Nukimau Customs

Pronunciation table

Latin	m	n	p	t	k	s	f	h	y	l	i	e	a	o	u
IPA	/m/	/n/	/p/	/t/	/k/	/s/	/ɸ/	/h/	/j/	/l/	/i/	/e/	/a/	/o/	/u/

Family life - ha suyupo umo

• Children are named after items found in nature (star, flower, bird, etc.) or after human attributes (strength, joy, etc.). The name may be joined to the adjective yuni, like, resemble, e.g., nopiyuni, like a bird. Or it may be joined to the adjective teyo, full: yoisuteyo, full of joy.
• Boys and girls are not treated differently, except insofar as they are trained for their respective tasks in the family and the community.

Family size - ha suyupo pie

• The Litorian "village" (sameso) consists of three to four families.
• Islander families (ha pie) will have from two to four children (posu). The family unit consists of the father (hoa) and mother (noa) and their minor children. If the father is the oldest son (hu soyesoye komese), he may also have his parents (kisofo) living with them.

Inheritance - ha yusue

• The Islanders have a patriarchal society. All possessions are inherited patrilineally, what little there is to inherit.

Kinship system

• The kinship system used by the Litorians is very simple. Five words are used to describe familial relations.
  • 1. hoa, father.
  • 2. noa, mother.
  • 3. komese, son.
  • 4. hohepa, daughter.
  • 4. sopofieso, brother.
  • 5. yepafieso, sister.
• Other relations are translated with the possessive expressions, e.g., "aunt" is rendered as yepafieso ua noa, mother's sister, or yepafieso ua hoa, father's sister; "grandfather" is hoa ua hoa, father's father, or hoa ua noa, mother's father.
• With respect to marriage there are words for husband (tirakopa) and wife (tiratoye).
• In-laws are named in a similar way, e.g., hoa ua tiratoye, wife's father.