Re: The Papuan Languages Thread
Posted: 2014-02-20, 2:45
Yeah, I'll just skip the salini tirii no part. I think that will have to remain a mystery for God knows how long. But anyway, there's still the next two sentences:
Una'a wadu tina'a Raata ma'u nunu iamiire, 'The Eagle came and alighted on the waringin.'
Waluru ma'u horia iamiire. 'Pigeon came and alighted on the parna.'
We've already seen nunu, translated as 'waringin', and horia, translated as 'parna'. Raata means 'Eagle'. It seems pretty clear that ma'u...iamiire must mean 'came and alighted (on?)', and waluru must mean 'pigeon'.
All that is left in these sentences are the first three words una'a wadu tina'a. We already know that wadu means 'day', but we don't really know what tina'a means, and we've never seen una'a before in this text. There doesn't seem to be any easy solution to the question of what this means, but my best guess is something like 'then in those times'. (It's a part that's not translated in the translation of those sentences on that website).
Una'a wadu tina'a Raata ma'u nunu iamiire, 'The Eagle came and alighted on the waringin.'
Waluru ma'u horia iamiire. 'Pigeon came and alighted on the parna.'
We've already seen nunu, translated as 'waringin', and horia, translated as 'parna'. Raata means 'Eagle'. It seems pretty clear that ma'u...iamiire must mean 'came and alighted (on?)', and waluru must mean 'pigeon'.
All that is left in these sentences are the first three words una'a wadu tina'a. We already know that wadu means 'day', but we don't really know what tina'a means, and we've never seen una'a before in this text. There doesn't seem to be any easy solution to the question of what this means, but my best guess is something like 'then in those times'. (It's a part that's not translated in the translation of those sentences on that website).