Kamakawi Word of the Day

leti

• (v.) to be rusty, to be rust-covered
• (adj.) rusty, rusted, rust-covered

Leti ei!
“I’m rusty!”

Notes: Heh, heh. That’s a little play on a song from The Venture Bros.

Today’s word is an instantiation of a very old (and no longer productive) pattern. The word derives directly from late, the word for “rust”, and the iku also derives from the iku for late. Basically, a few lines have been added, making it look like this poor, upside-down metal bird is shining with rustiness. Ha. Love it.

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!

latu

• (v.) to suck in (air or some other substance), to inhale
• (n.) sucking in
• (adj.) sucked up

Ka latu lea i levea lona ima!
“He drank too much salt water!”

Notes: This is a difficult word to describe to those who haven’t spent a lot of time looking at other natlangs without the conversation devolving into smut. Those who have (like most conlangers) know that a word like this is actually quite common in the world’s languages, and it isn’t always associated with sexual activity. In fact, there’s actually two words for this in Kamakawi: One that has to do specifically with air, and this one, which applies to everything else (but also includes air). If the Kamakawi had cigarettes, this is the verb they’d use.

As for the iku, it actually uses the box from tu (making this iku partly phonetic) and makes it into a mouth inside the boxish Kamakawi head you see in a lot of glyphs (e.g. huva, the opposite of this word). In this way it’s pretty solidly an iku’ui (I know there aren’t many, comparatively speaking).

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.

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.

oka

• (v.) to be dull
• (adj.) dull

A oka tiva.
“The knife is dull.”

Notes: As with the example sentence, this is only “dull” as in “not sharp”, not “dull” as in “boring”.

I wanted to do something different with this iku. I had no ideas for it (couldn’t be an ikunoala), so I thought I’d play it by ear. Then I came up with this. And then I decided to stick with it. I still don’t get it…

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.

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.

taketepi

• (v.) to be busy
• (adj.) busy
• (n.) busy-ness

Taketepi, taketepi, taketepi…
“Busy, busy, busy…”

Notes: Let’s see how many references to Cat’s Cradle I can pack into this blog!

Today’s word is coming a day late because I’ve been busy like an ant—or, at least, busy like a Kamakawi ant. The word meaning something like “busy” (but perhaps a bit more jocular than the English equivalent) derives from the word tepi, which means “ant”. Observationally, it should be clear where this came from. I mean, you ever seen an ant rest? Ever seen an ant just chillin’, feeling the breeze? Nah, man. Ants be busy! All the time running around in crazy directions like they got some place to be.

And another thing: Why the heck can’t ants walk in a straight line?! What’s their problem? The shortest distance between two points if you’re an ant is some crazy, squiggly, wet-noodle spaghetti-type line, apparently. They’re all nuts!

fa’e

• (v.) to boil
• (adj.) boiling

A fa’e lelea.
“The water is boiling.”

Notes: Today’s iku may look familiar. It’s the iku for mate turned on its head.

Oh, shoot, wait a minute… Actually, maybe it’s the iku for novu with steam rising off the top, and mate is the iku for fa’e turned on its head. Darn!

I guess it kind of depends what order these glyphs were created in. Surely the word for “boil” would precede the word for “soup”, because you couldn’t have the latter without the former. Or could you…? Oh, but wait a minute: that’s not at issue. The iku for novu (“soup”) certainly preceded the iku for fa’e, whether or not the words were coined in that order. What’s at issue is the order of fa’e and mate (“pour”). Seems to me the latter word would come about first, but that doesn’t mean the iku would’ve come first… I’m going to go out on a limb and say that fa’e came first, and mate is fa’e turned on its head.

So, yes. Revise what I said above. Revise, I say!