Kamakawi Word of the Day

motu

• (n.) face (of a human)

Neyana motu o ei ti motu o ia!
“My face is better than your face!”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!

Check out this picture of me and my little kitty:

What a kitty she is! That’s one of her little kitty spots. She loves the arm of the couch. She’ll often hop up there and then slouch down so 90% of her body is leaning on me or Erin, the remaining 10% loosely affiliated with the couch arm. It doesn’t seem comfortable, but it seems to bring her great joy.

This iku is kind of odd. Looks more like an iku for “mouth” with the “ground” determinative beneath it to fill out the space. Turns out it’s “face”. Motu doesn’t even seem like a good word for “face”, but I suppose you have to go contrary to your instincts sometimes (often?) in order to get a truly unique language. You can’t simply borrow in the sound symbolism you’re familiar with, because it’ll probably come from your home language.

I’m really, really tired right now. I’m going to try to combat that by going to the gym. I think it’ll work!

leta

• (n.) wing
• (n.) bed sheet
• (n.) sail, wind sail
• (adj.) able to fly or waft on the breeze (flight-worthy)
• (v.) to glide

A ae ei ie leta oi’i.
“I’m in your bed sheet.”

Notes: Messing up your sleeping arrangements.

HAPPY CATURDAY!

Here’s Keli looking rather cattish:

This is, without a doubt, one of my all-time favorite iku. I had no ideas for it going in (there is no easy combination of the awkward le and the elegant ta), so I just kind of drew what came to my head when I thought of wings. This is what I came up with. I kind of think of it as like a funky dancing bird strutting its stuff. This is one I’d get as a tattoo, if I were the type to get tattoos.

I think Keli would enjoy having wings. She could fly about the apartment, from the loft to the floor, and pretty much have the run of things. And she’d look cute when she curled up to go to sleep (she’s sleeping by my feet right now). She’s quite the cat.

neu

• (n.) back
• (adv.) behind
• (prep.) behind, in back of
• (v.) to go behind, to pass behind, to move behind
• (adv.) backwards

A hetela’o oi’i i neu pale.
“My uncle’s behind the house.”

Notes: Happy Caturday!

I already did the word for “to hide”, so this time I did the word “behind” to describe where Keli is in this picture:

This is our linen closet, and Keli has carved herself out a nice little sitting spot. It was so adorable that I had to take a picture.

This iku is kind of the picture of a human back. The lines on the sides are the sides of the torso, and the line in the middle is the spine. It does the trick.

Hoo, hoo! In 10 minutes, I’m going to watch the season premiere of Futurama! I can’t wait!

otu

• (n.) claw, nails, paw (only of an animal)

A otu ei i ia!
“I claw you!”

Click here for audio!

Notes: Happy Caturday!

This, I imagine, is what Keli said when she attacked my wife’s robe belt in the bathroom:

This is a picture of the least ferocious portion of her attack. I wasn’t quick enough to get the good stuff.

The iku for otu basically looks like a claw, but it has the “bad” line determinative in there for good measure (one has to look at this from a human perspective. Being on the wrong end of an animal claw is bad news!).

Time for sleep. The US has a tough game against Slovenia, and they need me to cheer them on. Now I have to gather up my cat and give her some pets.

hea

• (n.) ear
• (v.) to hear
• (n.) hearing
• (adj.) heard, audible

A hea ei i powi tou…
“I can hear music…”

Notes: I’m thinking of the Beach Boys’ cover.

Unfortunately, this word came to me because my little sister has something called a middle ear infection. I have no idea what that is, but she seemed fined when I was visiting with her today. Poor kid. She’s going to miss out on her end-of-the-year fieldtrip to the park. I’m going to go over tomorrow to try to cheer her up (well, provided she’s feeling up to having a visitor).

This iku is a straight-up ikunoala: a combination of he and a. Pretty good, I think.

hole

• (n.) neck

A male take ei i ia pokane o hole.
“I shall wear you about my neck.”

Click here for audio!

Notes: Happy Caturday!

Today’s cat word comes from this picture:

My wife Erin is fond of taking our cat and putting her about her shoulders as if she’s a stole. Keli is actually amused by this. What she likes best is getting off, where Erin has to bend down so that her back is flat. Sometimes Keli decides this is a good place to sit, and she’ll sit there comfortably for minutes while Erin struggles to maintain the appropriate posture.

I have no idea what the deal with this iku is. The Kamakawi face is there, as is the glyph for ho. I guess it’s positioned in such a way that it indicates where the neck…starts…? Or ends? I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense at all to me. It’s okay, though. I give it a 6/10.

kopu

• (n.) hand
• (v.) to touch, to feel (something)
• (prep.) against

Au fiti kopu.
“Your hands are cold.”

Click here for audio!

Notes: It’d depend on context here; could mean “My hands are cold.” Anyway, this is the Kamakawi word for hand. It seems more fitting than English “hand”; don’t know why. In the coming days, you’ll see how it relates to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The iku is a straight-up ikunoala comprising pu and ko. I think it looks like an oven mitt.

Oh, hey, let me tell you about this wondrous invention! It’s called the Oven Squirrel. Here’s a picture:

Isn’t it darling! It’s a little wooden squirrel, and you grab him by the tail to push the oven rack in, and then latch his little ear onto the under side of the rack to pull it out!

I got one for my mother as a present, but she lost it after awhile (she couldn’t appreciate something like the Oven Squirrel the way I can). Then it occurred to me—just now, in fact—that while I had no use for an Over Squirrel at the time I bought one for her, I do now! In fact, I know my wife would love an Oven Squirrel. And since she doesn’t go anywhere near my webpage, I can state here my intention to obtain her an Over Squirrel without her knowing it! Hoorah!

utu

• (v.) to be broken (said of a limb, or a limb-like thing)
• (adj.) broken
• (n.) brokenness

A utu lau.
“My arm is broken.”

Notes: I’ve never broken a bone, to my knowledge (though I think unknowingly [and without ever getting treatment] I may have broken my thumb, my wrist and my ankle). Have you broken a bone? It just sounds awful…

So, in my dictionary, the definition was to “to be broken (as in a limb; not anything else)”, but that’s clearly not true, since this iku shows a broken spear! So I changed the definition slightly. Basically, I extended it metaphorically to cover any limb-like thing (and a spear is pretty limb-like, right?).

And thus the Kamakawi language was saved!

temi

• (n.) bone (the substance)

A potu temi.
“Bone is thick.”

Notes: Temi is a mass noun, and when used in this way, can only be interpreted as a mass noun. So you can’t use temi to refer to a particular bone. To do that, you need to use another construction (which I’ll say more about tomorrow!).

ponu

• (n.) leg of an animal

Au lake oi awi uamo, hou ponu.
“Her legs are black and furry.”

Notes: Happy Caturday!

Today’s cat word is one of many lexical items in Kamakawi for an animal body part. Many languages have different terms for animal and human body parts, and Kamakawi is among them.

Today’s cat picture shows Keli lounging on our bathroom counter:

Whenever I brush my teeth, she takes it as a personal affront (I’m paying more attention to the mirror than to her!), and so she leaps up onto the counter and demands to be petted. I, of course, comply.