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1. Kamakawi by David Peterson

Texts | Grammar | Lexicon | Glossary | Orthographic Version
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Alternate Translation (John Clifford, Toki Pona)

Kamakawi

"E Leya Oala"

Kipe ka olomo ei ale ava a, kepe he'a ti leya pokae oala tou. Ke nu'e ie leya oala ke hekala ti, "He! Ai ia i leya oala ai?"

Kae hekala leya oala ti, "Ea: ei i leya oala."

Ka ulaya ei ie leya oala ti, "Ai oku hekalale ia i'i ae ale pokane o ia le koku ai?"

Kae hekalaka leya oala ti, "Ale ei i leya oala takepalaki."

Ka tovukale oalala tileya oala i'i, kaepe lalau ei i amo aeiu aila poiu. Oku ke mata ie leya oala okuka.

Smooth English

"The Talking Rock"

Yesterday I was walking along the beach when I tripped over a rock that could talk. I picked up the talking rock and said, "Hey! Are you a talking rock?"

The talking rock said, "Yes, I am a talking rock."

I asked the talking rock, "Why didn't you tell me to avoid you?"

The talking rock replied, "Because I'm a mean talking rock."

The talking rock's words made me angry, so I threw it into the ocean. I never saw the talking rock again.

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Grammar

Website: http://dedalvs.com/kamakawi/

Typological facts: word order = VSO; prepositional; NG; NA; NR.

A PP can be moved to the front of a clause, but otherwise word order is maintained.

Kamakawi is a pro-drop language. If the subject marker /e/ or /ae/ is used, the subject may be omitted, as it can be retained from the previous clause.

Subject status markers let the hearer know if the subject of the new sentence (embedded or otherwise) is the same as the subject of the previous sentence. There are three possibilities: (1) It's identical; (2) it's from the previous clause, but isn't the previous clause's subject; (3) it's brand new (or more than a clause old). To mark these statuses, a particle is used which preposes the verb. The markers are as follows:
- (k)e = (1)
- (k)ae = (2)
- (k)a = (3)
Certain discourse particles (words like "because" and "so that") are suffixed directly to these subject status markers. So if you had a sentence like Kale X Y, it'd mean "Because Y did X" ("Kale" being /ka/, past tense same subject, plus /-le/, "because").

Adverbs occur sentence-finally, generally. Adverbs are sometimes used like modals in English. For example, if you say Ka mama eine i nawa (PAST hug woman PREP fish), it'd mean "The woman hugged a fish". If you say Ka mama eine i nawa tou (PAST hug woman PREP fish can), it'd mean "The woman could hug a fish".

Where a verb has 2 arguments, the preposition /i/ marks the less agent-like of the two. For this reason, it's used to cover a whole range of prepositional functions, including spatial and temporal.

Certain verbs take adverbial complements. They're listed in the lexicon as X...Y. For these verbs, any objects and subjects come in between the members X and Y. Otherwise, the two function as a single verb with a single meaning.

In Kamakawi, there are no WH words, but simply the question particle /ai/. It comes at the end of the sentence, at the beginning of the sentence, and sometimes in other places in between. There are expressions that are used to convey the various WH words. (E.g., instead of "how", it'd be "by what path did...".)

For a sentence like, "I was dusting when you called", you'd put the first clause in the progressive, and the second clause would have /-pe/ after its subject status marker.

When two vowels of the same quality occur next to one another, they're separated by a glottal stop.

Now relative clauses. These are marked by adding the /po-/ prefix to the subject status marker of the embedded clause. This construct follows the noun you're talking about. Then comes the sentence, as modified via the steps above, so that the empty spot in the sentence is the subject, which corresponds to the noun before the /po-/ part. So, to say "The grass a woman joined a fish on", you do the above steps, then add the following: e fale poke uiki'u ti eine ti nawa. There you have the relative clause.

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Lexicon

a [1] (part.) marks present tense, and that the subject of the sentence is new or different
a [2] (adv.) now (used in conjunction with a verb to form the progressive)
ae (part.) marks present tense, and that the subject of the sentence is a previously mentioned non-subject
aeiu (prep.) into
ai (part.) question particle
aila (n.) ocean
ale [1] (v.) to go; (prep.) along
ale [2] (contr.) contraction of /a/ and /-le/
ale...pokane o (v.) to avoid something (the something comes after /o/)
amo (pron.) it
ava (n.) beach

e (part.) the (definite article, sg.; attaches to prepositions); (part.) marks present tense, and that the subject of the sentence is identical to the subject of the previous sentence
ea (expr.) yes
ei (pron.) I

he (excl.) hey!
he'a...ti (v.) to trip over something (that something is preceded by /ti/)
hekala (v.) to say (when prefacing a quote, /ti/ must precede the actual quotation)
hekalaka (v.) to reply (when prefacing a quote, /ti/ must precede the actual quotation)
hekalale (v.) to tell

i (prep.) marks direct objects; marks general locations and/or times
ia (pron.) you
ie (contr.) contraction of /i/ and /e/
i'i (contr.) contraction of /i/ and /ei/

ka (part.) marks past tense, and that the subject of the sentence is new or different
kae (part.) marks past tense, and that the subject of the sentence is
kane (n.) path, road
ke (part.) the (definite article, sg.; attaches to prepositions); (part.) marks present tense, and that the subject of the sentence is identical to the subject of the previous sentence
kipe (adv.) yesterday
koku (n.) reason

lalau (v.) to throw
lalau...poiu (v.) to throw really hard, to chuck
-le [1] (suf.) because (attaches to a subject status marker)
-le [2] (suf.) causative
le (prep.) because (of), for
le koku ai (expr.) why
leya (n.) rock

mata (v.) to see

nu'e (v.) to pick up

o (prep.) marks the genitive (X o Y = "X of Y")
oala (v.) to speak (a language, use /ti/), to talk; (adj.) speaking, talking
oalala (v.) word, speech, something that's been said
oku (part.) no, not
okuka (adv.) never
olomo (v.) to walk

-pe (suf.) when added to a subject status marker, it means something like "then" or "and then" or "as a result of" or "at the time that" or "and so" or "consequently"
po- [1] (pref.) indicates the start of a relative clause
po- [2] (pref.) out of, out from, outside, away, away from

takepalaki (v.) to be mean; (adj.) mean
ti- (pref.) marks the genetive (X tiY = "X of Y")
ti (prep.) with (instrumental); marks oblique phrases
tou (adv.) can, be able to
tovuka (v.) to be angry
tovukale (v.) to make angry (caus. of /tovuka/)

ulaya (v.) to ask

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Glossary

1 = first person
2 = second person
3 = third person
A = adjective
adj. = adjective
adv. = adverb
caus. = causative
conj. = conjunction
contr. = contraction
excl. = exclamation
expr. = expression
G = genitival phrase
N = noun
n. = noun
nm. = name
O = object
P = preposition
part. = particle (generally freestanding)
PP = prepositional phrase
pref. = prefix
prep. = preposition
pron. = pronoun
R = relative clause
S = subject
sg. = singular
suf. = suffix
V = verb
vi. = intransitive verb
vt. = transitive verb

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Orthographic Version

Orthographic version of the Kamakawi text.

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Next (Sylvia Sotomayor, Kēlen)
Alternate Translation (John Clifford, Toki Pona)