Wallisian (faka'uvea)

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melski
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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2012-11-17, 20:07

I'm back for more Wallisian... and today I made a huge step in my learning process.
A few weeks ago, I was able to find the only textbook for Wallisian, "Parler Wallisien" by linguist Karl Rensch (2002). Just having that book in itself is very valuable to learn Wallisian, but it is a bit outdated and has a too grammar-centered approach that I don't really like. But it has some practice conversations recorded (yay !)

But today, I had my first Facebook chat with a Wallisian living in Wallis ! :D It was excellent, because he spoke to me like any wallisian, so I struggled quite a lot...but that's how you get out of your comfort zone ! Actually, I was surprised to see that I could have a true conversation '(even if full of mistakes) :)

Here are some useful words I learned :
aho katoa : all day long / the entire day
at some point, there was a problem with the internet connection : "kovi elo osi te neti"
kovi elo : rotten, rubbish (fam).
te neti : the internet (comes from the English word "net" >> neti.
on the internet : i te neti.
My name is : ko toku higoa ko [name]
His/her name is : ko tona higoa ko [name]
Personal pronouns are quite complicated, because Wallisian distinguishes between 'o and 'a possession (a feature in many Polynesian languages), between definite and "indefinite" article; for the plural, you also need to distinguish between plural and dual, and exclusive and inclusive.
I have no idea how they remember the use of each pronoun... that's one tricky aspects of faka'uvea !

In a later post, I'll explain how to express time - stay tuned !
Last edited by melski on 2014-02-10, 11:59, 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)

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

Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2012-11-21, 0:08

Here we are for the expression of time in Wallisian (+ a bit about the weather) :)
Let's start with the numbers, which are pretty simple :

Numbers in Wallisian

[flag=]wls[/flag]
1 : tahi
2 : lua
3 : tolu
4 : fa
5 : nima
6 : ono
7 : fitu
8 : valu
9 : hiva
10 : hogofulu

11 : hogofulu matahi
12 : hogofulu malua
13 : hogofulu mafa
etc (hogofulu + ma + number)

20 : 'uafulu ; 30 tolugofulu ; 40 fagofulu ; 50 nimagofulu ; 60 onogofulu and so on. (number + gofulu).

Expressing time

what time is it ? = Kua hola fia ?.
Note that kua is used here, and not the particle for "present tense" 'e, because there is a change (if it's 2 pm now, it wasn't so a minute ago). Kua emphasizes transtition, change, and it's one of the very interesting features of Wallisian. Kua is also used, for instance, when talking about the weather : kua 'ua : it is raining (but before, the weather was nice) ; same for it's snowing : kua nive (from nix, nivis : snow in latin).

time : te hola (from latin hora) ; minute : te minuta.
Time in Wallisian has been both influenced by English and French, therefore you can use the a.m. and p.m. system, or a 24-hour notation.

E hola hogofulu osi minuta tolu : E hola 10 osi minuta 3 = it's 10:03.
10PM : 'e hola hogofulu 'afi'afi (afi'afi means night : "it's 10 hour of the night". This might come from French "il est dix heures du soir"). (remember almost all Wallisian speak French).

It's 22h47 (or 10:47 pm) = 'e hola hogofulu (10) 'afi'afi osi minuta fagofulu (40) ma fitu (7) (=47).

But you could more simply say 'e toe minuta hogofulu (10) ma tolu (3) ki te matahi (11)
toe : minus, there are...minutes left ([flag=]fr[/flag] "il reste (tant de temps)")
ki te matahi : litt " up to the 11", until 11 o'clock. (Ki is a particle used for direction, towards something/somewhere, ...)

NB on this topic I have read two opposed sources, I rely on what my Wallisian friend told me... but it might be not true, or might depend from the speaker. Wallisian has not been standardized yet, there is no official grammar, therefore the language can have much more variations depending on age, social status, etc.
Last edited by melski on 2014-02-10, 12:53, 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)

melski
Posts:1130
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Country:FRFrance (France)

Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2012-12-05, 11:23

One of the biggest challenge in learning "minority" or rare languages such as Wallisian is the lack of resources suitable for advanced beginners, which I would say is my current level. (I have found quite a lot of advanced stuff such as stories and tales, but that are way too difficult).
But I managed to find on Youtube a very good video to learn faka'uvea :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKn0KHrvQTA

It's a song by children of a Wallisian primary school telling the story of Sagato Petelo Sanele, Saint Pierre Chanel. He was one of the missionaries who evangelized the region (he was in Futuna, the sister island of Wallis) and is a key figure also in Wallis, where the catholic religion (te lotu katolika) plays a major role.
I have started transcribing it (quite hard since the children sing and the length of the words is different than when spoken), it's an excellent exercice to train both oral comprehension and understand a story in Wallisian (the phrases are quite simple).

Here is the beginning (there are surely some errors, but you get the general meaning)

Malo te kataki. Te'u kalasi aeni o te'u CP e natou fia fakahahatu a natou ki hiva o te ma'uli o Sagato Petelo Sanele
Good afternoon. This is the class of CP (1st grade) which wants to show the song of the life of Saint Pierre Chanel.
Kotou fagono mai. Tahi, lua, tolu
Listen to me/to us. One, two, three
Tahi, lua, tolu
One, two, three
Ko Sagato Petelo Sanele
Saint Pierre Chanel
Ne'e tupu ia i Falanise
Was born in France
I sio na kotu (?) fakahaha pe (?)

I te kolo ne'e 'ui ko kue/pue (?)
in the city, he said ???
Ne'e tupu i ana matua agalelei mo taki mu'a
He was born in a very good, benevolent family (taki mu'a : to lead >> leading principles ?)
o ta'u i te lotu katolika
who educated him into the catholic faith (?)
Ofa lelei ki ana tama
Help/take care/love their son

Ko Petelo i ta'u fitu
Pierre was 7 years old
Ko tona tama ne'e na fekau (?)
Their boy heard (?) a message/order
"Alula koe o ta'u i malu
"go ... (malu : to be calm) ?
ko te ma'uli aga o tatou"
this is your (plur.) life (faithful life ?)

lolotoga tanata o'i malu ...

hua'a lele vaka na manatu

ki he aleka (?) ke ina fa'u
fa'u : to build
ko teuteu'i a ki te fisi'i akau
the preparation of the flower(s)

ki patele na fakalakalaka,
The priest was arriving (?) slowly
pea fakamalo ki a te ia
and thanked him :
"Petelo ku ke ta'u fia
Pierre, your wish (?)
kua lagi tonu ke ke ako la !"
... you have to learn this (?)

Ko Petelo na tahi age (?)
Pierre answered :
Patele ...

I just managed to understand the first phrases, the rest is too complicated. When I have understood more, I'll update this post. [post updated on July 1st 2013. Still too complicated !)
Last edited by melski on 2013-07-01, 7:44, 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)

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

Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2012-12-11, 12:38

I just had a chat with a Wallisian and when I tried to speak some Wallisian, I could not say more than 3 phrases... I definitely need more speaking practise ! But I learned this useful phrase :
"E au fia alu ki Uvea, ka e mole lahi taku fo'i fala kau alu ki Uvea mo Futuna"
(I want to go to Wallis, but I haven't enough money to go there)

We have some interesting points :
location/direction is expressed as in English with two prepositions :

E au i Falani : I am in France. E au i te fale ako : I am at school
but
E au alu ki Uvea : I go to Wallis

lahi : big, great, much, a lot
taku : my
fo'i fala : money
alu : to go (sing)

(fala means money but you have to use the preposition fo'i. Fo'i is also used for fruits and vegetables, for instance. It's similar to the English "some" : you don't say "I have money" but "I have some money", or "I eat some cake")

Another very interesting feature of Wallisian is that there is no word for "to be" nor for "to have".
Let's do the glossing :
e mole lahi taku fo'i fala kau alu ki Uvea mo Futuna
I don't have enough money to go to Wallis and Futuna (litteraly "my money is not big enough...")
(PRESENT e) (NEG mole) (big lahi) (my taku) (money fo'i fala) (?? kau) (to-go alu) (to ki) (Wallis-and-Futuna Uvea mo Futuna)
................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 » 2012-12-27, 11:22

It's Christmas time !
Ke manu'ia te potapu kia kotou fuli !!!!! :partyhat: (merry christmas to all of you!)

The translation of "merry christmas" into wallisian is verty interesting. In many other Polynesian languages "merry christmas" was directly transliterated (Hawaian Mele kalikimaka, Maori Meri Kirihimete, Tokelauan Manuia te Kilihimahi, Samoan la manuia le kerisimasi, etc ... (feel free to add other Polynesian languages if you know them, that would be very interesting !)

However, in Wallisian "potapu" >> po = night, tapu : sacred
(tapu is a word that we gained from Tahitian and became taboo in English, tabou in French, however the meaning has changed when it passed onto European languages. In Polynesia, an object, a place that is tapu is something you can't touch, you can't go).
Wallis is a very religious society and the catholic missionaries managed to preserve the local culture (even though they get rid of the existing gods, they maintained many traditions such as kava), developping a strong syncretism.

Some religious related vocabulary :
te lotu katolika : the Catholic religion
te Atua : God
te Aliki : The lord ('aliki also refers to the aristocratic members of the society)
te patele : the priest (from Latin pater)
te ekelesia : the Church (from French église (or Latin ecclesia ?)
te epikopo : the Bishop (from Latin episcopus)
te misa : the mass (from Latin missa)
te faikole : the prayer
Sesu kilisito : Jesus Christ
(as I mentioned in a previous post, the only Wikipedia page in Wallisian is ... Sesu Kilisito !)
................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 » 2013-02-10, 1:04

Malo si kataki kia kotou fuli ! (hello everyone !)
I'm back :)

Yesterday I met a Wallisian girl and we chatted a bit in faka'uvea...for eight minutes actually ! My first real conversation in Wallisian ! yay :) We spoke about our studies, the university, the place we live, friends, and (last but not least !) wallisian vegetables and wallisian food in general. There were of course some words and expressions I did not understand, and I still make a lot of mistakes, but I made huge progress !
Here is some vocabulary and phrases that I learned :

Speaking
e mole au mahino : I don't understand
kapau e ke palalau mamalie, e au mahino : if you speak slowly, I understand
ka kapau e ke palalau vave, e mole au mahino : but if you speak fast, I don't understand
kapau : if. mamalie : slow, slowly / vave : fast
E ke fia loto ke ta palalau kitea ? What do you want (us) to talk about ?

Apartments, flats and roommates !
Kogafale : room (1st meaning), apartment, flat. (There are almost no flats in Wallis, hence no word for it.Fale means house)
E matou nonofo fakatahi i te kogafale : we live together [my roommates and I] in an apartment.
lahi : big / veliveli : small

Metro and bus - going to school/university
E au alu ki te fale ako : I go to school
E matou ovi ki te métro : We [live] close to the subway (métro = subway in French).
(>> in Wallisian, when a word does not exist it's most of the time borrowed from French)
E au to'o te papika numelo tahi : I take the bus number 1.
(papika comes from English babycar ; the word ka, from French [flag]fr[/flag]car, can also be used. And car translates to motoka (motor car))
E lelei i age o te ka : I rather take the bus [than the subway]/ the bus is better
E tonu ke lahi toku ako : I have to work a lot (litt "It is required [that] my work [be] big")

Wallisian and French food
E au kai fakafalani : I eat French food (litterally : I eat like the French or I eat the French way)
E au kai fakapapalagi : I eat Western food.
E au kai faka'uvea : I eat Wallisian food ("like the Wallisians" or "the Wallisian way")
[that's why faka'uvea also refers to the language : E au palalau faka'uvea, I speak like the Wallisians]
to'o : to take (the bus for instance), to buy (e au to'o te kai faka'uvea : I buy wallisian food)
(notice that kai is used here as a verb, but can also be used as a noun)
Te ufi : yam (wikipedia)
Te talo : taro
kano lelei : very good (only for food that you eat ; kano = flesh)
E kano lelei pe te ufi a Uvea : Wallisians yams are very good/taste good
................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 » 2013-02-24, 11:42

It's amazing how speaking even just a few words in someone's mother tongue can break barriers and create links and friendships... I recently met several Wallisians and they were all delighted to chat a bit in faka'uvea :)
I had several conversations, I feel my wallisian is improving :) And what's more I now understand fast, spoken wallisian more and more ! Practice with native speakers is really the key :)
................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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Location:Nantes
Country:FRFrance (France)

Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2013-03-22, 14:01

Just a short message to say that Dominik Ramik has updated his French-Wallisian dictionary. It now includes 2254 words and 65 phrases, with the standard orthography (including macrons).
Here is some information on prononciation and personal pronouns (in French [flag=]fr[/flag]), taken from his website (http://dominicweb.eu/fr/fakauvea) :

Pronoms personnels atones

je: 'au
tu: ke
il, elle: ina (disparait en présence du verbe intransitif ou transitif direct. Ex: 'E alu ki Liku. Il va a Liku.)

nous (toi+moi): ta
nous (lui+moi): ma
vous (deux): kolua
ils, elles (deux): na

nous (tous): tou
nous (sans toi): mātou
vous (tous): kotou
ils, elles (tous): natou

Pronoms personnels toniques

moi: 'au
toi: koe
lui, elle: ia

nous (toi+moi): tāua
nous (lui+moi): māua
vous (deux): koulua
eux, elles (deux): nāua

nous (tous): tātou
nous (sans toi): mātou
vous (tous): koutou
eux, elles (tous): nātou

Adjectifs possessifs

Les adjectifs possessifs se forment selon la règle suivante:
article en forme de préfixe + particule possessive a/o + pron. pers. en forme de suffixe.

Exemples:

Art. déf. sing. (te): t- a -ku = taku (mon, "celui" à moi)

Art. indéf. sing. (he): h- o -tā = hotā (notre duel inc., "un" à moi et toi)

Plur. (' fakamoga): '- a - natou = 'anatou (leurs)

Pron. pers. en forme de suff.:
1. per. sing. ⇒ -ku
2. per. sing. ⇒ -u
3. per. sing. ⇒ -na

1. per. dual incl. ⇒ -tā
1. per. dual excl. ⇒ -mā
2. per dual ⇒ -lua
3. per dual ⇒ -nā

1. per. plur. incl. ⇒ -tatou
1. per. plur. excl. ⇒ -matou
2. per. plur. ⇒ -koutou
3. per. plur. ⇒ -natou

Part. possessive:
a: possession active (la personne est l'initiateur, auteur), aussi animaux et choses inanimées (sauf objets trouvés dans la maison et les vêtements), nourriture, boissons et certains relations (ex: fa'e, tama)

o: possession passive (ex: "mon" école, "mon" pays), aussi parties du corps, sentiments, impressions, objets trouvés dans la maison, les vêtements et certains relations (ex: 'ohoana, 'ofafine, foha, mokopuna)

Prononciation

Les consonnes se prononcent toutes, le "r" est roulé. Le "g" est une nasale vélaire [ŋ] (comme dans "sing" en anglais). Une consonne particulière est le fakamoga [ʔ] (ou le coup de glotte), marqué par ' (l'apostrophe, okina). Il se prononce par un arrêt de respiration en enchaînant toute de suite brusquement la voyelle suivante un peu comme le "o" dans "onze".

Les voyelles sont: a [ɑ] (ma), e [ɛ] (hôtel), i [i] (vie), o [o] (rose), u [u] (bout). Il n'y a pas de changements de prononciation dans les groupes des voyelles: "ou" est [ou] et non pas [u]. Le macron (¯) rend les voyelles plus longues, e.g. fala [fɑlɑ] (natte) vs. falā [fɑlɑ:] (argent).
Last edited by melski on 2014-02-10, 13:03, 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 » 2013-03-28, 6:00

Malo!

A little earlier on this thread there was a question raised about word order.

Faka'uvea, like other Western Polynesian languages, is SVO which differs from Eastern Polynesian languages like Māori where the word order is VSO. Both language groups are capable of both SVO and VSO but changing the word order changes the stress in the sentence.
Linguicide IS genocide. :)

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

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

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Ariki
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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby Ariki » 2013-03-28, 6:05

I just want to address Hashi's post.

The word for white person in any Polynesian language is not derogatory/perjorative. Whether it be palagi, papalagi, palangi, papalangi, haole, papa'a, popa'a, pakeha or any other form, none derive from white pig, bastard, etc etc in their respective languages.
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 » 2013-03-29, 11:52

Malo Ariki si'i kataki ! (or kia ora should I say :) )

The origin of papalagi (and its variants) is indeed very interesting, and controversial.
Some Fijian linguists claim it comes from the Malay word barang meaning cloth, thus referring to clothes and other objects given by Europeans. They refuse the traditional explanation of papalagi as "exploding sky" or "plank from the sky" (lagi = sky), saying that Polynesians would have never considered Europeans as gods. (full article here).

However, French anthropologist Serge Tcherkézoff disagrees and says that if the barang hypothesis may be correct, it has been replaced by a folk etymology (influenced by missionaries who coined the explanation of papalagi as people coming from heaven). But his main point is to say that Polynesians indeed could have considered Europeans as "coming from the sky", but that such concepts ("sky", "gods") are not the same at all in Christian and Polynesian cosmology.
(You can read his first article here, and his second one there).

I find this controversy very interesting because it shows that one cannot ignore anthropology when dealing with Polynesian languages - you can't learn the language without the culture and vice-versa. :)
................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
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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2013-04-04, 11:44

Goal for today : understand and transcribe a 10 minutes interview entirely in Wallisian, taken from the Wallis and Futuna 1ère (TV and Radio) emission "lea mai" ! Here, the journalist interviews a wallisian soldier (ko te solia) in the French army
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ijf3Mgm-hYc

This is of course way too hard for me, but if you don't set challenges like this, you will not make much progress !
................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 » 2013-04-04, 15:34

Well, I did not understand so little that I've asked a Wallisian native speaker what the soldier is saying. To sum up, he tells about his life as a soldier (te solia) in the French army, when he went to Afghanistan, the fights, the fear, his missions, etc.

But such videos are great to learn new vocabulary !

te solia : soldier
te koga me'a : a place (a specific place)
te koga fenua : a region of a country
Ko te ta'u [e] ono valu aeni taku ma'uli gaue i te solia : I have been in the army for six years and a half. This sentence is very interesting, let's do the glossing :
(ko This.is) (te ART) (ta'u year) (ono six) (valu and.a.half") (aeni this) (taku my) (ma'uli life) (gaue work) (i in) (te ART ) (solia soldier)
("this is the 6-and-a-half year of my work in the army"). You would use the same construction to say "I'm a 4th year student" :
[flag=]wls[/flag] ko te ta'u e fa o toku ako [i te fale ako] "this is the year 4 of my learning [at university]"
[flag=]fr[/flag] Je suis en 4ème année [à l'université] "I am in 4th year [at university]"
[flag=]en[/flag] I'm a 4th year student [at University]

pelemisio : leave, furlough (directly comes from French "permission")
matūa : parents

ko te kau Taliban : the Taleban (wallisian uses the French word. Note that "kau" is always used when referring to a group of people, thus "te kau uvea" = (the) wallisians; "te kau Falani" = French people, te kau solia o Uvea mo Futuna : Wallisian and Futunan soldiers, etc)
mamahi : suffering, to suffer
te mataku : fear (e au mataku : I'm afraid)
E tapu ke matou olo ki ai : It's forbidden for us to go there (ie restricted zone). (NB Tapu has entered the English language (via other Polynesian languages) and has become taboo)

In the middle of the video, he talks about the different nationalities he encountered during his mission in Afghanistan :
Amelika : US
Siamani : Germany
Lusia : Russia
Eulopa : Europe
Most of those country names actually come from English and not from French (America, Germany). They probably entered the language when Western traders and sailors came in the South Pacific in the 19th century. Alongside missionaries were also some beachcombers and merchants in 'Uvea, who mostly spoke English.
Last edited by melski on 2014-02-10, 15:24, 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)

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Ariki
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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby Ariki » 2013-04-06, 5:11

Thank you for the two articles melski. They were an interesting read for me as I speak one of the languages mentioned (Rarotongan - Cook Islands Māori). Whilst I don't agree with the hypothesis of the origins of the word papālangi put forward in either article (the quotes from Tongan sound Tahitianised (towacka no papalangie)) it is still interesting to explore alternate explanations at the linguistic make up of modern Polynesian languages.

I listened to the man speaking in Uvean. I find your gloss of "ko te ta'u ono valu aeni taku ma'uli ngaue i te solia) interesting in breaking it down. I was trying to think of different ways of expressing this in New Zealand Māori and the one that I could think of that mimics this structure is this;

Ko taku tau tuaono me te hawhe tenei o taku mahi hei hoia

Literally - this is my sixth and a half year of my being employed as a soldier.

Please keep on posting your discoveries of Uvean. I find this interesting, as I have studied Proto-Polynesian, seeing what has survived into Uvean and seeing what has been borrowed from Tongan (Uvean has borrowed extensively from Tongan in its ancient past).
Linguicide IS genocide. :)

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

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

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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2013-04-06, 13:40

Thank you Ariki for your answer, it's always nice to get feedback from other people and keeps me motivated to learn Wallisian !
Could you understand what the man said in faka'uvea ? I have very limited knowledge of Polynesian languages and wonder how close Rarotongan and Wallisian are.
Ariki wrote:Thank you for the two articles melski. They were an interesting read for me as I speak one of the languages mentioned (Rarotongan - Cook Islands Māori). Whilst I don't agree with the hypothesis of the origins of the word papālangi put forward in either article (the quotes from Tongan sound Tahitianised (towacka no papalangie)) it is still interesting to explore alternate explanations at the linguistic make up of modern Polynesian languages.

So which explanation do you agree with for papālangi ?
................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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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby Ariki » 2013-04-14, 6:46

I think sky burster is the probable etymology but it must be understand that sailing to other islands was a cultural norm and so its translation as foreigner is quite warranted.

As for mutual intelligibility, I find 'Uvean difficult as it contains features of both Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian...so I have a hard time trying to decipher what is being said.

I find Tuvaluan and Tokelauan easier to understand than Uvean.
Linguicide IS genocide. :)

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

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

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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby Ariki » 2013-04-14, 6:46

I think sky burster is the probable etymology but it must be understand that sailing to other islands was a cultural norm and so its translation as foreigner is quite warranted.

As for mutual intelligibility, I find 'Uvean difficult as it contains features of both Tongic and Nuclear Polynesian...so I have a hard time trying to decipher what is being said.

I find Tuvaluan and Tokelauan easier to understand than Uvean.
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 » 2013-04-29, 23:45

Given the small number of Wallisian speakers, I believed there was no fiction movie or TV series with characters speaking in faka'uvea. But I was wrong ! Today I found a funny episode of a Caledonian webTV series, called "Les Deux", featuring an old Wallisian woman ! :) (By the way, for those who learn French this is quite simple to understand and you''ll discover the accent and the expressions of Caledonian French !).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtfpvCZbKOE

Hobbz, a young man, has met Dorothée, a French girl from Toulouse recently arrived in New Caledonia. She has given him a wrong number and instead of calling at her home, he calls a Wallisian grandmother (There are aprox. 25 000 Wallisians and Futunans in Caledonia, more than in Wallis and Futuna). As she picks up the phone, she ask "kotea ?" ("what ?") and then shouts back in French (but with her thick wallisian accent) "il n'y a pas de Dorothée ici" ("there is no Dorothée here !").
When Hobbz calls again, she responds quite angrily in Wallisian "E mole [i ai] he Tolote i heni !" ("There is no Dorothée here !")
(mole expresses negation, he i ai = there is, i heni = here, and Tolote is the transliterated form for Dorothée (the D becomes T and the r becomes l)).

The third time, the Wallisian grandma litteraly goes insane and says : "E ke logo tuli mole he Tolote i heni, kai ta'e !"
According to the dictionnary, tuli means deaf, and logo, in that case, means to hear > E ke logo tuli = are you deaf ?!
Ta'e means shit, and kai = to eat, so litterally "kai ta'e" means "eat your shit !" :lol:
E ke logo tuli mole he Tolote i heni, kai ta'e ! = are you deaf or what ! No Dorothée here, f**k off !

After this, his friends comes over and asks about the girl (you can hear some typical expressions from New Caledonia, that I did not even understand completely). Later Dorothée chats with her friends, who suggest she should learn a bit of her crush's language. ("si tu veux vraiment lui faire plaisir, tu devrais lui dire des mots dans sa langue" = if you really want to be nice to him, you should tell him some words in his language").
When Dorothée calls back Hobbz, she welcomes him with Wallisian curse words (pronounced with her Toulousain accent, not the right pronunciation at all ! :lol: ) : [might not be the exact transcription !] "pia ilo (elo ?)", "mata siko", "fu'i laho"

Unfortunately I have no idea what they mean, but in the comments some Wallisians complained about them being too harsh and too shocking. Then Hobbz says he's not Wallisian but from Lifou (a place in New Caledonia) and Dorothée realizes she has been pricked :lol:
(this series also mocks the "z'oreilles", French people who come from metropolitan France to new Caledonia, ignoring everything of this region [French overseas territory by the way], like Dorothée)

Anyway, it's always nice to see minority languages such as Faka'uvea being used in modern TV series ! Especially in Caledonia where use of the language is declining very fast among the community itself. (and sorry for the long post, hope you enjoyed :) )
Last edited by melski on 2013-11-18, 8:19, 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
Posts:1130
Joined:2012-02-17, 1:13
Location:Nantes
Country:FRFrance (France)

Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2013-06-03, 10:01

Kaiga o Unilang, malo si'i kataki :)
I'm back for more Wallisian today !

A few weeks ago, I just finished my 120 pages research paper on Wallisian and Futunan migration to France, which was also one of my main reasons for learning Wallisian.
I had the opportunity to be interviewed by French TV France Ô to talk about my research and speak in faka'uvea with one of my Wallisian friends ! E fo'i lelei osi :)
Enjoy :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHfJSkLpEC8

The video is in French with English subtitles. It has been sent to Wallis and Futuna TV, I'll post the Wallisian version of this report as soon as possible !

The sentence I'm saying in this short sequence (there may be mistakes !)
[flag=]wls[/flag]"I te lea faka'uvea, e faigafua palalau. Ka e faigata'a te'u kupu. E tonu ke au ako te'u kupu fuli. E mole ohage te'u lea Eulopa"
[flag=]en[/flag] It's easy to speak Wallisian. But the words are difficult. I have to learn all the words. It's not like European languages"
(which they translated as "It's easy to speak Wallisian, but some words are very difficult. I have to practice everyday, because it's not like European languages")
Last edited by melski on 2013-11-18, 8:25, 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)

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

Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2013-06-07, 12:09

Here is the Wallisian version of the news report, in which you can hear me speak some Wallisian :)
I would never have believed I would be featured on Wallis and Futuna TV ! :D
If you are motivated, you can achieve much and learn even minority languages with very few resources such as Wallisian :wink:
Wallisian transcription, French and English subtitles (might not be the exact translation since I translated from the French version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x071ktx9-xg
................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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