Wallisian (faka'uvea)

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melski
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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2014-06-29, 12:11

[flag=]wls[/flag] Malo te ma'uli kia kotou fuli ! (good morning everyone !)
I te aho nei, 'e tou ako te "Ko tamatou tamai" i te faka'uvea (Today, we are learning the Lord's prayer in wallisian)

Lord's prayer in Wallisian with glossing

NB I'm only doing this for linguistic purposes, of course :wink: But religion playing a very important role in Wallisian society, prayers are also part of the language. Furthermore, this will allow us to see very interesting constructions.
(This version does not uses macron nor glottal stop)

[flag=]wls[/flag]
Ko tamatou Tamai e i Selo,
ke tapuha tou huafa
ke aumai tau pule,
ke fai tou finegalo,
ite kelekele o hage ko Selo.
Ke foaki mai hamatou mea kai te aho nei,
pea ke fakamolemole tamatou agahala
o hage ko tamatou fakamolemole
kia natou e agahala mai kia matou,
pea aua naa ke tuku ia matou ki te fakahala
kae ke fakamauli matou mai te kovi
Ameni.

[flag=]wls[/flag]

Let's do the glossing line by line

Ko tamatou tamai e i Selo = Our father, who art in heaven (litt. "our father in the Sky")
(Ko PRESENTATIVE) (tamatou our.EXCL.DEF) (tamai father) (e PRESENT) (i in) (Selo heaven)
Selo is a loanword from Latin caelum. In Wallisian, sky translates to lagi.

Ke tapuha tou huafa = hallowed be thy name (litt. "may your name be sacred")*
(ke IMPERATIVE.3pers) (tapuha "very sacred") (tou your.SING.DEF) (huafa name.RESP)
The lord's prayer uses a higher register (respect form), used when talking to the King (Lavelua) or to God (te Atua). Hence huafa for name instead of higoa.
*I'm quite unsure of the precise meaning of tapuha.

Ke aumai tau pule = Thy kingdom come (litt. "may come your commanding")
(Ke IMPERATIVE.3pers) (aumai bring) (tau your.SING.DEF) (pule chief/command)

Ke fai tou finegalo = Thy will be done (litt. may (be) done your will)
(Ke IMPERATIVE.3pers) (fai do) (tou your.SING.DEF) (finegalo will)
* NB here I can't tell if it's a passive construction or not.

ite kelekele o hage ko Selo = On earth as it is in heaven (litt. "on earth as well as heaven")
(I in) (te the) (kelekele Earth) (o.hage as) (ko PRESENTATIVE) (Selo Heaven)

Ke foaki mai hamatou mea kai i te aho nei = Give us this day our daily bread (litt. "may you give us our food today")
(Ke IMPERATIVE.3pers) (foaki give) (mai "to us") (hamatou our.EXCL.INDEF) (mea.kai food) (i in) (te the) (aho day) (nei there)
I te aho nei : today.

Pea ke fakamolemole tamatou agahala = And forgive us our trespasses (litt. "and (you) forgive our sins")
(pea and) (ke you/IMPERATIVE.3pers) (fakamolemole forgive) (tamatou our.EXCL.DEF) (agahala sin)
* Here as well, I have troubles indentifying the function of ke. It could be "you" (you forgive our sins), or an imperative 3rd person, rendered as a passive form in English ("may our sins be forgiven").

o hage ko tamatou fakamolemole = As we forgive (litt. "as our pardon")
("O.hage" as) (ko PRESENTATIVE) (tamatou our.EXCL.DEF) (fakamolemole pardon)
Here, fakamolemole is a noun, while in the previous sentence it was a verb. Only context can tell us its grammatical function.

kia natou e agahala mai kia matou = those who trespass against us (litt. "to them that sin towards us")
(kia to) (natou they) (e ERGATIVE) (agahala sin) (mai "to us") (kia to) (matou us.EXCL)

pea aua na’a ke tuku ia matou ki te fakahala = And lead us not into temptation (litt. "and be careful not to let us go into temptation")
(pea and) (aua.na'a.ke NEGATIVE.IMPERATIVE) (tuku let) (ia ERGATIVE) (matou us.EXCL) (ki into) (te the) (fakahala temptation)
aua na'a ke is the form used for the negative imperative.

kae ke fakamauli matou mai te kovi = But deliver us from evil
(kae but) (ke you/IMPERATIVE.3pers) (fakamauli deliver) (matou us.EXCL) (mai from) (te the) (kovi evil)
Here as well I can't tell wether ke means you (you deliver us from evil) or is an imperative, thus passive construction ("but may we be freed from evil").

Ameni = Amen (loanword).
Last edited by melski on 2015-04-17, 9:08, edited 2 times in total.
................Native: French (fr) French
................Fluent: English (en) English , Italian (it) Italian
.........Intermediate: German (de) German, Brazilian Portuguese (pt-br) Portuguese
.........Conversational: Catalan (ca) Catalan, Spanish (es) Spanish
....................Learning: [flag=Wallisian (East Uvean / faka'uvea)]wls[/flag] Wallisian (topic here)

melski
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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2014-07-13, 21:52

Today's work for Wallisian : I'm studying a translation of the Noumea Accord preamble (English version here), a very important treaty for New Caledonia signed in 1998 after heavy political unrest and New Caledonian independentist violent actions. The Noumea Accord signed 5 May 1998, set the groundwork for a 20-year transitional period that will gradually transfer competences to the local government.

This is getting very interesting, because we're dealing with complex vocabulary (politics, law, economics, ...) very formal register, long phrases, etc.
A lot of new words to learn ! :D
................Native: French (fr) French
................Fluent: English (en) English , Italian (it) Italian
.........Intermediate: German (de) German, Brazilian Portuguese (pt-br) Portuguese
.........Conversational: Catalan (ca) Catalan, Spanish (es) Spanish
....................Learning: [flag=Wallisian (East Uvean / faka'uvea)]wls[/flag] Wallisian (topic here)

melski
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Country:FRFrance (France)

Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2015-03-01, 15:08

Malo te ma'uli kia kotou fuli pe !
I'm back after several months :)

I had to put my learning of faka'uvea on hold for quite some time, but I've gotten back to Wallisian.

Here is a very funny clip in Wallisian with French subtitles, mocking the modern lifestyle compared to the healthy one before motorboats, pick-ups, corned beef cans and supermarkets invaded the island.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=893407044043011

Here is my attempt at transcribing the Wallisian part + English translation (primarily based on the French subtitles, even if I have tried to match the original Wallisian when I could)

Narrator : ‘ua logologona ia Uvea mo Futuna i te malamanei, mo te (hui ?) o tona hahai.
Here in Wallis and Futuna, our men were known in the whole world as warriors of great strenght
E lalahi pea mo malolohi.
blessed by nature.
("Wallis and Futuna were known in the world for its people (hahai) that were big (lalahi) and very strong (malolohi)")

Kua natou ilo’i lelei te aga’aga’ia o te kele.
They knew the land very well

Te ‘ae fiafia pe e natou e te me’a fuli e mau’ai.
and contented themselves with what it offered them.

E gaholo tanatou lele ohage ni’i tu’ani matagi,
They ran as fast as the wind

i he toe koga mea loa loa mole ilo’i holagata aga.
along long distances that streched until infinity.

Pea e natou liliu mai ki tonatou api kua natou loto fiafia i tanatou takakapu
They always came back, filled with pride for their victorious hunt.

Ne’e natou faiva i te kate akau. E a kake niu ko tanatou faiga aia e manako age te kau ta’ahine ia a natou.
They knew how to clim trees up to the sky, especially when there were girls to impress.

Wallisian warrior in the coconut tree : "ko to fenua (?) ko ta fo’i niu ?" (not sure of that sentence, he speaks really fast)
"Hey, wanna come up there share a coconut ?"
Girls : "oiloa ( ???) i fino ?!"
"No thanks, that's nonsense/are you crazy (?) !"
Wallisian warrior : "oia kotou … i he ko kate mai“
Look at your grandfather, he is climbing.

Narrator: Ta mole ma’u mai e me’a ki te kele,
When the earth had nothing left to give them,

pea e natou alu leva o taka folau i te malo’hi o natou lima.
they embarqued fearless on a journey, challenging the seas on sole the strenght of their arms.

Wallisian sailor in his vaka (canoe) : “Ahahaha, lelei osi ! ko lelei osi lā ana. Kua tafi talata ? Ahahaha!" (not sure for last sentence)
Ahahaha, good! Serves you right! Now you ai'nt bragging anymore, are you?"

Narrator
I te hoko mai o te afi afi
When the evening came
Pea i te hili o tanatou fe’i aki
after braving all dangers with so much effort
Mo te’u mea fo ka tuputu ta’amaki fuli
in order to feed their children,
Uhi, ke maho he mea moa kauhi o tanatou’u fânau
they still found the strenght to tell them the tales

Pea ne’e natou fakamatala leva i tanatou’u fânau
Hi’isitolia o tanatou uhu.

Tales and legends passed on by their ancestors
Kae lolotoga mû i ae afi.
around the fire.

Ne’e ko te ma’uli aia, i te temi afea...
This, however, was how people lived in the past... ("this was the life of ancient times")
Last edited by melski on 2015-04-17, 8:53, edited 1 time in total.
................Native: French (fr) French
................Fluent: English (en) English , Italian (it) Italian
.........Intermediate: German (de) German, Brazilian Portuguese (pt-br) Portuguese
.........Conversational: Catalan (ca) Catalan, Spanish (es) Spanish
....................Learning: [flag=Wallisian (East Uvean / faka'uvea)]wls[/flag] Wallisian (topic here)

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Ariki
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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby Ariki » 2015-04-16, 21:23

Malo te ma'uli, Melski!

I just want to congratulate you and acknowledge you for the effort you have put into sharing your knowledge on Wallisian.

I am just quickly glancing through. On the post about the Lord's prayer, you mentioned you were uncertain about the meaning of "tapuha".

From my understanding of Proto-Nuclear Polynesian/Proto-Polynesian, tapuha does indeed mean 'very sacred'. It's actually a compound word from *tapu 'off limits, taboo, restricted' and '*sā 'sacred'.

In most Eastern Polynesian languages, the word tapu is used in the Lord's prayer. I am willing to bet in Samoan it's sā and in Tongan it'll be tapu.

That's my two cents. Fakamalohi! (I hope I got that right! lol)
Linguicide IS genocide. :)

He ingoa ōpaki a Riki; he ingoa ōkawa a Ariki.

Riki is an informal name; Ariki is a formal name.

melski
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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2015-04-17, 9:26

Malo Ariki te ma'uli !
Thanks a lot for your message and your explanations on tapuha! I'm only a beginner in Polynesian languages, so it's great to have experts like you around :)

I also realized I had made some minor mistakes to the Lord's Prayer transcription: *o age >> o hage, selo is a loanword from Latin and not French.

I have found an audio version of the Lord's prayer in Wallisian here :
http://dominicweb.eu/fr/dictionaries/ex ... ayers/#wls :partyhat:
All credits go to Dominik Ramik who recorded this version (alongside many other languages of Oceania and elsewhere).
The speaker is Malia Ana from Tufunui, Mu'a.

Dominik Ramik also gives us a transcription with macrons and glottal stops:
[flag=]wls[/flag]
Ko tamatou Tamai
e i Selō,
ke tupuhā tou Huafa,
ke 'aumai tau pule,
ke fai tou finegalo,
i te kelekele o hagē ko Selō.
Ke foaki mai hamatou me'akai i te 'aho nei,
pea ke fakamolemole tamatou agahala,
o hagē ko tamatou fakamolemole kiā nātou 'e agahala mai kiā mātou
pea 'aua n'a ke tuku ia mātou ki te fakahala,
kae ke ke fakama'uli mātou mai te kovi.
'Ameni.

[flag=]wls[/flag]

On the same page, you can find other prayers in Wallisian.

(Ariki, you were right: the tongan version also uses tapuha)
[flag=]to[/flag] ke tapuha ho huafa = hallowed be thy name.
On the other hand, Samoan uses pa'ia: [flag=]sm[/flag] ia pa'ia lou suafa. George Pratt dictionary (from 1862... don't know how reliable it is) says "sacred (a term applied to titled chiefs)".
................Native: French (fr) French
................Fluent: English (en) English , Italian (it) Italian
.........Intermediate: German (de) German, Brazilian Portuguese (pt-br) Portuguese
.........Conversational: Catalan (ca) Catalan, Spanish (es) Spanish
....................Learning: [flag=Wallisian (East Uvean / faka'uvea)]wls[/flag] Wallisian (topic here)

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Ariki
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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby Ariki » 2015-05-04, 22:10

melski wrote:Malo Ariki te ma'uli !
Thanks a lot for your message and your explanations on tapuha! I'm only a beginner in Polynesian languages, so it's great to have experts like you around :)

I also realized I had made some minor mistakes to the Lord's Prayer transcription: *o age >> o hage, selo is a loanword from Latin and not French.

I have found an audio version of the Lord's prayer in Wallisian here :
http://dominicweb.eu/fr/dictionaries/ex ... ayers/#wls :partyhat:
All credits go to Dominik Ramik who recorded this version (alongside many other languages of Oceania and elsewhere).
The speaker is Malia Ana from Tufunui, Mu'a.

Dominik Ramik also gives us a transcription with macrons and glottal stops:
[flag=]wls[/flag]
Ko tamatou Tamai
e i Selō,
ke tupuhā tou Huafa,
ke 'aumai tau pule,
ke fai tou finegalo,
i te kelekele o hagē ko Selō.
Ke foaki mai hamatou me'akai i te 'aho nei,
pea ke fakamolemole tamatou agahala,
o hagē ko tamatou fakamolemole kiā nātou 'e agahala mai kiā mātou
pea 'aua n'a ke tuku ia mātou ki te fakahala,
kae ke ke fakama'uli mātou mai te kovi.
'Ameni.

[flag=]wls[/flag]

On the same page, you can find other prayers in Wallisian.

(Ariki, you were right: the tongan version also uses tapuha)
[flag=]to[/flag] ke tapuha ho huafa = hallowed be thy name.
On the other hand, Samoan uses pa'ia: [flag=]sm[/flag] ia pa'ia lou suafa. George Pratt dictionary (from 1862... don't know how reliable it is) says "sacred (a term applied to titled chiefs)".


Malo Melski!

I've had a listen and I've done a quick google search. I'm not too sure if I agree with Dominic's transcription of the second line (ke tupuhā as opposed to ke tapuhā). Nevertheless, Dominic's website recordings are an invaluable resource and we are very fortunate that they have been made available.

This page has two versions of the Samoan translation of the Lord's Prayer. The second version looks like it comes straight from the Bible.
Linguicide IS genocide. :)

He ingoa ōpaki a Riki; he ingoa ōkawa a Ariki.

Riki is an informal name; Ariki is a formal name.

melski
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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2015-07-11, 21:41

Mālō te ma'uli kia kotou fuli pē! E kotou lelei pe ?

I have great news: I am finally going to Wallis :partyhat: :P :D
We have been organizing a project with some of my friends and we are going for one month in 'Uvea this August! Fo'i lelei 'osi :) (great!)
This is a great opportunity, but also the challenge of bridging between our two cultures to create bridges through intercultural dialogue.
After all these three years spent studying Wallisian culture from books, I will finally have the chance to go there :)
I can't wait!

And I hope my faka'uvea hasn't become too rusty...lol! I really hope I'll be able to use it more than for simple greetings, but for real conversations.
We will be welcomed in Wallisian families and even have the chance to see the festivities of the 29th of July, "aho fakatelituale" (Territory Day), the commemoration of the day Wallis became a French Overseas Territory. Then, for one week, we'll organize an event for all generations, to be together, learn, play, celebrate together... in a world, building fraternity!

If you want to know more, don't hesitate to shoot me a PM :)
................Native: French (fr) French
................Fluent: English (en) English , Italian (it) Italian
.........Intermediate: German (de) German, Brazilian Portuguese (pt-br) Portuguese
.........Conversational: Catalan (ca) Catalan, Spanish (es) Spanish
....................Learning: [flag=Wallisian (East Uvean / faka'uvea)]wls[/flag] Wallisian (topic here)

melski
Posts:1130
Joined:2012-02-17, 1:13
Location:Nantes
Country:FRFrance (France)

Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2015-09-01, 17:45

I'm back from Wallis! It was a wonderful experience and I had the opportunity to speak Wallisian with many people, including monolingual speakers - even though I'm still unable to carry a decent conversation longer than 3 or 4 minutes. The real drawback is that almost everybody in Wallis speaks French and switched to French when conversing.

I'll try to add what I've learned during my 1-month stay there :)
................Native: French (fr) French
................Fluent: English (en) English , Italian (it) Italian
.........Intermediate: German (de) German, Brazilian Portuguese (pt-br) Portuguese
.........Conversational: Catalan (ca) Catalan, Spanish (es) Spanish
....................Learning: [flag=Wallisian (East Uvean / faka'uvea)]wls[/flag] Wallisian (topic here)

William Bohning
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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby William Bohning » 2017-01-28, 16:16

Juliana Sagaga wrote:My father is half Samoan half Wallisian but he is the only one out of his 9 siblings that speak fluent Wallisian. He lived there for years when his good friend who was a priest asked him to stay there with him. When I was about 10years old we had a community of Wallisians visit here in New Zealand and my dad was the only one who could to talk them. I grew up thinking I was a full blooded samoan til they came so it was awesome finding out I was a part of a place that nobody really knew of.

If you'd like, you could ask me what you would like to know in Uvea and I could get my dad to help out. He loves speaking it and telling me stories of Uvea.



Malo my father's last name is Wallis and his father is from mata'utu I'm the grandson of faka'uvea and would love to learn uvea of my people.

Can someone please help me with the basics :nope:

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atalarikt
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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby atalarikt » 2018-02-16, 8:49

So will there be new lesson posts or not?
وَمِنْ آيَاتِهِ خَلْقُ السَّمَاوَاتِ وَالْأَرْضِ وَاخْتِلَافُ أَلْسِنَتِكُمْ وَأَلْوَانِكُمْ ۚ إِنَّ فِي ذَٰلِكَ لَآيَاتٍ لِلْعَالِمِينَ۝
"And of His signs is the creation of the heavens and the earth and the diversity of your languages and your colors. Indeed in that are signs for those of knowledge." (Ar-Rum: 22)

Jika saya salah, mohon diperbaiki. If I make some mistake(s), please correct me.
Forever indebted to Robert A. Blust for his contributions to Austronesian linguistics

melski
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Location:Nantes
Country:FRFrance (France)

Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2018-03-04, 13:44

Malo ! It's been a while since I did not post there, and honestly I don't have that much time to post about Wallisian.
However, if you want some good material, I recommend reading this book (in French) by Claire Moyse-Faurie : https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal ... 7/document
This is a complete description of Wallisian, the most comprehensive to date... and freely available on the web :)
................Native: French (fr) French
................Fluent: English (en) English , Italian (it) Italian
.........Intermediate: German (de) German, Brazilian Portuguese (pt-br) Portuguese
.........Conversational: Catalan (ca) Catalan, Spanish (es) Spanish
....................Learning: [flag=Wallisian (East Uvean / faka'uvea)]wls[/flag] Wallisian (topic here)


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