Kamakawi Word of the Day

mopi

• (n.) candlenut

A male neo uei iu mopi.
“We’ll make use of the candlenuts.”

Notes: In Hawaiian, these are called kukui. In English, they’re called, “What the heck is a candlenut…?”

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.

ote

• (n.) plate, dish, tray
• (v.) to serve
• (n.) serving, portion

Li ia ie ote li ia e nevi i’i.
“Give me your plate.”

Notes: Today’s word is an old word that means “to serve”, and it’s still used in that capacity, to some extent, but now it’s most commonly used to mean “plate” (or a serving).

The iku is a rather straightforward compound of te and o. It might look familiar, but temi, its closest cousin, has two horizontal strokes across the middle rather than one.

oliala

• (n.) poet, singer
• (n.) poetry
• (v.) to be poetic
• (adj.) poetic

He noala oliala ie noala o u Nova…
“Sing ye poets the song of the Rays…”

Notes: I may be a day late, but, gosh darnit, it’s the MLB playoffs, and it’s time to make some predictions! I know that most people that come here aren’t baseball fans, but there’s at least one who writes poetry about baseball, so my predictions are going up!

(By the way, Doug Ball can verify that these predictions predated the start of the playoffs. I e-mailed them to Doug on September 29th, and the predictions below are copied directly from that e-mail.)

American League

ALDS

• Detroit Tigers def. New York Yankees 3-1.
• Tampa Bay Rays def. Texas Rangers 3-2.

ALCS

• Tampa Bay Rays def. Detroit Tigers 4-2.

National League

NLDS

• Philadelphia Phillies def. St. Louis Cardinals 3-1.
• Milwaukee Brewers def. Arizona Diamondbacks 3-2.

NLCS

• Philadelphia Phillies def. Milwaukee Brewers 4-1.

And for the World Series:

• Tampa Bay Rays def. Philadelphia Phillies 4-1.

Last year’s predictions did not, in fact, go very well at all, but I’ve got a good feeling this year. Granted, the rain delay has thrown the entire Yankees-Tigers series into utter chaos, so anything can happen there, but outside of what would be a wonderfully bizarre matchup of twin expansion teams (Rays-D’Backs), it seems to me like the Phillies are destined to come out of the NL, and that either the Rays or Tigers are coming out of the AL. We’ll see how well I do this time around…

Today’s word derives form oala, but has a special relationship with noala, as you may have guessed. Kamakawi seems like a great language for poetry, and poetry, as it was, was expressed in song. That’s why the word for “poet” is the same as the word for “singer”—and, in fact, oliala and noliala (which we haven’t seen yet) are as synonymous as synonyms get, with only a slight shadow of meaning to distinguish the two.

If you’re not a fan of baseball, try to catch a Rays game on TV. There’s something about that team this year. The magic may wear off, though, so catch them quick, in case they burn out.

olomoko

• (v.) to walk with (someone)
• (n.) used to describe the settling of a disagreement (or used to mean “the settling of a disagreement”)

Kava olomoko i’i.
“Fire walk with me.”

Notes: Just acame across the coolest thing for Twin Peaks fans (and that should be all y’all, nahmean?). For those who weren’t following the internet back then, someone produced an NES-style side-scrolling game version of The Great Gatsby which is an absolute riot (I highly recommend it!). To me, that was the crowning achievement of faux-retro literary gaming, but today’s revelation is definitely worth of note.

An…entity referred to as jak locke has released (apparently awhile back, so excuse me if you’ve seen this before) an Atari-style game called Black Lodge 2600. You take control of Dale Cooper as he tries to escape the Black Lodge with his life and his identity. It’s everything you’d hope it should be. I haven’t gotten too far, but hopefully one day I’ll make it out.

I dusted off the ol’ Kamakawi applicative (derivation? inflection? a little from column A, a little from column B…?) to create today’s word. In Kamakawi, I have a very clear idea of how you’d use the nominal form, but I can’t seem to define it very well in English (possibly [or probably] because I have a massive headache). Hopefully that’s enough to give you the idea, though.

fila

• (v.) to be heavy
• (adj.) heavy
• (n.) weight
• (nm.) a boy or girl’s given name

Fila nea ima…
“She’s so heavy…”

Notes: From the Beatles’ song of the same name (a good one!). Fila is a straightforward combination of fi and la, which, honestly, I’ve never liked the look of. Especially in the font, it looks kind of jumbled. But that’s the way of it with characters like these.

Fila is also a name, believe it or not. It’s generally given to babies that are heavier than usual (perhaps a kind of revenge for a mother that’s had a particularly difficult labor). To learn more about the name, go here.

peka’u'u

• (n.) homeland

Kiko nemei ei ie peka’u'u li’i.
“Today I leave my homeland.”

Notes: I’m currently sitting in the John Wayne Airport (not at my actual gate, since there—and nowhere else—the outlets aren’t working) getting ready to fly to the wilds of eastern North Dakota. I won’t be there long, though, as I’ll immediately head over to western Minnesota for the 2011 Faith, Reason & World Affairs Symposium to spread the good word about conlanging. It should be fun, provided it isn’t going to be as cold as the Weather Channel seems to think it’s going to be (no room for a jacket). Plenty nice in the airport, presently.

We’ll see if I can keep up with the word of the day posts. If anything, I should only miss a day—two at the most. I’ve got other things to do with the computer right now, though, so I’m going to attend to those. Happy day to one and all!

le’o

• (n.) egret

Eli ei ie le’o hu’u!
“I love the mighty egret!”

Notes: Man, oh, man! I can’t believe I haven’t done the word for egret yet! Not only is the iku one of my favorite iku of all time, but I have a bunch of cool egret pictures and egret stories (seriously I do)! I remember telling them; can’t believe I haven’t yet. Anyway, to get us started, here’s egret picture #1:

Look at that jaunty little bird! What a sport! This was one of the many egrets my wife and I made friends with in Jamaica. In the days to follow, I shall have more egret pictures and stories (and related words).

Anyway, since I said I would, here’s my (current) fantasy roster (starters first then bench):

• QB: Tony Romo (Dallas)
• RB: Jahvid Best (Detroit)
• RB: Ryan Grant (Green Bay)
• WR: Calvin Johnson (Detroit)
• WR: Roddy White (Atlanta)
• WR: DeSean Jackson (Philadelphia)
• TE: Kellen Winslow (Tampa Bay)
• K: David Akers (San Francisco)
• DST: San Diego Chargesr
• QB: Matthew Stafford (Detroit)
• RB: James Starks (Green Bay)
• RB: Daniel Thomas (Miami)
• WR: Davone Bess (Miami)
• WR: Greg Little (Cleveland)

For those who follow football, you can see I’m soft at running back—and I’ve also got too many Detroit players. I’d love to move Ryan Grant (since I don’t believe in him at all) and Tony Romo (since I hate him), but I’m thinking of moving Calvin Johnson for a decent starting wideout and a major upgrade at running back (just so I don’t have so many players on Detroit). I’m quite happy I got former Cal standouts DeSean Jackson and Jahvid Best, though (and I seriously considered picking up Marshawne Lynch). Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, this is a starting point, not the end point. We’ll see what deals I can make to improve my lot.

i’iki

• (n.) chicken (when it’s food), chicken meat

Kiko ka hava ei i i’iki.
“Today I had chicken.”

Notes: Today’s word derives, unsurprisingly, from the word iki, “chicken”. In Kamakawi there’s a distinction drawn between an animal and the meat of that animal. I decided to do this on purpose, but I now forget the reason… I’m pretty sure it was high-minded, but I don’t know if I agree with the sentiment any longer (especially as I can’t remember what it is). Nevertheless, the distinction remains.

There’s a famous case of lexical ambiguity that involves chickens that’s discussed by Sanford Schane in his class “Language and the Law” (you can see a syllabus here). The case (which you can read up on here) involves a fellow who ordered some chickens, and when they arrived, he discovered they were stewing hens (ones used primarily for stock or in soups) as opposed to young chickens, which are used for eating generally (fried chicken, roast chicken, etc.). He refused to pay for the stewing hens, claiming that they’re not what he ordered. The guy who sent the stewing hens claimed that they were, technically, chickens. The court ended up finding in favor of Frigaliment (the guy who expected young chickens) because while the stewing hens were chickens, it was ruled that any ordinary person who heard “chicken” would not expect a stewing hen (kind of like if someone is looking for bachelors, presenting them with a three week old male baby wouldn’t fit the bill—though the little fellow would, technically, be a bachelor).

Anyway, I brought this up because it occurred to me that the Kamakawi term would solve this ambiguity, but it does’t, actually: I’iki would be used for both stewing hens and young chickens that have been slaughtered for their meat. Oh well.

In other news, today is my good friend Scott Yarborough’s 30th birthday. For my very close friends, he is the last one to turn 30 in our year of 30s. Today we are officially “real” adults, and can no longer use our youth as an excuse for anything. We’re all old and supposed to be responsible. Oh well. It was a good run, while it lasted.

But yeah, happy birthday to Scott! Of us men of a certain age, you are the youngest. Today our hats are off to you. Tomorrow… Well, tomorrow is another day (which isn’t so bad after all).

ioine

• (n.) wedding

Ka puke ioine.
“The wedding has concluded.”

Notes: And happily. I don’t know if I’ve been to a better wedding outside my own. Check this shot out:

I could probably say more about Kamakawi weddings here, but I feel a bit drained, so I’ll have to save it for later.