Sisyphe wrote:Ego, do you know anything about the intelligibility of Samoan with other Polynesian languages?
Samoan has 58% shared lexical similarity with NZ Maori.
63% with Tongan.
66% with CI Maori.
inei = here
Nei in Eastern Polynesian languages.
inā, 'ole = there
Na/nā in most Eastern Polynesian languages, ena in Rapa Nui.
tafatafa = near
taha in most Eastern Polynesian languages, means 'side'.
i le vā o le.. ma le.. = between.. and..
Intelligible, though usually expressed as 'waenga/rotopu' in most Eastern Polynesian languages. The above sentence actually means 'with in the area of....and the...
maua = take (T. ma'u)
Mau/mou in all Eastern Polynesian languages. The passive suffix is ria (mauria).
'ave = take
Kawe/kave in most Eastern Polynesian languages. Rave in Tahitian, lawe in Hawaiian. In Cook Islands Maori both forms exist (kave, rave).
'aiseā? = why?
No obvious cognate form...
'o le ā le mea? = why?
Intelligible, though what is aha in Eastern Polynesian languages. Ko te aha te mea...in NZ Maori (though this is not the usual way...but its still possible to construct).
'auā = because
leaga = because
'ona = because
'ona 'o = because of
pe 'ā = 'ā (beginning of a sentence) = if, when (conj.) in the future
None of those have cognates as far as I can see, although Samoan pe is probably related to NZ Maori pea, CI Maori pa'a, Hawaiian paha and Rapa Nui peaha all meaning 'perhaps'. PPN *pe-afa.
ina ua = when (conj.) in the past
Cognate to NZ Maori ina (when, used for past and future).
pe 'ana = 'ana (at the beg.) = if (past)
pe 'āfai = if (fut.)
'ae = but
'a'o +verb = while
ina ua uma = after (past)
pe 'ā uma = after (fut.)
'a'o lei = 'ae le'i = before
No cognates in Eastern Polynesian.
Hele au i ka moana = I go to the sea
Ua ola no i ka pane a ke aloha = There is life in a kind reply.
Those are two different uses of i.
The second use marks the stative agent, in this case, ka pane a ke aloha is the stative agent. We know its the stative agent because the verb, ola, is a stative verb. If we put in a patient it would be -
Ua ola no au i ka pane a ke aloha.
By a kind response I am made well.
Of course, our Hawaiian language expert, Mamo, can probably deal more with this.
I have friends who can speak Samoan and my first cousin can speak Niuean. I'll ask some of my friends if they want to join. As for my first cousin, I'm not too sure.
They are not so good, they don't even use accents and macrons, but they explain some things.. at least I got some info about the tense markers.. it says for example that "na" and "sa" are both past tense markers with little or no difference in meaning.
The reason why they don't...is because they already know how to read the language. Lazy, perhaps? While I do advocate for the consistent usage of macrons and marking of the glottal stop it is understandable why they choose not to use such markings. The reason why the markings are used in Hawaiian and New Zealand Maori is to help learners. In New Zealand Maori it has become the defacto way of spelling things sicne that is what is used by government agencies and the media.
Samoan, unlike Eastern Polynesian languages, has two word orders - SVO and VSO.
Se in Samoan as far as I can tell is used in the same way as he is in Hawaiian, Maori and Rapa Nui as a clause marker.
It would seem that it indicates the existance of something but it is not explicitly defined. It is similar to English 'a/an'. Polynesian determiners aren't used in the same way as the English ones are.
When I say te in Maori (the) I am talking about an explicitly defined object/group of objects. But when I use he I am talking about an object/group of objects that are not defined explicitly.
And...I will go to my cousins bebo page and copy the introduction he has in Niuean...