Wallisian (faka'uvea)

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Lauren
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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby Lauren » 2013-06-07, 16:55

Very cool, melski! :D
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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2013-06-07, 20:36

Thanks Lowena ! Very cool indeed, and a great opportunity to promote Wallis and Futuna and faka'uvea !
................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 melski » 2013-06-30, 12:43

Malo everyone, back for more Wallisian today :)
I recently had a chat with a Wallisian who explained me many things in faka'uvea :

Comparative - how to say "better"
lelei : good
e lelei ia age >> better

E lelei ia age te ma'uli i Palesi i te ma'uli ae i Niumea : life is better in Paris than in Nouméa
(ma'uli : life ; Palesi : Paris, Niumea : Nouméa [capital of New Caledonia])
This phrase is said by someones who has been living in Paris for a long time and compares the quality of living, the lifestyle of the city.

But if you were a tourist visiting Paris, you would say : "e si malie age te ma'uli i Palesi i te ma'uli ae i Niumea" or "e matalelei ia age te ma'uli i Palesi i te ma'uli ae i Niumea"

And talking about the cost of living, you would say : "e totogi lelei ia age te ma'uli i Palesi i te ma'uli i Niumea" (the cost of living is cheaper in Paris than in Noumea)
totogi : to pay, to buy
totogi lelei : cheap / totogi kovi : expensive

E lelei ia age te palalau fakahaga tonu i te palalau i te fasipuke : talking face to face is better than talking on facebook
palalau : to speak / te palalau : the conversation, the act of speaking (the verb becomes a noun there. You can't say "e lelei ia age palalau")
fakahaga tonu : face to face
te fasipuke : Facebook

You see that the two nominal propositions are separated by the particle "i"
"e lelei ia age (noun) i (noun)"

He also told me a children's rhyme to learn the Wallisian alphabet :

Ki li mi ni pi si ti vi
Ka la ma na pa sa ta va
Ko lo mo no po so to vo
Ke le me ne pe se te ve
Ku lu mu nu pu su tu vu


: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)

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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2013-06-30, 22:28

One of the most interesting features of Wallisian is that it does not have the verb to be nor to have. Therefore, it uses other grammatical constructions. Here is an in-depth explanation :

[flag=]wls[/flag] expressing to be in Wallisian [flag=]wls[/flag]

When the complement is an adjective, the construction is very simple :
e au masiva : I am poor
(e PRESENT) (au I) (masiva poor)
e lahi te fale : the house is big
(e PRESENT) (lahi big) (te ART) (fale house)
E au papalagi : I am a papalagi (European)
E natou uvea : they are Wallisian

but it can become quite complex :
Ne’e faigafua pe ne’e faigata’a tou ako o te faka’uvea ? : Was it difficult or easy for you to learn Wallisian ? (literally, "Was your learning of Wallisian easy or difficult ?")
(ne'e PAST) (faigafua easy) (pe or) (ne'e PAST) (faigata'a difficult) (tou your) (ako learn) (o of) (te ART) (faka'uvea Wallisian)

When the complement is a noun, the construction is different :
Ko Uvea ko te motu : Wallis (Uvea) is an island (motu).
notice the repetition of the presentative "ko"
Ko Uvea ko te motu matalelei : Wallis is a beautiful (matalelei) island (motu)
ko te fafine aeni ko te fafine uvea : this woman is Wallisian (gloss would be "that's the woman there that's the woman wallisian").

Ko is used in many constructions, such as this one :
Ne'e au felave'i mo Soane ko te tama uvea i te kolo ko Palesi : I met Soane (John), a Wallisian guy, in Paris.
(ne'e PAST) (au I) (felave'i "to meet") (mo with) (Soane Soane) (ko "this is") (te ART) (tama boy) (uvea Wallisian) (i in) (te ART) (kolo city) (ko "this is") (Palesi Paris)

Last case : locative
E au i Palesi : I am in Paris
Ne'e i Falani ia Malia : Malia (Mary) was in France
(ne'e PAST) (i "locative preposition") (Falani France) (ia ERG) (Malia Mary)
Like English, Wallisian has two locative prepositions :
i : in
ki : to
e au alu ki Uvea : I go to Wallis. E au nofo i Falani : I live in France.
Ne'e ke alu kifea ? Where did you go ? E ke nofo ifea ? Where do you live ?
Last edited by melski on 2013-11-18, 0:04, 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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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2013-06-30, 23:35

Expressing to have in Wallisian

There are two ways of expressing possession in faka'uvea :

1) using e i ai
"e i ai" is similar to French "il y a", Portuguese "" or German "es gibt" (therefore it's different from ko).

‘e i ai taku motoka : I have a car ("there is my car")
taku : my ; motoka : car
‘e i ai ‘onatou puaka : they have pigs (puaka)
‘e i ai to ma'u kaume'a fakatahi : we have common friends (speaking of someone)
kaume'a : friends, fakatahi : together

You can also express negation with this construction + mole :
‘e mole i ai haku motoka : I don't have a car (litt. "There is not my car")

‘e i ai is widely used in Wallisian.
‘e i ai te me’a kai faka’uvea mo te me’a kai fakapapalagi i te fale kai : "there is Wallisian food and French food in the restaurant", = they serve Wallisian and French food.
me'a kai : food
fale kai : restaurant ("food house")
(I tried to do the glossing but somehow it did not work)

It may look easy at first glance, but in fact it's difficult because you have to learn all the personal pronouns ! (and there's a ton in Wallisian, 67 precisely !)

2) Using ko
There is another construction, mostly used for kinship/family links, whith ko :

Ko toku tehina e tahi : I have one brother
tehina : brother [of the same gender than me] ; tahi : one
Ko 'aku lelue e tolu : I have got three bicycles
lelue : biclye ; tolu : three. 'aku is another 1st person personal pronoun.
In this context, "e" is not the particle for present tense, but a numeral particle.
Last edited by melski on 2014-02-07, 20:38, 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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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2013-07-04, 0:25

Let's work a bit on native content :) (after all this grammar, let's have some fun !)
Here is a poster for the 2013 Pacific minigames that will take place in Wallis and Futuna this September.
Image
Written both in French and Wallisian, it's an invitation for all the young volunteers to gather on July 6th for a big event, and for those who haven't volunteered yet to join.
"deviens volontaire" (become a volunteer) is the slogan in French.

Here is the translation of the Wallisian sentences :
"Fakatahi ate kau volontaires" : together to the volunteers (?) (= let's all go to the volunteer gathering)
Notice the codeswitching, using the French word "volontaires" (I don't know if there's a Wallisian equivalent).

E faka'afe'i atu kotou fuli ne'e tohi o kotou higoa mo kotou fuli e fia kau ki te Volontaires o te faigao'i !"
= [we] invite all [those] of you who have registered and all of you who would like to participate as a volunteer for the preparation [of the minigames]

The sentence structure is very interesting, let's break it down and do the glossing :
"e faka'afe'i atu kotou fuli ne'e tohi o kotou higoa"
(e PRES) (faka'afe'i invite) (atu "to you") (kotou youPL) (fuli all) (ne'e PAST) (tohi write)(o of) (kotou your) (higoa name)
"We invite all those of you who have registered"
to register is translated as "to write your name"[on the registration paper].

"mo kotou fuli e fia kau ki te Volontaires o te faigao'i"
(mo and) (kotou youPL) (fuli all) (e PRES) (fia want) (kau participate) (ki to) (te the) (Volontaires volunteers) (o of) (te the) (faigao'i preparation)
"and all those of you who want to volunteer for the preparation"

Notice that in both cases the relative preposition isn't introduced by any preposition (nor any punctuation). However, the verb is always preceded by the verbal preposition (e, ne'e) that indicates present or past.
Kau is another tricky word, since it has multiple meanings. As a name, it indicates an "alignment", or a great countable quantity (te kau Uvea : the Wallisian (people) ; te kau solia : (all the) soldiers, te kau papalagi : Europeans, etc.). However, here it's a verb that means "to join in, to participate in". As always, Polynesian words have various meanings depending of their grammatical function !

On the left, we can read "Polokalama", a translitteration of the French word "programme"
Polokalama : programm
- fakahinohino o te gaue a te volontaires : explanation of the work of the volunteers
- fakahinohino o te atu Komisio fuli pea mo te'u gaue : explanation/presentation of the commission and of the works
- tohi higoa ki te ako gaue : inscriptions for the training [that will be provided to the volunteers] (gloss : write name to the learn work)

fakahinohino : to teach, to explain (surprisingly, K. Rensch in his 1984 dictionary mentions it as archaïc !)
gaue : work

Some words are not separated (ate, ote, ite, kite, etc.) but they are distinct words (a te, o te, ki te). This is very common in colloquial writing.

The last line announces the date of the event :
"Moeaki Aho 6 o Sulio, mai te hola 8 ki te 11 uhu, i te Lycee o WF"
= Saturday June, 6th from 8 AM to 11 AM at the Wallis and Futuna high school

Here as well there's some French words : Lycée (but here they removed the accent, Lycee). A Wallisian transliteration could be lise ; faka'uvea only has a general word for school, "fale ako" [house-learn]). WF means Wallis et Futuna, while the Wallisian version is "Uvea mo Futuna".
Moeaki : Saturday ; literally, "the day before" (Sunday, of course !) (French "la veille").
6 is "ono" in faka'uvea.

Let's see how Wallisian expresses time and date :
(Moeaki saturday) (Aho day) (6 6) (o of) (Sulio July), (mai from) (te ART) (hola hour) (8 8) (ki to) (te ART) (11 11) (uhu morning), (i at) (te ART) (Lycee high-school) (o of) (WF Wallis-and-Futuna)

As always, sorry for the long post, but I'm sure some of you at Unilang find these explanations helpful so as to compare faka'uvea to other Polynesian languages :)
Hoki toe piga pe i he tahi temi ! See you next time for more Wallisian :)
................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 melski » 2013-07-13, 1:34

Malo eveyone !
Learning languages should be fun :) I recently stumbled upon this website which has pretty good language related quizzes. I thought I'd make one for Wallisian (probably the first ever on the internet :lol: ).
I've put only the most common and basic words.
So here it is, try to guess as many Wallisian words as you can and have fun !

http://www.jetpunk.com/user-quizzes/463 ... sian-words
................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 ego » 2013-07-28, 23:00

This is wonderful. Wallisian is so close to Tongan. Most words are similar; I can even understand the sentences. Thanks melski!

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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2013-08-02, 12:31

ego wrote:This is wonderful. Wallisian is so close to Tongan. Most words are similar; I can even understand the sentences. Thanks melski!


Thank you for your interest, Ego ! I think faka'uvea and fakatonga are 80% similar, and Wallisian borrowe extensively from Tongan during the Tongan invasion and occupation of Uvea.
The relations between Uveans and Tongans were not always friendly. The oral tradition of Uvea relates the episode of the Lomipeau: to impress the Tongan prince, Wallisians built a big canoe (vaka) and brought it to Tonga. A song has been made out of this legend:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXpINIZZ6mM

tapu age mo te hau kua toka,
mo aliki fuli kua katoa,
kau viki te vaka nee logona,
ko te fuka o uvea katoa,
mole matou viki fuli atu,
te uhiga o te lomipeau,
tahi hina kupu e matou mau,
moo fakamaholo palalau,

pea tali leva 'e te kau toa,
ke ta he vaka ke 'alu ki toga,
'o tauhi ai ke logologona,
kote fuka 'o 'uvea katoa,
tau ki toga pea talu ai,
sii kii vaka fakatautagi,
kae tou talatuku aki mai,
sii toa pea mo te fia lahi,

nee alu leva sii tama toa,
o kole ke heka i te vaka toga,
Pea mole tali kua lainoa,
Hake tagi ai i loto 'ahoa,
Hau Tahitala mo siana tagi,
Ki tana fae pea ita ai,
Tahitala hake ki tau tamai,
Ke ta he vaka keke 'alu ai.

Pea tali leva e tana tamai,
Ke ta he vaka fakatautagi,
Na vaelua taki tahi fai,
Vaka te fae vaka te tamai,
Too la talavou kae ke hola,
Sii toko pea mo te tanoa,
Koena pe e tuku I toga,
Nee to moo ona fakailoga

I have the French translation, I'll try to translate it into English and put the English version in the next post. Stay tuned !
................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 ego » 2013-08-03, 18:59

Mālō e vīteo, 'oku mālie 'aupito! 'Oku totonu ke ta lea he lea faka-Tongá/'Uveá kitaua!

'Oku vave mo'oni ho'o ako leá, 'okú ke 'osi lava 'o lea faka-Uveá! Na'á ku ako e lea fk-Tongá ka kuo 'osi ngalo 'iate au. Ko e lea faka'ofo'ofa mo'oni. 'Okú ke ako 'i he 'univēsití 'i Falanisē?


Thanks for the video, it's great! We two must speak in Tongan/Uvean!

You learn the language really fast, you can already speak Uvean! I have studied Tongan but I've already forgotten it. It's a really beautiful language. Do you study at the uni in France?

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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby ego » 2013-08-03, 19:08

Btw, if I understand the video from Wallis TV correctly, the newscaster says that you speak English, French, Italian, and German, right? Wow. It's funny that she calls you (?) tama matapule! Matāpule is a lower rank chief title in Tonga

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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2013-08-05, 10:22

Malo aupito Ego ! E au fiafia i taku sio e i ai te'u haha'i e fia ilo'i te faka'uvea :)
E mole au lava palalau te lea fakatoga pea kua faigata'a taku mahino o te mea ne'e ke tohi mai. Ka ne'e au alu ki te pasina "Tongan for beginners" pea lahi taku mahino o te lea fakatoga !
Ei, ko au te papalagi i te video aeni o te televisio o Uvea mo Futuna. E au palalau te'u lea e nima, ka e mole au potolelei i te fakasiamani, fakapolotukale mo te faka'uvea, e tonu ke lahi taku ako !
I te temi nei, e au ako ki te univēsití i Falanise (ko te ta'u e fa o taku ako)
Ko "matapule" i te faka'uvea ko "chief" pe ko "stranger" : "tama matapule" = "young stranger"

Hoki toe piga pe i he tahi temi ! :D


Thanks a lot Ego ! I'm so happy to see people interested in Wallisian :)
I can't speak Tongan and it was a bit hard understanding what you wrote me, but I looked at the page "Tongan for beginners" and it really improved my understanding of Tongan !
Yes, I am the "papalagi" (European) in the video of Wallis and Futuna TV. I speak five languages, but I can't speak German, Portuguese and Wallisian very well, I have to study a lot !
Right now I'm studying at the university in France (I'm currently in my 4th year).
In faka'uvea, "Matapule" translates to "chief" but also to "stranger" : "tama matapule" means "young stranger"

See you soon ! (litterally "speak to you soon") :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)

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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby ego » 2013-08-06, 11:40

'Oiauē, na'e mahino lelei 'aupito ho'o tohí! 'Oku 'ikai ke fakakehekehe lahi e lea fk-Uveá mei he lea fk-Tongá! Pea 'okú ke poto mo'oni he lea faka-Uveá, mālie, mālie!! 'Oku fakafiefia 'aupito e lau ho'o ngaahi tohí. Ka 'oku 'ikai te u kei poto he lea fk-Tongá :(

'Okú ke ako hā 'i he 'univēsití? Ko e ngaahi leá?

Ko e matāpule 'i he lea faka-Tongá ko e kau hou'eiki 'oku nau fai e ngaahi fekaú ma'a e kau nōpelé. Koe'uhi ko ia na'á ku kata ka ne ka pehē e newscaster ko e matāpule koe! Ka 'oku mahino kiate au he taimí ni.

Wow, your message was easily understandable! Tongan and Uvean are not very different. And you're really good in Uvean, well done! It's enjoyable reading your messages. But I am not so good in Tongan :(

What do you study at the uni? Languages?

In Tongan a matāpule is a chief (low rank chief), who does the errands for the nobles. That's why I laughed when the newscaster said you are a matāpule. But I understand now

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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2013-11-06, 13:34

Malo te ma'uli mo te kataki kia kotou fuli !!! (Hello everyone !)
I haven't updated this thread for a long time, since I was very busy with studies. I have now moved to Italy, but I'm still learning Wallisian via the internet, and using all the materials I have collected. Even with no native speaker to talk to , you can still learn a language with a computer and an internet connection. Amazing, isn't it ?

But fist of all, I'd like to share with you a major milestone I have reached two months ago : speaking with a Wallisian monolingual speaker ! :partyhat:
I met and old Wallisian grandmother who only speaks wallisian - and we managed to have a 30-minutes conversation together !
It was also an amazing moment of intercultural and inter-generation communication. While I was struggling to make complex phrases and keep the flow, she adapted her language as if she was talking to a child - very slow (mamalie), very easy (faigafua) to understand :)
We used a book with many photographs of Wallis and Futuna (the excellent "Ko Uvea mo Futuna" by Photographer Jean François Marin), and she would point out the peoples, the trees, the houses, ... and say the word in Faka'uvea. What a better lesson can you have ? :D
Image
(you can see the photos on his website)

I have also been keeping in touch with my Wallisian friends over the internet, and I've recently contacted a wallisian teacher who sent me some of her faka'uvea lessons ! :D

With all that, I think I've managed to maintain my level in wallisian and learned many other interesting aspects of the language, that I'll share in future posts. Stay tuned for more faka'uvea !

Hoki toe piga pe i he tahi temi !(talk to you soon)
Ofa atu !
................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)

Juliana Sagaga
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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby Juliana Sagaga » 2014-01-03, 13:33

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.

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Re: Wallisian (faka'uvea)

Postby melski » 2014-01-07, 20:21

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.


Talofa and fa'afetai for your message ! fa'amalie atu, ou le iloa le gagana samoa (sorry, I don't speak Samoan and I hope I did not butchered your language !)
It's nice to see there are also wallisian speakers in New Zealand :) If you have any story of Uvea I'd love to hear some !
................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 » 2014-02-06, 13:34

Hello everyone, it's been some time since I did not study Wallisian or have a conversation in faka'uvea, but I have started adding Wallisian (and futunan) words into the French Wiktionary.

See them here : https://fr.wiktionary.org/wiki/Cat%C3%A9gorie:wallisien
................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 » 2014-02-07, 23:31

Wiktionary is taking a lot of time, but the result is great ! So far, I have compiled more than 30 words in Wallisian and in other Polynesian languages.
(see "fenua" for instance where I tried to include as many Polynesian languages as possible - and it's not finished !)

As for faka'uvea goes, linguist Claire Moyse-Faurie has recorded and put online a lot of tales and stories in Wallisian. All are provided with a French translation and glossing, alongside with the recording of the native speaker !
>>> Read and listen to stories and tales in Wallisian
................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 » 2014-02-09, 23:56

Had some online chat in wallisian today, here is a sentence that my Wallisian friend translated and that I'd like to share :

"speaking multiple languages is an asset for learning foreign languages"
= Ko te palalau o ni'u lea e lahi kohe tokoni lelei aia kite ako o te'u lea o te malamanei


(ko presentative) (te the) (palalau to.speak) (o of) (ni'u several) (lea language) (e NUM) (lahi big) (ko presentative) (he indef.article) (tokoni help) (lelei good) (aia EMPH)
(ki to) (te the) (ako learn) (o of) (te'u ART.PL) (lea language) (o of) (te the) (malamanei world)
(litt. "the speaking of several many languages is an help in the learning of the languages of the world").

Some interesting constructions :
    - the verb is rendered into a noun (te palalau, te ako) - this is mandatory in Wallisian. Note how tiny the difference between a verb and a noun is. As linguist Claire Moyse-Faurie says, the grammatical function of a word can only be inferred through context.

    - "foreign languages" is translated as "languages of the world"

    - when dealing with numbers, the particle e is used. Ko te'u lea e lua : two languages. Ko ni'u lea e lahi : many languages.

    - some orthography variants (this is informal writing, not the "official" orthography with macrons, all glottal stops (ʻ)). Informal : kite, ote, kohe, etc. "official" : ki te, o te, ko he, etc. Those are separate words that tend to be merged by native speakers.
................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 » 2014-06-20, 8:46

It's been a long time since I haven't updated this thread, and quite franky I haven't been able to maintain a regular pace in learning wallisian these past months.

However, I'm back for some Wallisian today :)
Today I'd like to introduce directional particles : mai, atu, age, ifo, ake.
Those are extremely important and shape almost evey Wallisian sentence. Mai and atu are very common among other Polynesian languages as well.

Mai : "to me" / towards the speaker / from.
Atu : "to you" / away from speaker.
Age : "to him/her/them / away from both speaker and interlocutor.
Ifo : downwards.
ake : upwards


Mai
E au liliu mai Falani : I return from France.
E au liliu ki Uvea : I return to Wallis.
(liliu: to return, come back)
E au nofo ovi mai pe Niumea : I live close to Nouméa. (nofo: to live)
Te vakalele mai Niusila : The plane from New Zealand.

Mai is also used as an accusative 1st person pronoun:
Kaiga o Uvea mo Futuna, fakalogo mai : people of Uvea mo Futuna, listen to me.
Telefoni mai : phone me / paui mai : call me.

But it is fare more used than in English:
E i ai te gaue i te fale koloa ... sio mai ! : There is work at the shop... have a look (come [towards me] to see)!

Atu
E au palalau atu : I speak to you.
On Facebook, someone recently wrote me :
Tuku mai pe koe he "message" ki taku FB, peau (pea au) tali atu
= (You) send me a message to my Facebook, and I (will) answer you.
Tuku : to send, tali : to answer.
(Tuku send) (mai "to me") (pe EMPH) (koe you) (he a) (message message) (ki to) (taku my) (FB Facebook), (pea and) (au I) (tali answer) (atu "to you")
E au faka'afe atu ki te katoaga : I'm inviting you to the katoaga (traditional feast). faka'afe : invite.
Ne'e au paui atu ki fale : I called you home.

Combining mai, atu, age
E au fakamalo atu ki tou ofa mai : I thank you for helping me

E au momoli atu ‘ia te pake | hoki ke ma’u | pea ke liufaki mai te kalatō | hoki au foaki age ki ‘ou kaume’a mokā omai
= I'm sending you a package| when you receive it | send me back the box | that I will give to your friends (age : to them) when they come.
(E PRES) (au I) (momoli send) (atu "to you") (ia ERGATIVE) (te the) (pake package)
(hoki when.FUTURE) (ke you) (ma'u take) (pea and) (liufaki "send back") (mai "to me") (te the) (kalato box)
(hoki FUTURE) (au I) (foaki give) (age "to them") (ki to) ('ou your.PL) (kaume'a friend)(moka when) (omai come.PL)

Malo pe mo si vaevae mai o te'u logo ki o tatou ki'i motu :
= Thank you for sharing with us the news of our little island. (litt. Thank for the sharing to us of the news of our little island)
(Malo thanks) (pe EMPH) (mo for) (si the) (vaevae share) (mai "to me") (o of) (te'u the.PL) (logo news) (ki of) (otatou our) (ki'i little) (motu island)
>> here, mai is rendered with a plural in English.

As you can see, atu, mai and age do not always have a litteral translation in English. They are far more used than in Indoeureopean languages, because Polynesian languages always indicate the relationship between the speaker and other people.

One hardly translatable expression is Ofa atu. Ofa : love, atu : "to you" as we saw. It litteraly means "love to you" an is a farewell greeting (more formal than tata, "bye").
The thing is, you can complexify the expression :
Ofa atu mai Falani : "goodbye from France"
Ofa atu kia koe ki Uvea mai Falani ! : "greetings to you (kia koe : to you) in Wallis from France !"
Why use kia koe? Here it reinforces the meaning.
Now consider this sentence :
Ofa atu kia kotou fuli pe : Greetings to all of you (kotou fuli pe : you all)

On the other hand, ofa mai : help me !
Aliki ofa mai : Lord help me
fakama'uli matou mai te kovi : deliver us from evil (Lord's prayer)
(fakama'uli deliver) (matou us.INCL) (mai from) (te the) (kovi evil)

Now let's make things even more complex (and thus interesting 8-) )
A sentence like "Mole au faka'aga au tau mole tali mai" means
"I do no criticize (faka'aga) your absence of answer" (litt. "I do not criticize your not responding to me") (I do not blame you for not answering me).
(Mole NEG) (au I) (faka'aga criticize) (au I) (tau your) (mole NEG) (tali answer) (mai "to me")

Ifo and ake

ifo : downards (i.e. towards a speaker located downwards)
Faiga’i ke ke fakakau ifo ki tai o felāve’i mo ia.
Try to go down to the coast to meet him.
(faiga'i try) (ke that) (ke you) (fakakau go(?)) (ifo down) (ki to) (tai sea) (o to) (felave'i meet) (mo with) (ia him)

Ko nātou mai Futuna, | hoki olo age pē anai i te mōnite.
Those from Futuna | are coming (to meet him) on Monday (monite)

This one is very interesting, let's break it down:
Ne’e lea ake Sesū mai te falemaka ki te haha’i ...
Jesus said to the people, who were above the tomb ...
(Ne'e PAST) (lea say) (ake upwards) (Sesu Jesus) (mai from) (te the) (falemaka tomb) (ki to) (te the) (haha'i people)

Conclusion
In conclusion, see how useful those particles are:
E sio mai te faiako : the teacher is looking at me
E sio atu te faiako : the teacher is looking at you
(sio : to look at, faiako : teacher)

fakakoho atu te motoka! : Back the car up! (towards you)
fakakoho age te motoka! : Back the car up! (towards him/away from us)
fakakoho mai te motoka! : Back the car up! (towards me)
................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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