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!

iana

• (v.) to recognize someone (for something they’ve done)
• (n.) recognition

Iana’u iko tou!
“This could win an award!”

Notes: Next week I’m going to be giving a talk at SWTX PCA/ACA in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and one of the professors volunteering her time to the conference created this video for my talk, which I thought was great. Heh, heh. Fire and blood! (Oh, and hey, Kenakoliku peeps: Check out the modified Halfsies font on there!)

Today’s word was created for a specific reason way back when, but the iku, I thought, really came out well. First it uses the li glyph as an ikuiku (symbolic of giving), and it uses the “good” circle determinative to represent the gift or award. Below it are some lines, which I thought were quite fetching. I thought it came out awesome. Unfortunately, I rarely ever have a reason to use this word—it’s a bit too specific. Oh well. I shall use it today, to say: Nice job, Tamy Burnett! Your video made my day.

ile

• (v.) to hate, to despise, to revile
• (n.) hate, hatred
• (adj.) hateful

Ile ei iu Patilioto!
“I hate the Patriots!”

Notes: The old Super Bowl is one week from today, and I’m not looking forward to it. Four years ago, the upstart, massively-underdog Giants beat the up to then undefeated Patriots in one of the most memorable Super Bowls of all time—some even call it the best ever. It was one of the best moments in American sports history.

And now they’re playing again.

If the Patriots win, it’ll be pretty much the worst thing ever. Though you can’t actually take away a previous championship, a New England win would make it feel like the first one was somehow a fluke. If the Giants win, that’s fine, but the finish to Super Bowl XLII was so incredible that we don’t need another one. It’s too bad, all around.

The iku for ile is a turned version of the iku for eli, “love”. Call me sentimental.

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.

ite

• (n.) shortness of breath
• (v.) to pant, to wheeze
• (adj.) panting, wheezing

Ka ite ei neika kepe kupe.
“I wheezed when I was young.”

Notes: Because I had asthma when I was young. I was lucky enough to grow out of it, so I came to understand that running, for example, could actually be fun. Indeed, I came to love it! Feels so nice to be able to run from one place to another.

I could say more about this iku or this word, but I’ve got a hungry cat! I need to go brush my teeth so we can go downstairs and I can give her her dry food. She loves her dry food.

ui

• (v.) to join, to conjoin
• (n.) joining, conjoining, coming together
• (n.) joint (body part)
• (phon.) glyph for the sequence ui

He ui eya i peaka!
“Let’s conjoin them!”

Notes: I’ve classified today’s word as an ikuiku, but I’m not sure about the classification. It derives from a figure that looks pretty much like this one, but it started out abstract. It’s, essentially, an abstract representation of joining (perhaps originally a drawing of a knot, though it no longer means “knot”). So the thing looks like what it’s supposed to look like, but it’s not very…picture-y. Aside from throwing up my hands and calling it an ikunima’u, though, all I can do is classify it an ikuiku.

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.

hiku

• (n.) pile, heap, mound

Oku olomo i ipe hiku o temi.
“Don’t walk on that pile of bones.”

Notes: This is the word that gave birth to the term hikuiku, which describes a word comprising two or more iku. It just means “pile” in the sense of…”pile”. Nothing very fancy about it (well, unless it’s a pile of something valuable, like gold bars). Unlike the English word “pile”, it can also be used with mass nouns, so you can say hiku o ta, “a pile of sand”.

Actually, I’m having a syntax class moment… Is “pile of sand” infelicitous in English? I know “pile of ice cream” is. Oh dang. Or is it…?! Wow. My English grammar thing has just gone haywire. Hooray!

uoi

• (v.) to attempt (something), to try (something) out
• (adv.) to try to

Ai ine ia i uku ai uoi?!
“What are you trying to do?!”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

You know, I could have sworn that I’d already put this picture up:

But no. I was thinking of this picture. Apparently “surprised” is something Keli does well—and often.

As for this iku… Yeah. It’s, uh…something. Sometimes you just have to throw up your hands and say, “I don’t know where this came from.” I think that’s what all those involved say about Small Soldiers. It just happened, and now we’re stuck with it—just as I’m stuck with this really bizarre (and yet, somehow, specific-looking) iku. Ikunima’u? Check.

toku

• (v.) to put, to place
• (n.) position
• (adj.) placed

Li ia i ipe livu e toku ie nuva.
“Put that pot on the table.”

Notes: This is another verb that will often show up in serial constructions. If the object to be placed is already a topic in the discourse (or, say, you see someone holding a pot), you can dispense with the first clause entirely, and just say the equivalent of, “Put on the table” (ungrammatical in English, but okay in Kamakawi).