v.) to be far from
• (adj.) far
• (prep.) far from

Na’u uei iu ileleya.
“We are far from home.”

Notes: I just installed the latest OS for the iPhone. Look at all this crazy stuff! Clouds, automatic syncing, free text messaging… We’re getting closer and closer to Star Trek: The Next Generation. And me, I like it! Makes my life easier.

Today’s post is special. With na’u, I now have three hundred and sixty-five foma: One for each day of the year. I’m nowhere near to being done with the foma of Kamakawi (figure I’ve got about two hundred to go), but if I wanted to, I could produce a Kamakawi Word of the Day daily desk calendar with nothing but foma (and, now that I think about it, I probably could’ve done so long ago if it was one of those calendars that rolls Saturday and Sunday into a single day…). Pretty cool.

Regarding today’s iku, it’s actually built off of hu: the little na is built off the horizontal line (the brow) that sits in the middle of the hu head. It might’ve been pronounced huna, but that glyph has an ikuleyaka for its iku, so this one was free for na’u.

neyana

• (v.) to be better
• (adj.) better

Neyana ia ti eleumi!
“You’re the best!”

Notes: And today, Best was best—Jahvid Best, that is.

For those following my epic fantasy football season, my boys came through for me today in a huge way! They started slow, but then Stafford through a 73 yard bomb to Calvin Johnson. The game was won for me when Jahvid Best broke off an 88 yard rushing touchdown—and it just went up from there. Down by 60 points before the Sunday night game—and 49 points before the Monday Night Football game yesterday—I won 95-85, because the Detroit Lions killed it again. Keep it up, boys! He ale!

Today’s word means “better”, in a sense (you may notice that it’s related to eyana [or...you might, if I'd done an entry for eyana. Seriously?! One of the most basic words and I haven't done it yet?!]), but it’s used in the example sentence to mean “best”. Basically in a comparative construction (when “better” is wanted), you use this verb with an object phrase headed by ti (that’s where the thing the subject is better than goes). If you want to say something is the best, you say ti eleumi or ti emiemi (which mean “than everything” and “than everyone”).

Anyway, guess I’d better do eyana pretty soon. How embarrassing…

no’a

• (n.) animal rage (specifically, for an animal to be enraged)
• (v.) for an animal to be enraged
• (adj.) enraged (as applied to animals)
• (v.) to be mad (extremely insulting when used with humans)

Male fukave ei i ia ti no’a o ei kau!
“I will destroy you with my animal rage!”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

I may previously have mentioned Keli’s precious red string (both her enemy and her dearest friend), and may have even included a picture of it, but now I’ve got a video of Keli and her red string in action!

And that’s not even her at her most vicious. She’s can go after that string with gusto!

I forget when I came up with today’s word, but it was specifically inspired by a dog whose hair is standing up on end. I remember my old dog Brandy was the most mild-mannered and lazy beagle the world had ever known. One day, though, I jumped over the fence to get into the house (forgot my key), and she was there snarling with the hair standing straight up on her back, and was so ferocious she didn’t even recognize me at first. Even when she did recognize me, it took her a full minute to calm back down and get back to normal. It’s quite a thing—and it’s visible—and that’s what gave me the idea for the word.