ILuvEire wrote:Aloha e Kahihi‘o Ua lilo loa au! Ua kipa aku koʻu ‘ohana i kō mākou mau makamaka. Noho lāua i San Jose, ma waho o San Francisco, i Kaleponi. ‘Oia ho‘i, pono mākou ke māka‘ika‘i Ā laila, i ko mākou manawa i hoʻi mai ai , ua hemo kaʻu mau niho "wisdom", a laila, ho‘i hou au i ke ola maika‘i.
Pehea ‘oe, hoaloha?
Oia mau nō au, e ke hoa. Pehea ka lōʻihi o kā ʻoukou huakaʻi ma Kaleponi? Hoʻokahi wale nō oʻu hele ʻana i laila, mau makahiki aku nei. ʻO ia ka wā hope loa aʻu i haʻalele ai i ka mokupuni aʻu e noho nei.
I ke awakea nei, ua hele aku nei mākou me koʻu ʻohana i ke kiʻiʻoniʻoni ʻo Earth Sea. Keu nō kēia a ke kiʻiʻoniʻoni manakā. ʻAʻohe oʻu hoihoi iki i kēia ki'iʻoniʻoni mai ka hoʻomaka ʻana a i ka hopena.
Struthiomimus wrote:Greetings!
Lately, I've been interested in how different languages express the conditional. How would one say "If I were a monkey, I would live in a tree" or "If you had called me, I would have come" in Tongan/Hawaiian/Maori?
Ariki wrote:Hi Struthiomimus,
Some Eastern Polynesian languages express the conditional with the phrase 'mehemea' or a variation thereof (mena, mehe, me being some of those variations).
Maori uses mehemea, mena, mehe and also has ina to express conditional 'if'. Of the four listed, only ina is truely a verbal particle (the rest would require the use of a verbal particle as me is a preposition.
Mehemea i waea mai koe, kua haere ke atu au/Ina waea mai koe, kua haere ke atu au.
If you had called me, I would have come.
kahihi'o wrote:In Hawaiian, we would use inā for the sentences listed.
Inā he keko au, ua noho au ma ke kumulāʻau.
If I were a monkey, I'd live in a tree.
Inā ʻoe i kelepona mai iaʻu, ua hele mai nō au.
If you called me, I would have come (but I didn't).
Hawaiian also has the conditionals i and ke.Ariki wrote:Hi Struthiomimus,
Some Eastern Polynesian languages express the conditional with the phrase 'mehemea' or a variation thereof (mena, mehe, me being some of those variations).
Maori uses mehemea, mena, mehe and also has ina to express conditional 'if'. Of the four listed, only ina is truely a verbal particle (the rest would require the use of a verbal particle as me is a preposition.
Mehemea i waea mai koe, kua haere ke atu au/Ina waea mai koe, kua haere ke atu au.
If you had called me, I would have come.
This is very interesting. I've never thought of me and mehemea in terms of being conditional. I wonder if these terms were once used in that way in Hawaiian. Currently, in Hawaiian we use the word me to mean "like" or "similar to."
Like ʻo ia me ka puaʻa.
He is like a pig.
Me kēia kāna ʻōlelo.
He spoke like this.
Me he lio lā ʻo ia ke holo aku.
He runs like a horse.
We also have me he mea, and the phrase usually means "it is/was as if."
Me he mea lā ua ʻaihue ʻia ka manaʻo o ke aliʻi wahine e Piʻikoiakaʻalalā.
It was as if the princess's thoughts had been stolen away by Piʻikoiakaʻalalā (because of her worrying about him).
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