Kamakawi Word of the Day

payu

• (v.) to show, to display to
• (n.) displaying, showing

Ai fulele ia ae mata ie palei li’i ai? Ale ko! He male payu ei i ia!
“You want to see my home? Come on in! I’ll show it to you!”

Notes: For a present, we got something in a brown paper bag. We set it on the ground, and Keli had found a new little home:

I suspected she would exit the bag if I approached her, so I took out my camera and started taking pictures from a distance, and continued to do so as I edged closer. This was the best of the bunch (since, indeed, she did exit the bag when I got closer).

Today’s word is built off the iku for moko (“eight”), but in this case, it’s actually serving the function of an ikunoala. See, the glyph for pa is an upside-down triangle, and the glyph for iu is a right-side-up triangle. By setting one above the other, you get payu. Of course, it couldn’t be identical to moko, so to disambiguate the pair, a notch was added to the top.

pela

• (n.) sibling

Ipe ioku pela oi’i!
“That is not my sibling!”

Notes: Today’s word means “sibling” in the technical sense. It’s just a basic word, but it feels much more formal, nowadays. As a result it’s generally only used when one sibling is mad at the other (e.g. “He may be my sibling, but he is not my brother!”). The iku is built off of pe, and it has the little la spearhead coming off of the little stick down at the top.

pa’a

• (n.) mallet, hammer, club
• (n.) drumstick, mallet for a large drum or gong

Li ia i ipe pa’a ko.
“Bring that hammer here.”

Notes: I gots a little smashing to do.

After designing this iku, I thought, “Naaah! Too simple!” But I went with it, and it’s stuck. And it is a good design, in principle; it’s not inconceivable that another culture would come up with it. Seems useful for those great big drums—and also for cracking open crabs and mussels and other shellfish.

powi

• (n.) music

Oku hala’i ei io powi tou oku.
“I can’t live without music.”

Notes: The Kamakawi word for “music” is an homage to the greatest musician of the 20th century: David Bowie. (That’s right: I’m saying it! If anyone comments, “But what about Elvis?”, so help me…)

The iku for “music” gives a clue as to the real derivation of the word—that is, it’s onomatopoeic. The concept derives from drumming, as the beat is the backbone of all music. I kind of think of it as the spine, and the rest of the instrumentation branches off from the spine (and from those bones the muscles, the tissue, etc.).

Oh, and by the way, today is David Bowie’s birthday. He’s now 65, which means that 66 is the new old: if you’re 65 or younger, you’re now young. And so it shall go from here on out!

poyouyou

• (v.) to dangle

Mata ia i’i! Ae poyouyou i ipe otu mataitai i’i.
“Look at me! I’m dangling this pretty paw for you.”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

I’ve got a couple of shots of Keli in this new pose she likes: three legs in, one stretched far away. It’s pretty cute:

I think she knows how good she looks. “Regard ye this paw!” she says. “Regard it and resist me not!”

[Note: To see the word this derives from, look up poyou.]

poli

• (v.) to soak something in water (or let something soak in water [by default])
• (adj.) soaked
• (adj.) soaking

Poli ia ie pe’aka.
“Soak the clothing in water.”

Notes: This seemed like a pretty good basic term for an island people. Poli is one of the few formants whose adjectival versions are both “passive” and “active” (i.e. you can use it describe something that has been soaked in water and something that is currently soaking in water). Otherwise, this is a pretty plain-jane word, and a pretty plain-jane iku. Every language needs them, I suppose.

paketepi

• (n.) anthill

Oku olomo pe! Ipe i paketepi!
“Don’t step there! That’s an anthill!”

Notes: Since we recently had a word for ant, I thought I’d put up “anthill”. Works pretty much the same as English, except that rather than “hill” it’s pake, the word for “mountain”. This isn’t my favorite Kamakawi word for “anthill”, but it kind of reminded me of the song “Worm Mountain” by the Flaming Lips (easily one of my favorite songs off their album Embryonic), so I threw it up today.

In other news, I’m probably going to win my fantasy football matchup today, but probably not going to make the playoffs (even though the leader in one division is sub-.500). Lot of bad, bad luck this year and bad matchups. One can one do?

pe’aka

• (n.) clothes, clothing (general term)

Matai pe’aka li’ia.
“Your clothes are pretty.”

Notes: I absolutely cannot think up any good example sentence using “clothing”. This is the best I can do. What is there to say about clothing, anyway? It’s good when it’s cold; vile when it isn’t. Watching a Japanese movie set in the Edo period right now. Kimonos everywhere. They seem comfortable, actually… Much more so than blue jeans and a belt. What is one to do…

pea

• (pron.) third person singular gender-neutral animate pronoun

Ai pea i hopoko oi eine ai?
“Are they a man or a woman?”

Notes: Kamakawi has a bunch of pronouns, and one of them is an animate gender-neutral third person pronoun. Basically, it’s used in the place where we would use singular “they” in English. You use it for a human whose gender you don’t know, or can’t identify right away—or for when gender isn’t important or isn’t stated. It’s better than using amo, because it’s animate (it refers to humans). I end up using it quite a bit, though I’m not sure how it would survive in a natural language.

The iku is a standard combination of pe and a, but it looks pretty cool (kind of edgy!). In fact, a number of the pronouns end up looking pretty good. I’m pleased enough with them.

palei

• (n.) home

Ipe i palei lapa li’i.
“This is my new home.”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

Recently Erin slightly rearranged some items upstairs. She put all my stringed instruments together in one corner so they leaned against the wall. This make it much less convenient to get at them, but it made a wonderful new little cave for Keli, and it’s become her new favorite spot:

I realize it’s kind of hard to see because Keli is such a dark kitty, but if you can make out her eye, it’ll help you make out the rest of her face.

Today’s word (the diminutive of pale) is the word for the concept of “home”. It can also be used to mean “little house” or to refer to one’s own house (or hut), but it’s the idea of “home” that it encapsulates.