Kamakawi Word of the Day

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.

upo

• (v.) to feel queasy
• (adj.) queasy
• (n.) queasiness

Ae upo i’i…
“The queasiness is inside me…”

Notes: That’s a bit of a different way of saying what, essentially, the verb by itself expresses.

Today’s iku is a simple ikunoala (u inside of po), but it rather neatly expresses how I feel when I feel nauseous. Basically, I feel like I have a great big W in my stomach. I don’t know if I can describe the feeling any better than that.

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.

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.

huva

• (v.) to blow out air

Kavakava novu! A huva ia i amo.
“The soup is hot! Blow on it.”

Notes: Huva is one of those words that arose mainly because of the shape I could make with the iku. It’s built off of hu, of course, and then by adding the little circle for the mouth, it looks like a face blowing out air. And voilà!

I think this is a useful word. It’d be perfect for modern birthdays. Although it occurred to me that I’m not sure if the Kamakawi would have candles—or if they did, if the concept would be borrowed from Zhyler. Apparently the oldest candles were made out of whale fat, and while the Kamakawi have plenty of whales about, they hold the whale in high esteem (indeed: it is one of the three sacred animals. It occurs to me I should add a tag for that and link to it here… [...and done!]), so I’m not sure if they would harvest them… Certainly they would have at one point in time, but I’m not sure if they would continue to (it’s something I’ve given a lot of thought to without coming to a conclusion).

Anyway, this is a true iku’ui. This is what I meant by that term: a syllabic glyph with an ideographic element to it, combined in a single iku.

ilu

• (n.) liver

Toku ilu o ia oku.
“Your liver’s not strong.”

Notes: No idea what that’s supposed to mean. What’s the liver even do, anyway? I know it’s important, but who ever sees it besides doctors? Such an ugly organ…

According to the Wikipedia, the liver apparently helps in “detoxification”. I guess since I don’t drink alcohol that means I’m set for life! Take that, liver!

The iku for ilu is built off the iku for lu. Where ordinarily there’s a space, the midline extends up to the top to form an i. I’ve kind of associated this iku with the liver in my mind. Coincidentally (or perhaps not?!), it looks like another ugly thing I don’t like to think about. What will that thing be? You’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out!

lume

• (v.) to eat leftovers, to eat scraps
• (v.) to be cheap with respect to food
• (n.) one who eats leftovers habitually

I elea i Kilume!
“Welcome to Leftovers Day!”

Notes: Ahhh…yes. Today is the day. Today I stop eating food I prepare, and start eating food I reheat that others prepared yesterday. HOOOOOOOOORAAAAAAAAAY!

The nice thing about Christmas is that I get prime rib at one Christmas gathering, and ham at another. The great thing about this year’s Christmas? I got prime rib at both gatherings. That is a major win.

I’ve had this word for quite some time, and really like it. I think it deserves its own lexeme in every language. And you know what? I’m proud to be a lume. I’ll takes whatever I can gets!

kupe

• (v.) to be young
• (adj.) young
• (n.) youth (young man or woman)

Nemei lia kupe ie aeko o ei!
“Young girl, get out of my mind!”

Notes: Man, talk about a creepy song! You can give it a listen here, or read the lyrics here.

So this iku is a bit of a mixed bag. It features part of the iku for ku, which gives the reader a clue how to pronounce it, but it also features the “ground” determinative. Here, though, that “ground” determinative is being used rather literally. The idea is that it will look like a flower springing out of the ground (recall that ku means “aloe”), and thereby stand for youthfulness. By definition, then, I believe this is an iku’ui, even though it looks like an ikuleyaka.

kakalaka

• (n.) interview

Kakalaka oye kaneko!
“Interview with the cat!”

Notes: Keli received some exciting news today: Her picture was in The New York Times! Check it out here (scroll down to see the picture).

The photographer is Monica Almeida, who’s a staff photographer for the Times. She’s an animal lover herself, so she was more than happy to take pictures of me and Keli. I didn’t think one would actually make it into the article. I was quite pleased to see it! It’s funny, she took a bunch, but I think she chose this one purpose because the contrast between my expression and Keli’s is pure hilarity. That’s just like my cat: Anxious to be the center of attention, and then once she has everyone’s attention, desperate to escape. What a cat she is!

Kamakawi also gets a brief mention in the article. A long while back someone added a Wikipedia page for Kamakawi, and it got deleted. Maybe if it ever gets re-added it’ll stick around.

And if it does, maybe then it’s time to add a Wikipedia page for Keli…