Kamakawi Word of the Day

ivei

• (n.) jump

Ivei feya!
“Nice jump!”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

Keli has this thing we got her that has a little ball that lights in a circular track with a scratching pad in the middle. She loves this thing. It’s enjoyed quite a bit of use since we bought it. But even more than playing with it on its own, what she loves more than anything is when part of the track is covered up. We used to do this with stray sheets of paper (we’d just put them right over the track). This time, Erin shaded half of it with the draping for our chair. Here are the results:

Ha! What a cat! Did you notice that little waggle she gives when she’s ready to pounce? That’s how you know she’s ready.

To see whence this word derives, go to fei, where you’ll see a picture of Keli in her youth (she was quite the scrawny cat!).

ueke

• (v.) to carry

He pataki: A male ueke ia i ipe ivila!
“Boy: You’re gonna carry that weight!”

Notes: From the famous Beatles’ song.

Hey, speaking of the Beatles, and their mantra “love” (it’s the word), recognize that ol’ iku up there? It’s a rather familiar one (or at least to me). It happens to be an ikunoala for eli (and that shouldn’t be too hard to see, given the word’s phonology), but it does rather look like someone carrying something, and so with a stroke, it become the iku for ueke.

lutivini

• (n.) horse [< Zhyler]
• (v.) to travel by horse

He lutivini eya i Inipili!
“Let us go by horse to Innisfree!”

Notes: Hee, hee… You have to take a boat to Innisfree!

Anyway, a horse-ish evening to you all! It occurred to me that I’d done a word derived from the word for “horse”, but hadn’t actually done the word for “horse” yet. So…here it is! Straight from the mouths of Zhyler speakers!

The Zhyler word is rujvin (in the orthography, rujvin), and horses are certainly their fare, not that of Kamakawi speakers. Just as the Zhyxüy brought them over to their island from the mainland, though, so did they eventually get imported to the Kamakawi Islands. Now horses go horsin’ about over there, doing horse things horse-ishly.

poiu…kau

• (v.) to get out of the way of

Poiu ia kau, he kapolo!
“Out of the way, tree!”

Notes: Here’s that picture-spoiling tree from the Huntington:

Lousy trees: Always have to be the center of attention…

Of course, I took the picture—and voluntarily put it up here—so some may be tricked into believing that it’s my will that the tree be there. But, of course, I must be held blameless, as a matter of course. That goes without saying.

eiliki’iu

• (v.) to travel south

Kiko eiliki’iu ei.
“Today I travel south.”

Notes: Indeed, today I’m heading down to the Bad Yellow: My old stomping grounds. I’ll have to take in one of my favorite restaurants (so many!), and salute the ol’ Lightbulb Factory.

The iu part of the iku above is written without the line because there’s really one thing it could be. With the directions, the appended triangle always refers to movement (rather than the number three), so no “line” determinative is needed (and it’s never written).

or

uayu

• (v.) to limp
• (adj.) limping
• (n.) (a/the) limp

Uayu ei…
“I’m limping…”

Notes: Not a good game yesterday. Not in any way. My poor body can’t take this punishment for much longer…

There are variant spellings for this one on account of the association with movement. Though a folk etymology, limping is a kind of movement, and lots of movement words end with iu (which always has the “line” determinative beneath it). Add to that the fact that iu and no have the same iku, and darn it if people don’t spell it with the “line” determinative more often than not.

eiliki

• (adj.) south, southern
• (n.) south
• (n.) south coast (of the island)
• (v.) to be south of
• (adv.) south, southward

A pale ei ie eiliki.
“I live in the south.”

Notes: Not of the US, but of California. What a place! We got the waves, we’ve got sand, we’ve got sun… It’s not too bad. Expensive, though. Quite.

(Note: Cf. eili.)

koluku

• (adj.) north, northern
• (n.) north
• (n.) north coast (of the island)
• (v.) to be north of
• (adv.) north, northward

Koluku i Alataka!
“North to Alaska!”

Notes: That’s the title of a movie I didn’t much care for. Kind of going on autopilot for these words; too busy with other stuff. We’re almost done with the cardinal directions, though!

(Incidentally, I offer kolu as a clue to the derivation of the word for “north”. In fact, all the words for the cardinal directions are derived.)

imawawaka

• (adj.) west, western
• (n.) west
• (n.) west coast (of the island)
• (v.) to be west of
• (adv.) west, westward

Neyana imawawaka ti eleumi!
“The west is the best!”

Notes: Get here, and we’ll do the rest. Headed home after a long and excellent weekend! I can’t wait to see Erin and my cat.

I had a nice greeting when I got on the plane going from Detroit to LAX:

Heh, heh…

iki

• (adj.) east, eastern
• (n.) east
• (n.) east coast (of the island)
• (v.) to be east of
• (adv.) east, eastward

Kiko fuila ei iki!
“Today I fly east!”

Notes: Today I head off to the airport and then off to the Netherlands for LCC4. I look forward to trying to speak some Dutch when I get my train ticket!

It’s funny that this post should come on the heels of yesterday’s, which describes (briefly) the events of the last SoCal conlangers meet up. There we discussed bizarre directional vocabulary. Even in Australia, though, some languages had really interesting lexemes (e.g. the word for “west” is derived from the basic term for “northwest”, rather the other way around), and others had totally uninteresting ones (e.g. basic words for “north”, “south”, “east” and “west” not derived from anything else [or at least not in recent history]). Kamakawi is one of those languages where there’s nothing much of interest to say about the directional terms in recent history. They’re basic, and don’t derive from anything else (or, at least, nothing that would be noticeable at this stage). So it goes.

Talk to you next from the other side of the Atlantic!