"wh" is a voiceless bilabial fricative (X-SAMPA /p\/) while English "f" is labiodental.Stan wrote:riki I'm not sure how to pronounce "wh", do you have any sound files that would be helpful?
I don't know the difference between an English f and a "soft f"
Sorry if these seem like a lot of questions. Most of these questions, as I addressed in the begginnig of this post, arose as a result of my using Hawaiian grammar when trying to analyze Maori, which I realize is a mistake. Still, it does open the door for some interesting discussion, which I am all too often lacking in the area of the Hawaiian language since we have such a small number of speakers and a fading body of elderly, native speakers.
1)Ākuanei ka māramangia e au he maha ngā kupu hōu.
2)Ākuanei e māramangia ai e au he maha ngā kupuhōu.
3)He maha ngā kupu hōu e māramangia nei e au.
Riki, I'm impressed to read that you can understand the Hawaiian texts from the Hawaiian language newspaper database, since the old newspapers don't include the glottal stop or the macron, but I'm not surprised since you already speak three languages closely related to Hawaiian.
Thank you, Ego and Riki, for your words of encouragement. I cannot express the exhilaration I feel, having come across other speakers of the Polynesian languages, such as the two of you, who appreciate both the urgency of restoring the indigenous languages of the Pacific and the importance of the kūpuna (elders, ancestors) in preserving native identity and passing on traditional knowledge to their successive generations
Okay, I'm back again with more questions concerning the maori language. Recently in Riki's posts, I've noticed Maori possesive pronouns starting with ng-, such as ngōu, ngōku, etc. Given that the t- was replaced with the ng- I have assumed that these are plural forms. I'm slightly familiar with making plurals in words like tēnei, tēnā, tēlā, tōku, tōu, tōna... etc., by deleting the t- at the beginning of the word, which I have assumed is a remnant of the singular definite article te. So is the ng- at the beginning of these possesives a kind of plural form, and if so can this ng- form be used with the other determiners, such as tēnei or taua, to make them plural instead of deleting the t- in the beginning?
In Hawaiian, some words with passive suffixes are only passive when used with the causative/simulative ho'o, and some verbs with passive suffixes are used as verb transitives, verb intransitives, or verb statives. In earlier Hawaiian, one way to make an imperative sentence was through passivizing the verb like in Maori, but as far as I know it is now rarely used in conversation, but quite common in the chants which I'm reading in He Mo'olelo no Kamapua'a. Also, some verbs with nominative suffixes in Hawaiian have different meanings from their bases. It is much more common in Hawaiian to passivize verbs with the the particle 'ia and to nominalize verbs with the particle 'ana, which are now both written seperately from the verbs, than to make extensive use of the suffixes. Does the Maori language have these particles 'ia and 'ana in addition to it's suffixes?
Sorry, one more question. How do you negate class inclusion sentences (He akonga ahau) and equational sentences (Ko Mamo tōku ingoa) in the Maori language.
Māori has no glottal stops so when I do list the cognates they may not be recognisable at first. Māori has a plethora of passive suffixes and nominalisation suffixes. They are written at the end of the word, and are still identified as being part of the word rather than acting seperately and independent from it.
This is a revelation to me. I didn't know that Māori doesn't have the glottal stop. Now many more things are making sense. I remember picking up a book written in Māori from the school library and not finding any glottal stops or macrons. Instead, the vowels were typed twice in areas where I would expect a macron (ā was written aa). I remember thinking how difficult it would be to read a Polynesian script without glottal stops. I feel a bit relieved.
1)Ehara au i te akonga.
'A'ole au he haumana.
2)Ehara tōku ingoa i a Mamo
'A'ole 'o Mamo ko'u inoa.
3)Ehara nāku te tamaiti i whakamamae ki te mamae
'A'ole na'u ke kamaiki i hō'eha. It could also be: 'A'ole 'o wau ka mea nāna ke kamaiki i hō'eha.
So, out of interest, how would one say in Hawai'ian 'not a problem!'. In Māori it would be said -
Kāore he raruraru!
in Cook Islands Māori -
'Aitā 'e pe'ape'a!
1) 'A'ole au he ali'i - I am not a chief.
2) 'A'ole kēlā nohea ke kumu - That good-looking person is not the teacher.
3) 'A'ole i holo nā mokuahi i Moloka'i - The steamboat did not sail to Moloka'i.
4) 'A'ole a'u keiki - I have no children.
5) 'A'ole au ma ka hale o ku'u lūau'i makua kāne - I am not at the house of my beloved father.
6) 'A'ole hana pēnā - Don't act like that.
7) Inā 'a'ole au, inā ua make 'oe - If not for me, then you would have perished.
Return to “Australian, Austronesian and Papuan Languages”
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 11 guests