Kamakawi Word of the Day

mike

• (n.) albatross

Oloko Keli ti mike.
“Keli is dreaming of an albatross.”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

Here’s the picture:

What a big bushy tail she has!

Anyway, regarding this entry, here’s how I imagine the conversation will go in the future:

Person: So you had a Kamakawi Word of the Day blog?

Me: Yeah.

Person: And Kamakawi has a word for “albatross”?

Me: Yeah.

Person: And you had an entry that featured Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”?

Me: Yeah.

Person: So was that the entry for “albatross”?

Me: No.

Person: …

Yeah. Oops. And now “albatross” is relegated to “afterthought” status. So it goes…

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.

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.

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.

ka

• (part.) marks the past tense (as well as a switch in subject, if no other marker is present)

Ka liki ei i iko kau.
“I have laid claim to this.”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

Keli loves all boxes, of course, but she really likes boxes like this:

The iku above combines with other subject status iku like ae and e. As for function, today it marks the simple past tense, but it’s also developing into an anterior. There used to just be an imperfect/perfect distinction in Kamakawi (this being the perfect), but that developed into a tense distinction, as it often does.

otoko

• (v.) to be serious
• (adj.) serious
• (n.) seriousness

Otoko ia?
“Are you serious?”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

Before I go any further, let me assure you that Keli had a wonderful Christmas. She got a new tunnel which she seems to like, and we gave her all meat baby food twice—plus, she got a ton of new boxes to play with! And she had quite a good time jumping around in the tissue paper. So don’t feel too sorry for her when you see this:

Now that’s a look that could kill! I can’t believe how patient she is with us. She’ll let us put pretty much anything on her, and will actually pose for pictures.

But it doesn’t means she has to like it.

And, of course, just to be fair, I also took a picture of me with the penguin mask on. So we’re even, she and I.

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.]

hematale

• (v.) to wake up, to awaken

Oku! Hematale ia i’i oku! A meliki ei lona!
“No! Don’t wake me! I’m too beautiful!”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

Some don’t believe me when I say that Keli actually likes to have things draped about her (especially string-like things). I draped the sash from Erin’s robe over her while she was awake, and she snuggled right up with it:

She loves her strings! That and plastic. She loves plastic. She likes to bite it. We have to try to keep it away from her.

Today’s word derives rather regularly from hemata. Just an old-fashioned causative.

inana

• (n.) (a/the) lick

A inana li’i i ia!
“I have a lick for you!”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

Okay, so this picture turned out a little dark, but I hope you’ll agree it was worthwhile. Every so often Keli, when she’s particularly tired, will allow her tongue to hang out a little bit. It’s like she’s so tired she doesn’t want to put forth the effort to retract her tongue.

And it’s adorable:

Woo hoo! So glad I eventually got that on film!

Today’s word derives very regularly from nana, but it’s a good word. I’d use it.

e’i

• (n.) foot
• (n.) bottom
• (adv.) under, underneath
• (prep.) below, under
• (v.) to go under

Li’u po e’i!
“Death from below!”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

Erin just uploaded a bunch of pictures to my computer from her phone, and I found this one quite amusing:

So sinister! My sneaky little feline.

Today’s iku is built off the iku for hi. The right and left edges are joined to the low point to make a “V” shape indicating the e. Kind of looks like a bat… Too bad I already have an iku for “bat” (see fine).