Conlang Relay 15/Kamakawi

by David Peterson

The Text

A meuto'u hoe mata neu ima.

Mata ia ie itei fuilaila! Oku takamaka amo ti itakepo'u; iu popowi oku: Moala ie noala neape.

A kama'a'u itei fuilaila ti ima'a; e miki.

Au neyana tei o amo tiu emi. Ae totou emi kulona. U takekenipi utai fe'a ie neale o upea oku. A eovuku amo hitie. Oku hale ei i amo tou, ae meliki ipe emi kapale oku. Oku e male hake ika; a male ikaka amo okuka.

Native Script

Smooth English

It's very difficult to understand.

See the celestial dance! It does not proceed according to plan; there are no musical instruments: a voice is the only sound.

The dance isn't taught by a lesson; it goes about randomly.

Its dancers are better than humans. Humans have not much skill. They move about directionless, as if they don't know their goal. It looks easy. I can't believe that these dancers are so beautiful. I will not visit again; it will never be different.

Lexicon

The lexicon is arranged in English alphabetical order. Where applicable, additional grammatical information will appear in parentheses, and additional etymological information will appear in brackets. Though many Kamakawi words have many different meanings and can appear in many different categories, I've only included the relevant translations and categories.

a

(part.) marks present tense, and that the subject of the sentence is new or different

amo

(pron.) 3sg. neuter pronoun

au

(part.) marks present tense, and that the subject of the sentence is new or different and plural

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

emi

(n.) human (being), person

eovuku

(vi.) to seem, to appear (takes noun + adjective)

fe'a

(v.) to know

fuilaila

(n.) sky; (adj.) celestial

hake

(v.) to visit

hale

(v.) to believe (note: hale...i amo..., ae = to believe that)

hitie

(adj.) easy, simple

ho

(part.) a resumptive particle (see note below)

hoe

(contr.) contraction of /ho/ and /e/

i

(prep.) marks direct objects; marks general locations and/or times

ia

(pron.) you

ie

(contr.) contraction of /i/ and /e/

ika

(adv.) again

ikaka

(v.) to be different

ima

(part.) emphatic particle

ima'a

(n.) lesson

ipe: (dem.) that/those

itakepo'u

(n.) plan

itei

(n.) dance

iu

[1] (prep.) through

iu

[2] (contr.) contraction of /i/ and /u/

iu

[3] (v.) there are (argument is plural)

kama'a

(vt.) to teach

kapale

(adv.) so

kulona

(adv.) not much

mata

(v.) to see

mata neu

(v.) to understand

male

(part.) future tense

meliki

(vi.) to be beautiful

meuto'u

(v.) to be difficult to (see note below)

miki

(vi.) to move at random, in any direction

moala

(n.) voice

neape

(adv.) only

neale

(n.) goal, destination

neyana

(vt.) to be better than x

noala: (n.) sound

o

(prep.) marks the genitive (X o Y = "X of Y")

oku

(part.) negates a sentence (used initially or finally); (adv.) not

okuka

(adv.) never

popowi

(n.) musical instrument

-tai

(suf.) as if, like

takamaka

(v.) to proceed

takekenipi

(vi.) to go about without a goal, directionless

tei

(n.) dancer

ti

(prep.) with (instrumental); marks oblique phrases; by, because of

tiu

(contr.) contraction of /ti/ and /u/

tou

(adv.) can, be able to

totou

(v.) to be skilled, to have skill

-'u

(suf.) passive

u

(part.) the (definite article, plu.; attaches to prepositions);

(part.) marks present tense, and that the subject of the sentence is identical to the subject of the previous sentence and plural

upea

(pron.) 3plu. pronoun that indicates no gender

utai

(contr.) contraction of /u/ and /tai/

Grammar

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".

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.

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

Kamakawi allows--and even encourages--double negation.

The romanization system matches up fairly well with CXS, except for the following: [j] (palatal glide) = "y"; [?] (glottal stop) = "'" (an apostrophe). Additionally, capital letters are used at the beginning of sentences, and general English punctuation is used.