Inverse Relay #1, step 5
Arthaey Angosii translating into David J. Peterson's Kamakawi
5 August 2007

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Arthaey Angosii's Kamakawi text

David J. Peterson's corrected Kamakawi text

I ikeve'a popataki. Ka helaumi lea e'i ele uomoko. Ke lea i pelinute uomoko. Ke mata lea i uila inivie tou uoi, e ka ale uomoko ko, e ka mata lea i uamo tou oku. Ke hekopu lea i kelea. Ka ale eine poke nea i taketuli oipataki ko. Ke ulaya nea ti, "A kopu ia i kelea koku ai." Ka hekala lea ti, "A mata ei i uila inivie tou oku!" Ka hekala nea ti, "Au male mimu uamo popale kolu."

A i ikeve'a popataki. Ka helaumi lea e'i ele uomoko. Ke lea i pelinute uomoko. Ke mata i uila inivie tou uoi, ka ale uomoko ko, ka mata lea i uamo tou oku. Ke hekopu lea i kelea. Ka ale eine poke nea i taketuli oipataki ko. Ke ulaya nea ti, "Ai kopu ia i kelea koku ai?" Ka hekala lea ti, "Oku mata ei i uila inivie tou oku!" Ka hekala nea ti, "Au male mimu popale kolu."

Arthaey Angosii's smooth English translation of the text

This is a story about a boy. Once upon a time, the boy rested beneath night sky. He was a nightwatcher. He was trying to be able to see all the stars, but then came night, and he couldn't see them. He began to feel sad and melacholy. A young woman came to him (she was his beloved). She said, "Why are you feeling melancholy?" He said, "I can't see all the stars!" She said, "They should come from beneath their house's darkness."

Comments on the corrections made

 On Aug 6, 2007, at 2?04 PM, David J. Peterson wrote:
 
 > Okay, let's see how this turned out:
 >
 > <<
 > I ikeve'a popataki.
 > >>
 >
 > To the boy's story?  For the boy's story?  There is a boy's story?
 > I'd say it was the latter.  Oh, I see...  "There is a story about a
 > boy".
 > I think to make this clear, I would start with "a" (not necessary,
 > but usual when it's the first part of a sentence--and it'd also make
 > it clear that /i/ is a verb here).
 >
 > <<
 > Ka helaumi lea e'i ele uomoko.
 > >>
 >
 > He lay down under the night sky (or however you conjugate
 > "lie" in English...).  Looks good!
 >
 > <<
 > Ke lea i pelinute uomoko.
 > >>
 >
 > Wow, now this is interesting.  Usually you delete the pronoun
 > when you use (k)e, but in equative construction, I guess it's
 > required (you're right, it just doesn't fly to say *Ke i pelinute
 > uomoko).
 > Wow!  How cool!  So it's "He was the night watchman".  Or lookout.
 > An interesting wrinkle added to the story.
 >
 > I think I would've tried to make one sentence out of these three,
 > but this was probably easier and clearer.
 >
 > <<
 > Ke mata lea i uila inivie tou uoi, e ka ale uomoko ko, e ka
 > mata lea i uamo tou oku.
 > >>
 >
 > Here, though, I would delete /lea/.  Hmmm...  "He tried to be
 > able to see all stars..."  I think I would do /ie/, but that might
 > be English interference.  I'll have to think about it.  Probably
 > does serve without the /e/.
 >
 > For the next part, I see that I clearly made a mistake in how I
 > explained this in the lexical entry.  The conjunctions "and" and
 > "but" are implied *by* the subject status markers, whatever
 > they are.  So I would say "...ka ale uomoko ko...", "...but night
 > came...".  Same for the last part "...ka mata lea i uamo tou oku",
 > "...and so he couldn't see them"--possibly with an "io" before
 > the second part.
 >
 > <<
 > Ke hekopu lea i kelea.
 > >>
 >
 > Delete /lea/, and it's "He started to feel sad"...  How
 > interesting!  I hadn't intended "kopu" to be used for "feel", as
 > in "he feels sad", just in "he felt some cloth".  Does the job,
 > though!
 >
 > <<
 > Ka ale eine poke nea i taketuli oipataki ko.
 > >>
 >
 > "A woman that she was the boy's girlfriend came."  This is
 > interesting.  Wow.  You totally exposed two things I never
 > even once thought about: the same subject marker with
 > equative clauses, *and* an equative clause with a same
 > subject marker and a pronoun used as a relative clause!  Eek!
 >
 > You know, this could be a broken area of Kamakawi--just like
 > in English there's no good way to say "My and Erin's apartment"
 > (if "me and Erin's" is the best, that's simply not good enough).
 > I might say something like, "Ka ale eine, taketuli oipataki, ho ko",
 > or "Ka ale eine ko, taketuli oipataki".  For some reason I'm not
 > comfortable with (k)e taking the place of a pronoun without a
 > true verb in there...  I'll have to give this some serious thought.
 > Thanks so much for coming across this!
 >
 > <<
 > Ke ulaya nea ti, "A kopu ia i kelea koku ai."
 > >>
 >
 > You know, the question words "why", "how", etc. aren't lexical
 > items, per se, so they're not listed in the lexicon.  I'm sorry about
 > that.  They're listed in section 2 (on the first page of the
 > document).
 > For questions, I generally put "ai" both at the beginning and the
 > end, though only one is required.  The way this clause works is
 > this:
 >
 > Ai kopu ia i kelea le koku ai?
 >
 > In this clause, /le/ = "because", /koku/ = "reason", and /ai/ is
 > actually an adjective, not a particle.  So it's "for which reason".
 > I should find a way to explain this somehow in the dictionary
 > (perhaps an entry for each one on the English side that points
 > to section 2 of the grammar).
 >
 > <<
 > Ka hekala lea ti, "A mata ei i uila inivie tou oku!"
 > >>
 >
 > "He said, 'I can't see all the stars!'"  To emphasize it, I'd replace
 > "a" with "oku".
 >
 > <<
 > Ka hekala nea ti, "Au male mimu uamo popale kolu."
 > >>
 >
 > "And she said, 'They will come out of the dark house.'"  Interesting
 > that this is what became of the ending.  :)  Again, I'd delete
 > /uamo/, but other than that, what an inventive use of /mimu/!
 > I love it!  The various butterfly words were some of the first I
 > even invented in Kamakawi.  It's good to see that they got to
 > come out and play a bit.
 >
 > Great job!  The only places that caused me to furrow my brow
 > were places that clearly needed to be brought to my attention
 > (man, I can't believe I never thought of those before!).  In honor
 > of your translation, I've coined a new word: tei (v.) to dance.
 > Thus, alatei, the Kamakawi  version of your name, is a place of
 > dancing, or a dance hall.  :)
 >
 > -David
 > *******************************************************************
 > "A male love inevivi i'ala'i oku i ue pokulu'ume o heki a."
 > "No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn."
 >
 > -Jim Morrison
 >
 > http://dedalvs.free.fr/


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