Idea Transcript
THE
NIUEAN AN
LANGUAGE;
ELEMENTARY
GRAMMAR
AND
BASIC
VOCABULARY
Graeme Whittaker
ii
Funded by the Australian Cultural Fund for the Preservation and Development of Pacific Cultures
N.Z, & PAGHC
D a / - 21 University of the South Pacific Niue Centre Alofi Niue 1982
Ill
FOREWORD
Our sincere thanks go to Mr Whittaker for his efforts to preserve in written form the Niuean language. To those Niueans who assisted him I also express thanks: monuina and fakaaue lahi mahaki. It was a great pleasure for me to assist in the correction of the proofs.
I am sure this volume will
help those readers who wish to know more about our language and unique way of life.
My best wishes go out
for the success of this publication. Kia monuina a mutolu oti.
Leslie Richmond Rex MBE J.P. Government Translator 18.11.1981
V ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS KO E FAKAMAAMAAGA KE HE ALITO HE TOHI NEI MO E TAU TAGATA KUA LOGAMATAI MAI KI AI Fakaalofa lahi atu ke_he ha mutolu a tau lilifu ko e tau takitaki he motu ko Niue mo e moto tagata o£i foki he Motu Tutaha. Kua manako lahi au he fakamaamaaga nei ke talahau atu po ke heigoa e kakano ne tohi ai e au e tohi nei. Ne hoko mai au ki Niue nei ke lata mo e ono nl e faahi tapu ko e lali ke fakaako au ke he vagahau fakaniue ke maeke əi ke logamatai aki haaku a gahua fakaekekafo he vaha ka hau he uho he tau tagata Niue kua tatakoto he tau fale gagao i Okalana ka e ai maama mitaki a lautolu ke he vagahau faka-Pelitania. Haia, ne kumi mai ai a au e tau^tohi ke lagomatai aki^haaku a fakaako ke he vagahau Niue ka e ai fai. Gata ni he tohi kupu ne tohi e J.M. McEwen^ko e "Niuean Dictionary". Ko e tohi ia ne fakaaoga tumau e au ti pehe ai a au ka ne ai fai "Niuean Dictionary" a au, ne teitei mua atu e uka he lali haaku ke vagahau fakaniue £i pihia ni foki mo e gahua nei ke tau£e. Ka ko_e puhala mua makimaki atu he mitaki ne fakaaoga a au ko e fa fakamatutaki tumau mo e tau tagata Niue lali fakamakaukau ai au ke talahau fakaNiue. Haia, kua nakai fakatokoluga au ke pehe atu ko e tama pulotu au ke he vagahau ka ko e tau kupu he tohi nei kua iloa e au. Ko e mena ia kua manako ai au ke tokutoku atu e tau higoa he tau tagata kua logamatai lahi mahaki mai ke maeke ai haaku a gahua nei. Ko e tagata palagi ko Tom Ryan ne fakaohooho e ia a au ke kamata e gahua nei ke lagomatai aki e kau papalagi oti kana_kua fia manako a lautolu ke fakaako ke he vagahau f aka Niue. Ki a Tom mo haana a hoana ko Debbie kua manako au ke tuku atu e "fakaaue lahi mahaki ki a mua". Ko Pokotoa Sipeli mai i Liku, Lagavalu Haioti mai i Alofi, Ikinepule Etuata mai i Hakupu, Maihetoe Hekau mai i Alofi mo Hafe Vilitama mai i Mutalau ne fakahakohako e lautolu e falu a kupu he tohi nei ti "fakaaue lahi ai ki a mutolu" " Ka ko e tapunu he lagomatai mai ke he tohi nei, ko e tagata Liku ko Iki Vemoa Tuputoga mo e haana a hoana ko Famili mo e magafaoa ha laua foki. Ne leveki fakamitaki e lautolu a au he nonofo fakalataha a mautolu ne lata mo e ono e faahi tapu ti tali mata fiafia foki a lautolu haaku a_fa ole ki a lautolu ke fakamaama mai e tau kupu fakaNiue loga mo e tau matapatu he kalama foki. Kua ai fai kupu ke lata mo a loto fiafia kua logona e au ka ke fakakite ki a lautolu aki e "Oue tulou makimaki".
vi
Ka ko e gahua mua ue atu he mitaki ke tauteufce fakahiku_e gahua nei ke he vagahau fakaNiue, ne taufce e ha laua a na lilifu ko Young Vivian ko e Ikipule he Faahi Fakaako Tama mo Leslie Rex ko e Tagata Liliu Vagahau he Fakatufono. Ne |ei|ei hepehepe e falu a tau kavi he tohi nei_ka ko e lagomatai mitaki ha Young mo Leslie ki ai. "Oue tulou atu ki a mua, ma Young mo Leslie". Kua lata tonu foki ke talahau atu e lagomatai lahi mai he U.S.P. Extension Services Centre i Halamahaga mo e na takitaki ai ko Jan Bundy mo Rod Spooner. Haia, ne logamatai lahi mahaki mai e Centre ia ke maeke ke lomi mai ma tautolu e tohi nei, ti manako ai au ke vagahau atu ke he tau tagata mo e tau flfine oti ne gahua ma e tohi nei, "fakaaue lahi mahaki ki a mutolu oti". Ki he tau tagata Liku fakalulapu mo e tau tagata o|;i kana kua langomatai mai ke he haaku a vagahau fakaNiue, kua fia tuku atu e au e "fakaaue lahi makimaki ki a mutolu o%i". Ko e gahua auloa ha tutolu, kua tuga e £iale he mahofi he manamanatuaga haaku. Kia monuina a mutolu.
Graeme Whittaker.
VXi CONTENTS Introduction
Page number
1.
Cardinal Pronouns
5
2.
Nouns
5
3.
Verbs (with subject and object)
8
4.
Verbs (with subject only or object only)
11
5.
Tenses
12
6.
Semi-transitive verbs
12
7.
Adjectives and Adverbs
12
8.
Juxtaposition further examined
13
9.
Possessive Pronouns
13
10.
'No/not/not yet 1
1
14
11.
'To be able
— maeke
15
12.
Possession
15
13.
Verbal Nouns
16
14.
is kix mai3 he^ke
15.
The pronouns ai and ia
17
16.
Some common prefixes and preposed words
18
17.
The conjunction 'and'
20
he3 mai he
1
16
18.
'Because
21
19.
'With'
22
20.
'Although'
22
21.
Location
22
22.
Local nouns
23
23.
Directional Particles
24
24.
Passives
24
25.
Past Participles
26
26.
Intransitive Verbs - Possible Difficulties
26
27.
"Mixed" Transitive/Intransitive Verbs
27
28.
Questions
27
29.
'Whether ... or ... ' and pseudo questions
28
30.
Imperatives
28
31.
Prohibitives
29
32.
Numbers
29
33.
Telling the time
30
34.
Plural noun and verb forms
30
35.
Intensives, comparatives and superlatives
32
36.
'For'
33
37.
-
'Should/Must/Try' and 'Become
8
34
VX11
Contents
(Continued).
Basic Vocabulary
alphabet
page number
& -
39
b -
41 _ 43
c -
44
-
47
d -
48
-
49
e
50
»
51
_
52
-
54
g ~ h -
55
-
56
. 57
-
58
i -
59
j ~ k -
60 61
I -
62
-
63
m -
64
-
65
n -
66
o -
67 _ 68
P -
69
q ~ r -
72
s -
76
t -
83
u -
86
v -
87
w -
88
xyz
-90
f
73
-
40
-
72
-
75 82
-
85
-
89
1
INTRODUCTION The following notes on Niuean grammar will fail to please everybody. Those wishing an exhaustive treatment will find it lacking in some areas. Those wishing linguistic precision may not feel happy about my attempts to avoid excessive linguistic jargon by couching in laym a n ^ terms, where possible, the various comments and explanations. Those hoping for simplicity may be disappointed, as the grammar of any language necessarily involves numerous rules and, alas, exceptions to rules. However, I have attempted to convey a sense of logic underlying certain grammatical constructs which, after all, represent the evolution and refinement of the language over hundreds of years. It is hoped that the reader will gain thereby a certain aesthetic appreciation of the grammar of Niuean. Students of any language are often frustrated because they feel that they are expressing themselves grammatically correctly and yet are still misunderstood. I have endeavoured to show instances where ambiguity and imprecision might arise and the ways that such problems can be avoided. Without being too simplistic, I have dealt with the broad fundamental concepts as well as more specific, but nevertheless very useful, concepts. The choice of what to include and what not to include has been coloured by my own experience in becoming fluent in the Tongan language perhaps the closest Polynesian language to Niuean - as well as by study at University level in the Maori language. Thus those grammatical concepts which I found being continually used as well as those concepts which I had difficulty in grasping, in Tongan, Maori and Niuean, have given a certain experience (some may call it a bias} of what is important enough to include in a brief study of this nature. Lack of a readily available Niuean grammar has been a severe obstacle to many palagis who have tried to learn Niuean, as well as to Niueans who might teach their language but for want of a grammatical work around which they could base their approach. hope that the grammatical notes which follow will enable a palagi to get "off the ground" with the Niuean language, whereupon he/she will be able to make their own way to a more detailed knowledge of the grammar, if desired. Space has not allowed as many examples to be presented as I would have liked, and for this reason it is hoped that the work may be used in conjunction with a Niuean teacher who could furnish further examples to illustrate the various points» This too will rectify the obvious lack in the notes of a detailed guide as to pronunciation of vowels, diphthongs, consonants, etc. There is nothing, after all, like "the real thing" in learning pronunciation.
\
SECTION ONE
THE NIUEAN LANGUAGE: AN ELEMENTARY GRAMMAR
4 The "Niue Dictionary" by J.M. McEwen (referred to occasionally in the notes as "McEwen") also furnishes a concentrated and brief grammar which should be read. Moreover, the many sentence examples supplied throughout the "Niue Dictionary" can be used as examples to test understanding of, and to augment aspects of, Niuean grammar presented in the following pages. McEwen has presented some quite thorough examinations of certain particles and conjunctions (e.g. ka) which I therefore decided to discuss only briefly or to omit entirely in the notes which follow. This work should be used along with McEwen. If you have a desire to learn Niuean strong enough to overcome many initial frustrations* and a sense of enjoyment in mixing with Niuean-speaking Niueans, I trust you r 11 enjoy success in the language. Good luck in your efforts.
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ad j. adv. c. f. con j. e.g. etc.
adjective adverb compare conjunction for example and so on
n. pass. p.p. prep. pron. v. i. v. t.
noun passive form past participle preposition pronoun verb intransitive verb transitive
SPELLING Many Niuean words contain a *tr in spelling, but one finds the rt' being pronounced 's' in conversation. The practice in the following text has been to double underline the *t*s that are pronounced *s' . There are, however, a considerable number of introduced words containing r s r which are customarily spelt with the 's' and hence this spelling is maintained in the text.
Graeme Whi ttaker, Liku, Niue. January 1979.
1 1
5 1.
CARDINAL PRONOUNS
1.1
Cardinal pronouns in Niuean are as follows:
Singular
1.2
I/me
kita
I/me
au
you
koe
he/she/it
i-a
Dual i.e. two
Plural i.e. three or more
us/we
(inclusive)
taua
tautolu
us/we
(exclusive)
rnaua
mautolu
you
mua
mutolu
they
laua
lautolu
Points of clarification:
'Us'/'we' is ambiguous in English and relies on context to solve this problem. In Niuean, if one wishes to include the person(s) spoken to under the term 'we' then the inclusive form is used. But if the person(s) addressed are not included in the 'we' reference then the exclusive form is used. For example, suppose we have X talking to Y and Z onlooking. If X says: l*We shall go now*, meaning X and Z to go but Y to stay, then r we* would translate as the exclusive rnaua. But if X says: "We shall go now" as if ordering Y and Z to go together with X then 'we' would be the inclusive tautolu. 2.
NOUNS
2.1 Consider the English sentence: 1Poko is a schoolteacher' . 'Poko1 is the subject of the sentence while 'is a schoolteacher' is the predicate. The predicate tells us something about the subject. In English the subject usually precedes the predicate, but in Niuean it is most common for subject to follow predicate. 2.2 No noun or pronoun stands alone in Niuean. Every noun or pronoun must be preceded by an article, but the choice of article depends on the position in the sentence.
6 When there is no predicate, but only the subject, in the sentence, Ko or Ko e is used. For example, 'You' translates as Ko koe. *A man* translates as^Ko e tagata. Note that cardinal pronouns and proper nouns immediately follow ko without an intervening article but common nouns are preceded by e after ko. 2.3 Let us now consider sentences with a subject and noun predicate such as 'He is a policeman'. As there is no verb 'to be' in Niuean, such English sentences using 'to be' and its derivatives translate to Niuean by juxtaposing the two nouns (or noun and pronoun) and inserting the correct articles. As mentioned in 2.1 above, the subject usually follows predicate in Niuean so rA policeman he1 is what the Niuean equivalent of 'He is a policeman' would literally translate as. The noun predicate 'A policeman' contains a common noun and so translates as Ko e leoleo. However, the subject no longer stands without the predicate as in 2.2, and a different article from ko or ko e is used. If the subject is a proper noun or cardinal pronoun then a will be used as the article but if the subject is a common noun then e is the article used. Thus we have finally Ko e leoleo a ia — 'He is a policeman'. Toko is a schoolteacher' is Ko e faiaoga a Poko. 'The old man is a pastor' translates as Ko e akoako e fuakau. Note the possible sentence inversions: Ko ia e leoleo — 'The policeman is he'; Ko Poko e faiaoga — 'The schoolteacher is Poko' and Ko e fuakau e akoako — 'The pastor is an old man' . 2.4 In English Ta* is called the indefinite article but 'the' is called the definite article. There is no exact equivalent in Niuean of the English indefinite and definite articles although e is an article which can sometimes be best translated into English using 'a', at other times best translated using 'the *. Consider Ko e leoleo a ia — 'He is a policeman'. The English mind takes 'a policeman' as indefinite but to the Niuean mind the concept is not indefinite for 'He * is clearly not a schoolteacher or roadworker or whatever if 'He is a policeman'. Thus the Niuean mind will not perceive any inconsistency when e is translated as f a' occasionally and 1 the' at other times. This is not to say, however, that there are no degrees of definiteness and indefiniteness in Niuean. The construction examined in 2.3 using Ko + predicate + a (or e) + subject is in some ways indefinite and in some ways definite but by altering the sentence construction slightly, it is possible to give a much greater definiteness to the sentence. We use Ko + predicate + ko + subject. Ko e akoako ko e fuakau 'The old man is the pastor'. Both subject and predicate are stressed more in this sentence to give greater specificity and greater definiteness to both. Alternatively, Ko e fuakau ko e akoako means substantially the same. Remember too that the conversational context how the subject is perceived by the Niuean. Usually information given preceding and following mention of the less indefinite is that subject. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
affects the more the subject, _ _ _ _ _ _ _
7 There is, moreover, the word ni which can follow nouns and pronouns to stress them. For instance Ko e patu fifine nZ —- 'That/this lady* (clear from previous context who is being referred to). Also Ko koe nZ •— 'You yourself r or *You only'. The above methods allow the Niuean to convey . degrees of definiteness just as English speakers rely on different articles, intonation etc. to achieve similar results. 2.5 There is, however, an indefinite article, ha, in Niuean which is used in only a few constructions where the idea of indefiniteness seems to be particularly stressed. For example, Ha mena he tau mena means literally 'A thing among things 1 or 'Anything'. Similarly Ha tagata he tau tagata — 1 anyman'. Ha is by no means the equivalent of the English indefinite article but because its use is not particularly common, we need not consider it further within the scope of this grammar. 2.6 Nouns are described by adjectives just as verbs are described by adverbs. In Niuean, adjectives follow the noun being described (and similarly adverbs follow the verb being described). 'He is a good boy' then becomes Ko e tama taane mitaki a ia, and 'The tall man is a lazy schoolteacher 1 translates as Ko e faiaoga geva e tagata loa. 2.7
Plurals of Nouns
As English usually indicates plurality by addition of r s' to the noun, so a similar method is adopted in Niuean which preposes the word tau to the noun being pluralised. Hence Ko e mohega — 'A/the bed*, but Ko e tau mohega — 'The beds'. The plural 'some/several' is usually expressed using the word fain. Thus Ko e falu a tau mohega — 'Some beds f , although tau is frequently omitted as plurality is already implicit in the word falu : Ko e falu a mohega. You may find, too, further contraction when falu a is condensed to fa la : Ko e fa la mohega. The concept of 'Several' standing alone can a1so be translated as Ko e falu. 2.8
Vocatives
One vocative particle is ma. 1 Mi si, go outside 1' becomes Ma Mi si, fano ki fafol 'Greetings to you, Tavita' -— Fakaa to fa atUj, ma Tavita . It can be seen that in directly addressing a person by his or her name, the vocative is used, whereas articles like ko and a are used in other circumstances. One will often hear Ma kapitiga or Ma feleni being used which translate as 'friend'. There is also a vocative expression na e. _For example,when addressing God in prayers Ko e Atua na e is used.
8 2.9
Nouns and Prepositions - A Preliminary Note
When prepositions (to, at, from, etc.) precede proper nouns (excepting place names) and cardinal pronouns then a appears between the noun or pronoun and the preposition. Ki means 'to' and thus ki a lautolu means 'to them'. When a common noun is used, the article he is inserted between preposition and noun. Mai means 'from', and so 1 from the town' translates as mai he maaga. 14. 3.
Nouns and prepositions are further considered in
VERBS
(with subject and object)
3.0 Tenses: In the following sections on verbs, it will be seen that every Niuean sentence given there starts with the word Ne. This is a tense marker indicating past tense. In English, tense is revealed by the form of the verb, but in Niuean, verb form remains constant while tense is revealed by the special tense markers of which more will be said in 5. 3.1 Verbs are either transitive or intransitive (or occasionally both). Essentially, a transitive verb in English is one where no preposition (at, in, on, etc.) occurs between the verb and the object. I
J I I I i
subject You
saw verb ate
1 John i I object 5
! the food
By contrast an intransitive verb has either: (i) a preposition between the verb and the object: I subject You
I I j ) j
looked verb listened
I at I John ! ! j preposition[ object t f j to \ him
or (ii) a subject only, performing some action: George subject
j ran s \ » verb
3.2 In Niuean, this distinction between transitive and intransitive verbs is important, indeed often crucial, for unambiguous speech. Let's examine transitive verbs first. In the Niuean examples given in this section the subject will be shown circled. The article e is used before cardinal pronouns or proper nouns as subject.
9 Thus 'Liupuhi used the bush-knife' would be: Ne fakaaoga e (Liupuhi)e pelu. 'I used the knife' translates as Ne fakaaoga e (gu} e titipi . Clearly e is used before the subject in such sentences but e is also used before the object in both instances above and it might be thought that ambiguity could thereby arise. True, aural ambiguity can arise under a very few conceivable circumstances (e.g. when a person 1 s name is the same as a common noun), but context is usually sufficient to eliminate difficulties in such rare circumstances. Distinguish, for instance: Ne kitia e(Kuma)e kalahimu —
*Kuma saw the crab *
from Ne kitia e
* Kalahimu saw the rat
e kuma
Let1 s now consider common noun subjects of transitive sentences. An example is: 'The man belted the boy* —r Ne fahi he (tagata)e tama taane. Common noun subjects must be preceded by he. Reasons for using he instead of e should become evident from the following discussion. Consider: 'The man opened the door r . To translate it as Ne hafagi e {tagata)e ha la is wrong and ambiguous, as it is not clear, from considerations of construction alone, which is subject and which is object. Although it is usual for subject to precede object in sentences, this may not happen every time in practice. The correct rendition would be: Ne hafagi he e hala. 3.3 Now what of objects in transitive sentences? In the following few examples the object will be circled. If the object is a common noun, the appropriate article is e as in the example above about the door. But if the object is a cardinal pronoun or a proper noun, then it will be preceded by a. Thus 'She saw Jane' is Ne kitia e ia a (Seini). *Huihui helped them' is Ne lagomatai e Huihui a (Tautolu), and %Peni kissed Meliene' is Ne figita e Peni a (Meliene). Clearly ambiguity is again avoided by the difference between the article for common noun objects and proper noun/cardinal pronoun objects. 3.4 To summarise the above discussion of transitive verbs, we have: proper nouns
cardinal pronouns
common nouns
subject
0
he
object
a
e
Preceding
10 3.5 Let us now turn to consider intransitive verbs. For example, in the sentence 'I spoke to Atofia' — Ne vagahau a au ki a Atofia, 'I' stands as subject and Atofia stands as object. Au as subject, being a cardinal pronoun, is preceded by a, as would a proper noun as subject. Recall that the preposition ki (to) will be followed by a before the proper noun object Atofia. Ki is also followed by a before cardinal pronouns. It may be useful to refer to 14.2 at this juncture. Consider the example: rThe man listened to me' — Ne fanogonogo e tagata ki a au. 'The man' is a common noun subject and is hence preceded by e, and as indicated above, ki is followed by a which precedes the cardinal pronoun object au. Consider also: 'The man beckoned to the ladyr —- Ne alo e tagata ke he fifine. Although the common noun subject is preceded by e as explained previously, the object as a common noun is somewhat different, because ki now changes to ke followed by he preceding fifine (lady). Hence, ke he fifine — 'to the lady'. A further example is: 'Mili stared at the rainbow' — Ne onoono a Mili ke he tagatoa. 3.6 To summarise, we have for intransitive verbs the following;
cardinal pronoun subject object
proper noun a
Cki)
a*
common noun e (ke) he
* Excepting place names, an exception dealt with in 14.1. 3.7 A Cautionary Note; As mentioned previously, some verbs are both transitive and intransitive in the way they are used. Although lagomatai has been used as an example of a transitive verb, one will also hear Niueans use it intransitively, e.g. Ne lagomatai a au ki a Pita. McEwen 1X s t s some verbs as transitive but then gives examples which illustrate intransitive use of that verb, e.g. figita — 'to kiss'. This should emphasise the fact that Niuean is not rigidly fixed, just as all languages have points of flexibility. Similarly, one may intransitive verb is often omitted).. For example, Ne remembered the youth'. Be to the 'rules'.
find that au not preceded manatu au ke prepared for
as subject of an by a (which is he fuata — 'I such 'exceptions'
11 Moreover, the switch from ki before proper nouns and cardinal pronouns to ke preceding common nouns is maintained in written Niuean but in spoken Niuean the difference is not crucial and so both ke he ... and ki he forms are commonly used. In this text ke he will b§ used but one should remember the oral interchange possible with ki he. 3.8 Now that is not the final word on intransitive verbs. Consider, for example, 1 I believed him* where 'to believe1 is transitive in English but intransitive in Niuean. Thus — Ne tua a au ki a ia. Also rHe believed in God1 —- Ne tua a ia ke he Atua. 'God1 is a proper noun in English but grammatically is a common noun (although spelt with a capital letter) in Niuean. Such examples show the need for caution in assuming the grammatical equivalence of English words and their Niuean counterparts, which while generally true, is prone to exceptions which you'11 learn as your study progresses. 4.
VERBS (with subject only or object only)
4.1 Transitive verbs also can be used in sentences where the object only is expressed. 'The plant was uprooted * might translate as Ne taaki e akau, without stating who did the uprooting. Further, transitive verbs may be used to show subject only. Imagine the question, 'Who ate it?', and the reply, 'She ate it'. The Niuean answer would be Ne kai e ia, omitting reference to the object (in this case 'it') because it is understood what the object is. 4.2 Intransitive verbs can be used without necessarily specifying the object (.indeed there may not be an object) , for example, *The policeman ran' — Ne poi e leoleo. The rules concerning the various articles to precede the various types of subject of such intransitive verb sentences are identical to those expressed in the summary table (3.6) above for intransitive verbs. 4.3 Now the crunch comes when we have, for example, Ne hifi e lauulu and Ne fano e tiakono —- 'The hair was cut' and 'The deacon went', respectively. The first sentence is of course transitive; the second is intransitive. Similarly, Ne leveki a Sid and Ne koukou a lose fa — 'Joe was cared for' and 'Joseph was bathing'. Since such sentences are very similar in form, confusion can result if one has to mentally juggle possible meanings to determine whether the verb is transitive or intransitive. As you learn a verb, try to keep a mental note of whether it is transitive or intransitive, and the implications of each as outlined over the last few pages.
1
12 5.
TENSES
5.1 We have examined only past tense sentences so far, in which ne is the tense marker. Future tense is indicated by to. is To fano a ia. r
'He will go'
The present tense is indicated by kua, so that I am listening to him' is Kua fanogonogo a au ki a ia.
And the perfect tense marker is a combination of kua and tuai whereby f as for present tense, kua precedes the verb slot, but tuai immediately follows the verbal part thus: *He has come' — Kua hau tuai a ia. Sometimes tuai is pronounced as tei or tai. 'He has come r might also be stated as Kua hau tei (a ia), the a ia being left out frequently when it is clear who is being referred to. 6.
SEMI-TRANSITIVE VERBS
6.1 A combination of a verb and noun results in what may be best described as a semi-transitive verb/ e.g. inupia (verb + noun) means 'to drink beer'. *Slnia will drink beer' translates as To inupia 'a sZnia. In order of specificity about what will be drunk we have 'Slnia will drink', 'SZnia will drink beer', and 1Sinia will drink the beer'. The first sentence is intransitive and the latter is transitive, so logically the middle one should be called semi-transitive. Note that the semi-transitive verb is treated in exactly the same way as intransitive verbs in terms of determining the article to precede the subject. Some other examples are: fano hui to talo fana peka fagai vine
'to *to 'to 'to
go on foot' plant taro' shoot peka (the flying fox)' pollinate passionfruit flowers'
Semi-transitive verbs are very frequently used. Combinations of verb/semi-transitive verb may also happen, e.g. fano fana peka — 'to go peka hunting'. One sometimes finds too, a verb/verb combination being used, e.g. fano evaeva *>to go visiting and/or wandering'. 7.
ADJECTIVES AND ADVERBS
7.1 Adjectives and adverbs have been dealt with previously in 2.6 but it should also be noted that they can be treated very similarly to intransitive verbs. The concept 'He is a lazy man' might translate as Ko e tagata teva (a ia) or Kua teva e tagata — 'The man is lazy'." Likewise, 'She travelled slowly' — Ne fenoga fakaeneene a iat or, Ne fakaeneene haana a fenoga — * Her travelling was slow' (possessive pronouns are dealt with in 9 .) . ;: •;:: v ^ mim^m/:^
13 8.
JUXTAPOSITION FURTHER EXAMINED
8.1 Sentences can be elaborated further by the following mechanism. Consider 11 saw the man' and 1 He was rod-fishing *. The Niuean equivalents are respectively Ne kigia e au e tagata and Ne ht ika a ia. ' I saw the man rod-fishing' is Ne kiti-a e au e tagata ne hi ika (a ia). It is usually not necessary to repeat the subject a ia as it is understood that ne hi ika refers to e tagata. S urn lar ly the noun phrases studied in 2 may be juxtaposed with verbal phrases. For example, ' The man who came to you . . . ' — Ko e tagata' ne hau ki a koe and by adding, e.g. * is a bad man' — ko e tagata kelea to the former, we have Ko e tagata ne hau ki a koe ko e tagata kelea (a ia). 9.
POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
9.1
The possessive pronouns are as follows: --•
Singular mine/my
ha kita
mine/my
haaku
yours/your his/hers/its
haau haana
Dual
Plural
Note: ha kita is sometimes regarded as a little bit slangy and initially one should use the more common possessive form haaku to mean 'my/mine'
our/ours(inclusive)
ha taua
ha tautolu
our/ours(exclusive)
ha maua
ha mautolu
ha mua
ha mutolu
ha laua
ha lautolu
yours/your theirs/their
Sometimes the following abbreviations are used: ha tautolu to ha talu, ha mautolu to ha malu and ha lautolu to ha lalu. 'My arm' translates as Ko e haaku a lima or Ko e lima haaku. The preposed and postposed forms are almost equivalent. Similarly 'his feet' would translate as Ko e haana a tau hui or Ko e tau hui haana, the word tau indicating plurality. Use in verbal sentences is shown in the following examples: 'I went to his place' — Ne fano a au ke he haana a kaina (or ke he kaina haana). 'My friend uncovered the umu' — Ne fuke he haaku a kapitiga e umu or Ne fuke he kapitiga haaku e umu. ~
9.2 It can be seen that haaku a kapitiga etc. are treated in exactly the same way as common nouns, in terms of the preceding articles used with such constructions standing as subject and object in verbal sentences, both transitive and intransitive. This is not really surprising, for if we consider the statement Ko e tohi haaku -— 'my book' - haaku is here an adjective qualifying tohi, a common noun, and as we have seen, a common noun + adjective combination is still treated like a common noun in sentence construction. However, it will be found that the article e will usually be omitted before preposed possessive pronouns, e.g. Kua auli tei haaku a fZhui loa — 'My trousers have been ironed'. Perhaps the only difference between the preposed and postposed forms is one of definiteness, the preposed form being sometimes taken as slightly more definite than the postposed form. 9.3 You will sometimes hear Niueans using the possessive pronouns as nouns, e.g. ko e haaku •— 'mine' often in response to the question Ko e ha hai? (28.4). Another example is: Tamai haaku 'Bring mine'. Possession is further considered in 12. 10.
NO/NOT/NOT YET
10.1 Negatives of verbs, adjectives, etc., are formed by using the words ai or nakai before the concept being negativised. For example, mitaki — f good 5 is negativised by ai mitaki or nakai mitaki — 'not goodf or 'no good'. 'He didn't come' translates as Ne nakai hau a ia or Ne ai hau a ia. Nakai and ai are interchangeable. Negation of nouns may be done by the following construction: 'He is an old man' translates as Ko e fuakau a ia, but 'He is not an old man' would be Nakai ko e fuakau a ia or Ai ko e fuakau a ia. 'Today is not a beautiful day' —- Ai ko e aho fulufuluola nei. The negative immediately precedes ko in negation of such noun sentences. Note that another possibility for the latter example because of the adjective used is Ko e aho ai fulufuluola nei. However, when 'no' - the opposite of 'yes' - is required, nakai is the word to use; ai cannot stand alone. Naha, although slangy, is often used for 'no' as well. Polite refusals_(of food, etc.) can also be effected by Nakai, fakaaue tulou — 'No thanks very much all the same'. 10.2 Not Yet. Ai la and nakai la (occasionally, however, the latter may be abbreviated to nakala) are the common ways of expressing 'not yet', but almost always appear qualified by an associated verbal expression. Thus, if in answer to the question: 'Has he come yet?' we reply, 'Not yet' in English, the reply in Niuean would translate as 'He's not yet come' — Ai la hau (a ia) , (or Nakai la hau (a ia)) - a fuller response than the English. One may also hear the expression Ai la teitei which translates as ' Not v^-b hut: a 1 most * .
15 How would one translate 'She_has not yet cooked the food'? The Niuean would be Ai la tunu e ia e tau mena kai. (Note:*food*in English is often indicated in Niuean by the plural - 'things to eat'). Remember that ai la and nakai la are interchangeable. 11.
THE INFINITIVE CONJUNCTION AND 'TO BE ABLE'
11.1
The Infinitive Conjunction
Consider the sentence: Ne fano a Niu ki Alofi ke f eleveia ai mo e haana a tau kapitiga. Literally this translates as 'Niu went to AlofZ to meet there with his friends'. The infinitive conjunction ke meaning * in order to' is used extremely frequently in Niuean. Another example is Ne hau a au ke fanogonogo ke he lologo — 'I came to listen to the singing'. 11.2
'To Be Able' — M a e k e
For instance, 'I am able to see the man' — Kua maeke e au ke kitia e tagata. 'Able' plus the associated verb are, in effect, a compound verb which can be either transitive or intransitive. This compound verb has subject and object as expected, but the positioning of the words indicating subject differ from the position utilised with ordinary transitive and intransitive verbs. Thus, in the example above, kitia is transitive and so, in accordance with rules previously discussed (in 3.2), e au indicates the subject 'I' but it is placed immediately after maeke and not the following verb. Consider: 'He wasn't able to talk to Iki' — Ne ai maeke a ia ke vagahau ki a Iki. This time the intransitive verb vagahau means that rules discussed in 3.5 above are invoked but as before the subject is placed after maeke, However, before cardinal pronoun and proper noun subjects of both transitive and intransitive verbs, a may be used and the respective e and a articles dropped. 'They were able to eat the yams' becomes Ne maeke i a laua ke kai e tau ufi. Note the use of ke, the infinitive conjunction, used in association with maeke. 12.
POSSESSION
12.1 Possession is shown by the articles ha (used with proper nouns) and he (for common nouns). Thus 'Matoli1s house' would translate as Ko e fale ha Matoli but 'The minister's house' would be Ko e fale he faifeau.
Whereas in English, common nouns and proper nouns may either precede or follow the 'thing' possessed, in Niuean such nouns will nearly always follow the 'thing' which is posse ssed. For instance, 'The schoolteacher's book1 = 'The book of the schoolteacher' — Ko e tohi he faiaoga. An exception may be the response to such questions as Ko e ha hai e pasikala afi? — 'Whose is the motorbike? 1 Sifa owns the motorbike' — Ko e ha Sifa e pasikala afi. Possessive pronouns, as discussed in 9.1, may precede or follow the 'thing' possessed. Some locative words presented_in 21.3 use possessives, e.g. 'in front of Kifoto ' — i mua ha Kifoto. With place names no article is usually necessary. Thus 'The men of Mutalau' might translate as Ko e tau tagata Mutalau, 12.2 Now, possible ambiguity might arise from using transitive verbs. Consider, for example, Ne fakaaoga e nofoa he tama tote. This might mean 'The child used the chair', or alternatively, 'The child's chair was used'. That is one reason why the subject usually precedes the object in transitive verbal sentences - to avoid confusion with the possessive construction following the object and qualifying it. But context also serves to eliminate ambiguity and so, more often than not, sentences which are ambiguous in isolation, are uttered and understood clearly as intended. 13.
VERBAL NOUNS
13.1 Often a verb is changed into a noun by the suffix -aga. Thus fakamatala — 'to speak to a gathering of people' - has its transform fakamatalaaga — 'speech' and fakaako — 'to learn' transforms to fakaakoaga — 'education'. Hence, to translate 'my explaining* we might use haaku a fakamaama but more commonly this will be supplanted by 'my explanation' — haaku a fakamaamaaga. This addition of ~aga doesn't occur every time one wishes to use a verbal noun, but note those verbs that typically are so transformed when Niueans speak. One will frequently hear verbal nouns used in conjunction with ko e, e.g. Ko e lologo ha Maka— 1Maka's singing1 or as common nouns in other c o n s t r u c t i o n s K u a leva e hau haau? - a common question in greeting meaning 'Has your coming been long?' or more idiomatically, 'Have you been here long?' 14.
I3 KI, MAI^ HE, KE HE, MAI HE
14.1 Local nouns are examined in 22.1. It should be noted that, with local nouns and place names, i (in/at) is immediately followed by the local noun or place name. Thus 'in Avatele' — i Ava^ele» Similar comments apply to ki (to) used with such~words, e.g. 1 Go to Lakepa' — Fano ki Lakepa. With mai (from) used with local nouns and place names, mai is followed by i, e.g. 'from New Zealand* translates as mai i Niu Silani*
17 14.2 With personal nouns, which include cardinal pronouns, names of people (but not place names) and months, the following occurs: 'in J u l y 1 — i a Iulai? 1 to Pita1 — ki a Pi la; ' from Tupu' — mai i a Tupu. Note the insertion of the article a in these cases. However, in contexts where 'from* is clearly understood, you may find mai being omitted before the i or i a constructions. 14.3 With common nouns different things happen and i (in/at/during) must be followed by the article he (instead of e) to precede the common noun. 'At the church' translates as i he fale tapu. Also, i he tau ka hau (c.f. 33.3)— 'during next year'. In practice, however, the i is omitted to yield he fale tapu and he tau ka hau. Thus 'I went to Makefu today' — Ne fano (a) au ki Makefu he aho nei. Now we must examine how ki (to) is used with common nouns. As previously mentioned, ki changes to ke and the article he is used. Hence, 'to the airport' ke he male vakalele. (Remember ki he male vakalele is also correct in spoken Niuean).
—
Not surprisingly, mai also uses the definite article he with common nouns but with the i omitted. Thus 'from the government'— mai he fakatufono. 15.
THE PRONOUNS AI AND IA
1 15.1 To him/her1 has until now been translated as ki a ia, and whenever ki a ia is used, it usually refers to a person. If one wishes to translate 'to it', then ki ai is used which means not only 'to it' but also 'to him/ her'. Obviously then, ki ai is a more general term than ki a ia. 'I threw a stone at it (the dog)' translates as Ne liti e au e patud ki ai. 'I spoke to her (the lady) * translates as Ne vagahau au ki ai.
With plurality, ki ai, although used, does not so frequently replace ki a laua and ki a lautolut even when talking about non-human things. 15.2 Ai is also used with mai. We might have the following dialogue: A. 'Hau a koe i fe' — 'Where have you been?'. B. 'Hau a au i Hakupu ' — 'I was in Hakupu ' . A. 'Mooli nakai? Kua kito hau a au mai ai ' —- 'Truly? I've just come from there'. 'From there' is the usual meaning of mai ai, but it also appears in expressions such as tali mai ai 'since then'.
18 15.3 Ai is also regularly used as a pronoun meaning 'there/thereby' , especially when one segment of a sentence is dependent on another or is rationalised by another. For example, 'He travelled to New Zealand to work (there) ' •— Ne fenoga a ia ki Niu Silani ke gahua ai. 'Pule planted a lot of ialo to improve (thereby) his bush garden' — Ne to talo lahi a Pule ke fakatolomaki ai haana a maala (c.f. also 11.1 and 17.1). 15.4 The pronoun ai, used in the sense 'there/thereby', and examined in 15.3, has the function of representing the first independent segment of the sentence in the second dependent segment of that sentence. This has the effect of reminding us about the independent segment when we are part-way through listening to, or reading about, the dependent part. It is as if we have put the whole of the meaning of the first part of the sentence into the compact little word ai, for presentation in the second part. A closer knit sentence results. 15.5 In a similar way to the functioning of ai, the pronoun ia represents part of the context of the conversation or written material which precedes the statement currently being made. For example, if two people are discussing a certain book and one says that he/she has read the book we would have Ne totou e au e tohi ia, which translates effectively as 'I read the book (which we have been discussing just now)'. Less margin for ambiguity and a closer knit conversation is thereby effected. 16.
SOME COMMON PREFIXES AND PREPOSED WORDS
Fia is used both as a prefix and as a preposed word. With the words kaiJ inu and mohe - activities which are vital to human well-being - fia is prefixed thus: fiakai — 'hungry1, fiainu — 'thirsty5, and fiamohe — 'sleepy5. With other verbs, fia is preposed to show a desire for the verb immediately following to occur. For instance, Kua fia fano a au — *X wish to go'. There is the word manako meaning 'to want/desire'. To illustrate: Kua manako a lautolu ke o hifo ki Alofi — 'They want to go down to Alofi'. Fia and manako may be combined as fia manako meaning 'to desire/want 9 . Kua fia manako a ia ke liu ki Vaea 'He wishes to return to Vaea9. Besides fia, which preposes and prefixes verbs, there are numerous other words in Niuean which are used to prepose nouns Fua preposed to a noun stresses the roundness of that object, particularly with fruit, vegetables and nuts. For example, fua niu — 1 (a)coconut8 ; fua vine — 9 (a) passionfruit s . In cases where a semi-transitive verb is used involving kai or inu, and where no ambiguity could arise , then fua may be omitted, e,g. inu niu3 kai talo3 etc.
19 Lau is a preposed word indicating something flattish (e.g. a leaf). Thus lau niu — '(the) leaf of the coconut*? lau papa —• '(a) piece of timber 8 . La preposes the names of trees or plants to mean 'branch', e.g. la mei — ' ( a ) breadfruit-tree branch'. Ka conveys the meaning of 'stick1. Hence ka niu refers to the mid-rib of the coconut leaf commonly used in locally made brooms and tablemats. Some other common preposed words follow: Kala is preposed to nouns to mean 'some' or 'a piece of', e.g. kala ie — '(a) piece of cloth'. It refers to non-foodstuffs. Vala is the corresponding word preposed to foodstuffs. For example, vala suka -— 'some sugar'; vala mamoe — 'a piece of mutton'. Vala sometimes stands alone to mean 'piece', e.g. Mai e taha vala — 'Give me a piece'. Muhu preposes nouns to mean 'a lot o f or 'many'. Thus muhu Id means 'many ants'. Kua muhu Id e sefe —'The food-safe is full of ants'. Mahani is a preposed word meaning 'nature of a person'. Hence mahani kelea — 'ill-natured'; mahani totonu — 'kindnatured 1 . Punua is a word which indicates'young of animals, birds, etc.1. For instance, punua moa — 'chicken'; punua kuli 1 puppy'. Two common prefixes: Kau is prefixed to nouns to mean 'the side o f or 'the edge of'. For example, with vailele —'river', we have kauvailele —- 'riverbank'; hala —* 'track/road', and kauhala — 'roadside'. Mata often prefixes words which describe a person's {facial} appearance, e.g. matafulufuluola — 'beautiful'; matakelea —- 'ugly'. It must be stressed that the above list is by no means exhaustive, being intended to display a sample only of the preposed words and prefixes and their possible uses. 16.3 Fai is an extremely common preposed word as well as being a prefix in several frequently used words. As a prefix, it appears in faitaane — 'to be married (of a woman)'? faihoana — 'to be married (of a man)', and faiaoga —- 'schoolteacher'. As a preposed word, it indicates things that are possessed. Thus fai tupe — 'to have money'; ai fai sene — 'to not possess cents' (i.e. to have no money). Ai fai is very common as a response to many questions essentially meaning 'There is not such a thing (of mine, of his, etc.)'.
Tamai e fua niu ke inu e au, fakamolemole — 'Bring me a coconut to drink, please'. Ai fai. Kua osi tei —- * There aren r t any. They're all finished '. Niuean.
Faka-is probably the most important prefix in It has several uses:
1.
To form adjectives from nouns, e.g. Niue, the noun, becomes fakaNiue, the adjective, meaning 'Niuean1. Ko e aga fakaNiue translates as 'The Niuean custom*.
2.
To form adverbs from adjectives. 'He did his work badly' could translate as Ne tau±e fakakelea e ia haana a gahua. Kelea 'bad *is transformed by faka- to fakakelea — *badly
3.
To form verbs from adjectives. Aoga means 'useful', while fakaaoga means 'to use', literally 'to make useful'. Foou means 'new1, and fakafoou means 'to renew', literally * to make new'.
4.
Faka-can also be used with verbs to form verbs of different meaning. Thus while inu means 'to drink*, fakainu means 'to make to drink*. 'The man supplied the youth with drink * would translate as Ne fakainu he tagata e fuata aki e kava (c.f. 19.1). Ki£e means 1 to see', but fakakite means 'to make see' or * to show*
5.
Faka-may also mean 'to supply *. Kavei, for example, means 'handle of a basket' but fakakavei means 'to put a handle on a basket *, or 'to supply the. basket with a handle'.
The use of faka- is not explained exhaustively by the above usages. Be prepared for a few strange and apparently irregular ways in which faka- can be used. 17.
THE CONJUNCTION 'AND1
17.1 'I shall go to Samoa and stay there' translates as To finatu a au ki Samoa ti nofo ai. Ti is the conjunction * and * in Niuean when linking clauses together. Note that the second or later tense marker (s) will usually be omitted because the tense will already have been indicated earlier in the sentence. In English narrative we may start a new sentence with 'And then . . . ' ? in Niuean, Ti will sometimes be so used at the beginning of a sentence but commonly A£i is the word used for 'And then ...' . 17.2 The conjunction 'and/with' used when linking a noun phrase to the preceding part of the -sentence is mo. Kua o a Tekai mo e tagata —'Tekai went with the man'. No article is required before cardinal pronouns and proper nouns , e.g • mo mua — 'and you'? mo Peti— 'and Peti1 .
17.3 A very common practice in Niuean is to enlarge pronoun groupings when using mo — 'and/with'. A few examples should illustrate what is meant by this. 'He and I' would translate as 'we (two-exclusive) and him' — rnaua mo ia. 'You (two5. an& Valu* would be 'you (three) ................ and Valu' or mutolu mo Valu, 'He chatted with Milly' translates as Ne tutala a laua mo Mili ~ literally, 'They (two) chatted with. Milly*. 17.4 The above practice is often used in conjunction with feleveia 'to meetV, and fakamau — ' t o marry'. 'To meet' or 'to marry' can be transitive or intransitive in English, e.g. intransitive; 'We (plural 1 met today 1 'They (two) were married yesterday*
Ne feleveia a mautolu he aho ne Ne fakamau a laua i ne afi
transitive: 'You met her * 'She married Tom'
—- Ne feleveia a mua mo ia —- Ne fakamau a laua mo Tomo
17.5 Consider now the sentence: xTala returned with the man*. The Niuean would be Ne omai a Tata mo e tagata. Two points should be noted: firstly, a literal translation back from the Niuean to English would be'Tala and the man returned', which is why the plural verb form omai is used (note that the singular of omai is liu). Secondly, a reminder that common nouns take an article e after mo. 17.6 'And' may also mean 'also, moreover, furthermore'. Foki is commonly used in this sense. Ne pakia a au ti mamahi ai haaku a tau lima, Kua mamahi foki haaku a hui ma tau 'I was injuredjandmy arms hurt^thereby j). My right leg also hurt Where t h e r e i s an adjective or verb used, foki will usually immediately follow the adjective or verb. Foki is often used in conjunction with mo — * and'. Thus Kua mamahi foki mo e haaku a hui matau is an alternative translation for 'My right leg also hurts'. A commonly heard question is, Pihia foki mo koe?—• 'Thusly moreover and you?' 'And likewise yourself?' Foki can be used after nouns also, e.g. 'You and Lafe as well' could translate as Ko mutolu mo Lafe foki. 17.7
The use of 'and' with numerals is explained in 32.1.
18.
BECAUSE
18,1 'Because' is usually expressed by ha + tense marker + verbal expression or by ha ko + nounal expression. For example, 'I am tired because the work is difficult' — Kua lolelole a au ha kua uka e gahua; 'I am glad because of the kind-natured man' — Kua fiafia a au ha ko e tagata
22 19.
WITH
19.1 'With' in the sense of 'and' has already been dealt with under mo above. However, another important concept in Niuean uses 'with* in the sense of 'by use of 1 , e.g. 'She cut the bread with the knife *, The Niuean translation would be Ne hehele e ia e falaoa aki e tigipi. 'He hit the girl with the broom' — Ne fahi e ia e tama fifine aki e tafi ka niu, You may find aki being used earlier in the sentence, immediately preceding the subject: Ne fahi aki e ia e tama fifine e tafi ka niu, 20.
ALTHOUGH
20.1 Pete ni or just pete is used to mean 1 although', e.g. *Although you didn't go, we were very happy' — Pete nZ ne ai fano a koe> ka ne fiafia lahi a mautolu. Note" the appropriate tense marker following pete (nZ) and also ka (but) introducing the second clause. 20.2 The word nZ has the of stressing nouns, as we have seen in 2,4, as well as stressing and limiting verbs. For example, in response to the question: 'What are you doing?' — Ko e eke ha a koe? (c.f. 28.4), we often hear the response Ko e nofo nZ which means ' I'm just staying - (but doing nothing in particular)1 . The nZ used with pete ni above similarly tends to emphasize the 'although' and lend a little more weight to the statement to follow. 21.
LOCATION
21.1 Binaij, hinei, he (near the speaker)'.
all mean ' this place * or 'here
Hina, kuna : both mean 'that place' or 'there', but most often with the implication that the place referred to is near the person(s) being spoken to. For places near neither the speaker nor the person(s) spoken to, ko is used. Examples will illustrate usage: Ne hau a Fohe ki hinei — 'Fohe came here' but literally *Fohe came to here'. Ko e tipota iJcuna — 'The teapot (at) there (near you)'. Ko e Jale i ko kua nofo ai a Tavita —- 'The house (at) there (over yonder) is where Tavita lives (there)'. The i is often dropped before hinei> hinais he> hina, kuna and is usually dropped before ko. 21. 2 Demonstrative particles are derived from the locative particles above, so that a nei or nei, a nai or nai and S "all mean 'this1? a na or na means 'that (near the person spoken to)*, and ko means 'there (over yonder) 1 . Thus ko e tau nei — ' t h i s year'; ko e felevehi na — 'that lavalava*; ko e tagata ko — 'that man (over yonder)',
23 21.3 There are, moreover, these other locative words to augment those in 22: loto
- 'inside*
fo-fo - 'outside'
tua
- 'behind'
lalo
lug a
- 'above*
mua
'under
-
-'in front'
For example,'He went (to! outside' — Ne fano a ia ki fafo. 'It was put in (to) the box' — Ne toka a ia ki loto he puha. 'He stayed behind the house1 — Ne riofo a ia i tua he fale. 'You saw the old person in front of the shop' — Ne kitia e koe e fuakau i mua he fale koloa. (Note the use of possessive articles in the above cases).
21.4 It should be noted that i cannot start a sentence. For example, if one heard 'Where is the pot?* and the reply 'Over there', then the simple I ko would not be used. We must consider the Niuean for 'there is/there are *. 'There is a man named Tauetama* translates as Kua haha i ai e tagata ko Tauetama haana a higoa. Haha i ai means 'there is/there are * in association with the present tense marker kua, 'there was/there were' when used with the past tense marker ne; 'there will be * when used with the future tense marker to, etc. However, the construction is often shortened and changed. Hence with 'There is a book here', we have Kua haha i ai e tohi i hinei. But where the tense is unambiguous by context, frequently the tense marker will be omitted. Often too, in conversation, the haha may be shortened to ha and the i hinei part brought forward in the sentence to eliminate the i ai, thus yielding the following: Ha i hinei e tohi. In practice, as mentioned in 21.1 above, the i will often be omitted to yield Ha hinei e tohi. So the reply, 'Over yonder', would be Ha i ko — 'there (it) is, over yonder *. 'It's in the room there (near you)' would translate as Ha i loto he poko na. 21.5 The word fuga is preposed to many nouns to indicate 'the surface of'. For instance, Ko e fuga laulau 'The surface of the table', or Ko e fuga tahi— 'The surface of the sea'. Fuga appears frequently in locative constructions: 'There is a candle on the chair *— Ha he fuga nofoa e kanela. (Remember to omit the i before he as per * 3J . 22.
LOCAL NOUNS
22.1 Local nouns are treated like locative words and do not require an article immediately preceding the noun. Hence 9 1 am going to the sea' is not translated as Kua fano a au ke he tahi, but as Kua fano a au ki tahi, where it is usually understood that the local beach is meant or a
24 beach previously clarified in the conversation. Kaina — * home' is similarly used. 1 She went home' translates as Ne fano a ia ki kaina. Where the home being referred to is different from the subject's home, then a fuller treatment is required. For example, r I went to Tonu1s place' is Ne fano a an ke he kaina ha Tonu. Uta is another localised noun, meaning 'bush*, e.g. (Kua) fano tei a ia ki uta — 'He's already gone to the bush (plantation)'. 23.
DIRECTIONAL PARTICLES
23.1 The directional particles in Niuean are mai3 atu, agej hifo, hake. Essentially, mai means 'towards me'; atu— * towards you'? age — 'towards someone else'; hifo— * down'; hake -— 'up'. Atu sometimes is used to mean 'away from me/you'. The use of such words is often crucial to meaning, thus fakatau mai means 'to buy' but fakatau atu means 'to sell'. Where the directional content of a verb is evident, usually the appropriate directional particle will be used: 'Siale returned home' -— Ne liu mai a Siale ki kaina? 'They went down to Tamakautoga' — Ned hifo a lautolu ki Tamakautoga. Hau— 'to come' is not usually followed by mai. Niueans often use hifo and hake as verbs of travel in their own right, particularly in a local context even when it may not be geographically evident that one is ascending or descending. Thus 'I'm going home' may translate as Kua hake a au ki kaina, if that be the local mode of expression rather than Kua finage a au ki kaina. Maij atu, age may also mean 'Give me/us', 'give to you', 'Give to him/her/it, etc.' respectively. 24.
PASSIVES
24.1 * The rain soaked me' is called an active sentence, but 'I am soaked by the rain' is its passive transform. If the causative agent, 'by the rain', is omitted from the passive sentence, 'I am soaked' is still a correct sentence in English. However, in the active sentence, if 'The rain' is omitted, 'soaked me' is not a complete sentence in itself. The ability to omit reference to the causative agent in passive sentences is the greatest distinguishing feature of them. In Niuean, some adjectives and a few nouns take special suffixes to give the so-called passive form, e.g. mafana •— mafanatia, ipouli — pouligia. Occasionally the word is changed slightly before adding the passive suffix, e.g. momoko — mokomia; hahau— haumia.
25 That is not to say that only special passive forms can be used in passive sentences. But most of the special passive forms appear to act to intensify and narrow somewhat the meaning of the ? parent f word. For example, 'My skin is made hot by the sun* -— Kua vela e kili haaku he la, but 1 My skin is burnt by the sunr is Kua velagia e kili haaku *he la. 'I am wet by the rain1 — Kua pa la au he uha, but *I am soaked by the rain' — Kua palagia au he uha. Also we have 'The night is illuminated by the moon * — Kua maama e po he mahina, but 1 The day is illuminated by the (much stronger) sun * —- Kua maama£:ia e aho he la. Ne to hifo e la ti pouli ai a mautolu -— 1 The sun set and night befell us', but fInside the cave we were in pitch darkness' — Haha i loto he ana3 ne pouligia ai a mautolu. Finally, 'My heart is cheered by you * — Kua mafana haaku a loto i a koe, and 'My heart is made warm and affectionate by your — Kua mafanatia haaku a loto i a koe. 24.2 From the above examples, you will have noticed that the causative agent, when following the adjective or passive form of the adjective, is introduced by i, e.g. i he la — r; the sun*, although we have seen in 14.3 the i, is usually dropped before he to give he la. Also, rby you' translates as i a koe? fby Tahafa1 translates as i a Taha fa. 24.3 Now the process of restricting and intensifying does not explain the use of all the passives. Thus, for example, aho means *day* but ahogia means * to be caught by the daylight'. Ne ama uga au ti liu mai kua ahogia a au — 'I went uga hunting and returned in daylight* . Consider also momoko which means *coldf, Kua momoko e vai he filisa> meaning rThe water is made cold by the fridge', but mokomia, the passive form, may be used as follows: Kua mokomia au he uha — '1 caught a chill from the rain' . Mokomia is specifically used in the context of catching a chill and thereby becoming sick. Whether a passive form effects the more common aspect of intensification or whether it indicates a specific application of the parent word, such as we have seen with ahogia and mokomia, has to be learnt by experience, for no general rule can say into which of the two categories a passive form will fall. 24.4 Many adjectives are used in passive sentences regardless of whether they possess a passive form or not. Now if we translate Ne fiafia au he kifaga as 'I was made happy by the movie 1 , we are assuming use of a passive sentence. There is, however, the alternative possibility that location is involved. Hence, the sentence could be interpreted: 'I was happy at the movie', i he (at) being condensed to he. To avoid possible ambiguity the passive sentence may be altered slightly by the inclusion of ke. Ne fiafia au ke he kifaga is now unequivocally r I was made happy by the movie'. With a few common nouns, one may resort to the ke he construction, but with cardinal pronouns and proper nouns, it would be rare for such ambiguity to exist and accordingly the i (a) form will be used to translate 'byr.
26 25.
PAST PARTICIPLES
25.1 Related to passives, past participles are commonly used in Niuean. Often they imply an element of accident. 'The table-top was scratched * — Kua mahaku e fuga laulau. True, one might use the active transitive sentence: 'Tuhe scratched the table-top* — N e haku e Tuhe e fuga laulau and then omit the subject to yield: Ne haku e fuga laulau — *The table-top was scratched *. But the latter sentence would still imply association with the past incident of Tuhe scratching, and is qualitatively different from the present state of the table with no association at all with who caused the scratches. 25.2 McEwen lists the past participles where they occur; it will be noted, however, that all of them start with ma, e.g. maheley mapaki, etc, (i.e. the prefix ma transforms the verb into its appropriate past participle). The past participles will most usually be associated with scratches, chips, cracks, breakages, splits and the like. 25.3 Consider the sentence: Kua lipi e kapi niu he tagata. Translation presents two possibilities: (i)
translation of the transitive verb, lipi, with object {kapi niu) preceding subject {tagata}— thus *The man cracked the plate * or
Ciil
translation of the possessive. plate was cracked *.
'The man *s
The past participle allows no such ambiguity. Kua malipi e kapi niu he tagata ~ 'The man's plate was cracked * and a 'raison d'etre* for past participles is thus shown. 26.
INTRANSITIVE VERBS
POSSIBLE DIFFICULTIES
26.1 Most intransitive verbs are used with ki/ke. For example, 'They leaned against the building' — Ne falanaki a lautolu ke he fale and 'He loved the old people' — Ne fakaalofa a ia ke he tau fuakau. 26.2 However, a few intransitive verbs are used with i/he. For example, 'You waited for Susi* is translated Ne leo a koe i a Susi, or 'He waited for the other men' — Ne leo a ia he falu a tau tagata (tatali or fakatali also mean 'to wait r and are used in the same way as leo) . The latter Niuean sentence might be mistaken for a transitive verb sentence with subject following object meaning 'The other men waited for him* - clearly a reversal of meaning. Once again a good reason is shown why subject usually precedes object in transitive sentences so that confusion with intransitive sentences might be avoided. Now consider: To fakatali e tama taane he fifine — 'The boy will wait for the lady'. Remembering the possessive article he for common nouns, you will see that the above sentence could also mean 'The lady's boy will wait'. Context would usually be sufficient to indicate the correct interpretation, and if the latter meaning was
27 intended, it is likely that the lady T s name would have been used, for example, *Ahi*s boy will wait' — To fakatali e tama taane ha Ahi, Otherwise, ke might be introduced to yield unmistakably: 'The boy will wait for the ladyr — To fakatali e tama taane ke he fifine. 27.
"MIXED" TRANSITIVE/INTRANSITIVE VERBS ,
27.1 Tala mai, tala atu, tala age - meaning respectively 'to tell me', 'to tell you', or 'to tell him/her/them' - might at first appear to be verbs which combine transitive and intransitive constructions. For instance, 'He told me 1 would translate as Ne tala mai e ia ki a au. It will be seen, though, that the verb tala should be treated as transitive - if we assume that the subject is understood as in f He told me (the story)', or 'He told me (that) 'The girl told her mother she would go down to the sea' would translate as Ne tala age he tama fifine ke he haana a matua fifine to hifo a ia ki tahi, 'She would go down to the sea * is, in effect, the object of the sentence (i.e. the thing told). 28.
QUESTIONS
28.1 Niuean questions are marked as such in several ways, one of which is a rising intonation at the end of the sentence. Moreover, most questions (with exceptions to be discussed below) contain what can be called a question indicator. Question indicators are: nakai3 kia and kaha, and it seems that in theory they are interchangeable, though in practice certain questions take one or another of the indicators with greater precedence. Hence, very short questions which require only a 'yes' or 'no' answer might prefer to use nakai as the question indicator, perhaps because the word nakai— ' n o ' — may be used as an answer to the question, e.g. Mooli nakai? — 'Isn't that true?' The question indicator usually comes after the verb, although in other positions, notably the end of the question, kia and kaha sometimes occur too. In the latter position one will often hear Niueans say a throaty ka which originated probably as either a shortening of kia or kaha. 28.2 In such English orders as 'Go to sleep, won't you?' -— To mohe a koe3 kia! ?, kia and kaha have their place as the Niuean equivalent of 'won't you', etc. A contraction of such a construction has become the farewell mode of expression. Thus a person leaving says to those staying: Nonofo a mutolu3 kia? ! - ' Stay, won * t you?.'' shortened to Mutolu kia?! and those staying reply to that person: E3 koe kia?! - a contraction of E> fano a koe3 kia?! 28.3 Often too, when one Niuean is listening to another speaking, one will hear kia or kaha from the listener, perhaps the equivalent of ! uh-huh' or 'you don ? t say??
28 28.4 Now there are also several interrogative words in Niuean, thus: fe -'which, where? f fiha fefe _ -'what about, how?' ha i ne fe ~'when (in the past)?' hai a fe -'when (in the future)?'heigoa
-'how many?' -'what? 1 -'who/whom?' -'what? 1
It is the usual practice that questions using such interrogative words don't use a question indicator although some exceptions may be heard, e.g., Ko e eke ha kaha a koe? — 'What are you doing?' Examples of the interrogative words are given to illustrate their use: Ko e fe e tau mena kai? — 'Where is the food?'. (A e fe is also used in place of ko e fe); Ko e tagata fe ? -— 'Which man?'? Ne fiha e tau tohi ne moua e koe? — 'How many books did you get? 1 ; Toko fiha e tau tama fifine he koli? — 'How many girls were at the dance?'; Ko hai e higoa haau? — (literally) 'Who is your name?'; Ko hai ia? — 'Who is she?'. Heigoa and ha both mean 'What' but usually heigoa is used with nouns and verbal nouns and ha with verbs, e.g. Kua fano a koe ke ha? — 'What are you going for?'; Ko e heigoa e talahau haau? — 'What did you say?'; To hau a koe a fe? — 'When will you come?'; Ne kitia e koe a ia i ne fe? — 'When did you see her?'; Kua fefe e hui haau? — 'How is your leg?' 28.5 A question meaning 'And how about . . . ? ' is expressed by Ka e kua ... ? 'And how about you (singular)?' would translate as Ka e kua a koe? 29.
"WHETHER ... OR ..." AND PSEUDO-QUESTIONS
29.1 Kua ai iloa e au po ke fano a ia po ke nakai — 'I don't know whether he will go or not'. Before a verb po is usually followed by ke and before a noun by ko. Ne ai kitia po ko Pita po ko e taha kehe — 'It wasn't seen whether it was Pita or whether it was someone else'. 29.2 Pseudo-questions also use po thus: 'You know his name' translates as Kua iloa e koe po ko hai haana a higoa (literally 'You know who is his name'). Kua ai iloa e lautolu po ko e heigoa haana a gahua (literally 'They didn't know what was his work'). Seemingly this comprises a question, but is in reality the statement: 'They didn't know what his work was'. For this reason such statements are called pseudo-questions. 30.
IMPERATIVES
30.1 The use of kia in imperatives has already been examined in 28.2. Stronger imperatives use la and a, and not infrequently, a raised voice. Fano a a koe ki fafol—- 'Go outside!' Hau la!— 'Come here!'
29 30.2 La and a are not always used in imperatives, however. Frequently a sternly uttered statement by itself is unmistakable as an imperatives Fano ki fafo! — 'Go outside I' 31.>
PROHIBITIVES - DONIT
31.1 'Don't (you)_ talk to me 1 — kua neke vagahau mai a koe ki a au. kua neke . • i s one form of the prohibitive in Niuean, but another is the shorter ua, used immediately before the verb { e.g. Ua fano a koe — 'Don't go I' 'Don'11 standing alone is often expressed in Niuean as Aha! 31.2 'Lest' is translated by neke . 'Don't do that lest you get hurt' might translate as Ua taute e koe e mena na neke pakia ai a koe. Frequently the shortened Neke pakia construction would be heard. 32.
NUMBERS
32.1
one - taha four - fa seven - fitu two - ua five - lima eight - valu three - tolu six - ono nine - hiva ten - hogofulu eleven - hogofulu ma taha (ten + one)
Other numbers are: eighteen - hogofulu ma valu (ten + eight) twenty - uafulu thirty - tolugofulu forty - fagofulu ninety five - hivagofulu ma lima one hundred - taha e £eau three hundred - tolu e teau one thousand - taha e afe five thousand - lima e afe, etc. 'The year 1979' is thus Ko e tau taha e afe hiva e teau fitugofulu ma hiva. 'I have thirteen pens' could translate as Ko e hogofulu ma tolu e tau pene haaku. 'I lived in Niue one year seven months' would be Ne nofo a au i Niue (ko e) taha e tau (mo e) fitu e mahina. (The plural marker tau is not always used with numerals when plurality is already evident). Numerals referring to people are preposed by toko, 'Eight women came' — Ne toko valu e tau fifine ne o mai. 32.2 Once, twice, etc. are expressed as lagataha, etc., using the prefix laga-.
lagaua
32.3 Ordinals are shown by ke ... aki surrounding the relevant number, e.g. 'The third day' Ko e aho ke tolu aki. The 'first', however, is expressed by fakamua.
30 32.4 Taki is a preposed word meaning each' or ' in groups of' . ' How much is each can of drink?1 -— Ko e fiha & Bene ke he apa inu takiaha. 'The school children entered two by two' — Ne huhu mai taki toko ua e fanau aoga. 32.5 A final comment on numerals: Numbers between 11 and 19 will often be expressed without the hogofulu. Thus 'fifteen* might be stated ma lima. This practice is common when dealing with time. 33.
TELLING
THE
TIME
33.1 'What time is it?' translates as Kua ta e mata ho la fiha? tiola is the Niuean word for 'hour', so that ' 13 past 10' is Kua hogofulu ma tolu/he mole e/hola hogofulu — 'Thirteen/past the/hour of ten'. 1 Half past five' is Kua ha fa tei he mole e ho la lima. '25 to 71 is Kua uafulu ma lima ke ta e hola fitu (i.e. '25 until the hour of seven strikes'). 33.2 Other aspects of time, i ne fe and a fe have been discussed in 28.4 but it is interesting to see the following relationships: po •— 'night'; i ne po — 'last night'; a po — 'tonight (in the future)'; pogipogi — 'morning'? i ne pogipogi —- 'this morning (past) ' ; apogi or apogi pogi. — ^tomorrow'; afiafi — 'evening'; i ne afi — 'yesterday'; a afiafi — 'this coming evening'. 33.3 __ Other useful time words include: tupou la — 'midday' ; pale la — 'afternoon'; tulotopo — 'midnight'; hemogonel —~ ' now' ; he magaaho n ei — ' now' ; he po n ei —- ' tonight (during it)'; he afiafi nei —• 'this evening (during it)'; a magaaho — 'shortly'; i ninei — 'a short while ago'; amui— 'in the future'; he tau aho nei — 'these days'; he vaha fakamua —'in former days', etc. Ka hau ('to come') is used as 'next *, e.g. 'next week' — ko e tapu ka hau. 'Last* translates as kua molej e.g. 'last year' — ko e tau kua mole. Examples may be helpful to illustrate usage. 'Let's go visiting this evening' (said when it is already evening) — Kia o ke evaeva a tautolu he afiafi nei. 'Are you going to the dance tonight?' (asked during_the day or early evening) — To fano nakai a koe ke he koli a po? 33.4 A commonly asked question is, 'How long have you stayed h e r e ? ' — Kua fiha e leva haau i hinei? 'One year' Ko e taha e tau. 34.
—
PLURAL NOUN AND VERB FORMS
34.1 Very few nouns but quite a few verbs and adjectives in Niuean have both a singular and plural form in regular usage. That is, when the subject of such verbs is plural, then the plural form would be used. Whenever plurals of such nouns are used, the plural form will be chosen, e.g. 'My parents' — Haaku a tau mamatua ('parent' translates as matua). i
31 Generally with the verbs and adjectives, the first syllable of the word is repeated in forming the plural. Common examples ares singular
plural
moui nofo mohe loa lahi takoto mate tupu • hu haga hako tanaki
momoui nonofo momohe loloa lalahi tatakoto mamate tutupu huhu hahaga hahako tatanaki
.— — —
—
—.
— —
— — —
—
'to live 1 'to stay ' 'to sleep 1 'long 1 'large 1 'to lie down' 'dead/to die' 'to grow' 'to enter' 'to turn to face' 'correct/straight' 'to gather'
adj./v.i. v.i. v.i. adj. adj. v.i. adj./v.i. v.i. v.i. v.i. adj. v.t.
Other plural forms may be completely different from the singular: fano o — 'to go' v.i. hau o mai — 'to come' v.i. Some plural forms are formed b^ the prefix felele felele — to fly' although note: kata
fekl
—
:
'to laugh'
v.i. v.i.
with both a fe- prefix and change of word for the plural. The plural may also be formed by the prefix tau- : anu tauanu to spit v.i. or by a combination'of tau-and fe-,thus: poi taufepoi — 'to run'
v.i.
Knowing and using plural forms will add to the precision of your speech. 34.2
Reciprocal Verbs
Fe . . aki is the prefix-suffix combination in Niuean which forms reciprocal verbs. Huhu means 'to question'; fehuhuaki means 'to question one another'. Feiloaaki means 'to know each other', from iloa — 'to know'. Slight variations sometimes occur, e.g. 'to shift'; fehikitaki — 'to swap'.
hiki—
Tau is occasionally used to effect the reciprocal form of the verb, e.g. poka— 'to push'? taupoka — 'to push one another'. The fe . , . aki construction is by far the most common method in forming the reciprocal.
35.
32 INTENSIVES, COMPARATIVES AND SUPERLATIVES
35.1 ^ If one wants to say 'very' in Niuean, frequently to lahi e or to taha e would be used. For example, mitaki — * good', to lahi e mitaki— 'very good *; vela— • 'hot', to taha e vela— 'very hot'. Mitaki lahi or vela lahi would also suffice as 'very good' or 'very hot *> respectively. Some Niuean words, however, have their own special associated words to act as intensives. A list of the common intensives follows: pala koho^iho^i momoho tutututu ai* fahia nakai* fakaai •po tatago hina vake (vake) uli patoki (toki) uli magia pouli kikio pouli kikZ oti kana £ pitopito hako tika
-
'very wet 5 'very ripe' 'absolutely no/definitely not* 'absolutely no/definitely not' 'complete darkness' 'very white' 'very black' 'very black' 'very dark' 'very dark' 'all' (emphasised) 'finished totally' 'quite correct'
*ai and nakai are interchangeable. 35.2 The comparative and superlative corresponding to the English *..er' and '..est' have no simple equivalents in Niuean. The comparative is often expressed using mua, mua atu or mua ue atu, meaning 'to surpass 5 . If the form is mua, followed by subject, followed by adjective, then the subject will take articles as for intransitive verbs (3.6) and the adjective is preceded by he, e.g. Kua mua e fua meleni nei he humelie, meaning 'This melon is sweeter'. Literally, the sentence translates as: 'This melon excels in the sweetness', with he as the usual contraction of i he -— 'in the'. If the form is mua, followed by the adjective,followed by the subject, then the subject 'possesses' the adjective and the he used is the possessive article as follows: Kua mua e humelie he fua meleni nei, meaning * The sweetness of this melon excels'. 35.3 However, one may ask: 'Better than what?', 'Sweeter than what?', etc. Both the above methods are useful in comparing one thing with another. For example , * Mi si is better than that man' — Kua mua a Mi si he mitaki ke he tagata i ko. Note the a before Misi as a proper noun subject. Before common nouns, 'than' is translated by ke — * to', but before proper nouns and cardinal pronouns, 'than' is translated by i with the article a following. If we reverse the above sentence about Misi we get: 'That man is better than Misi* , which translates as Kua mua e tagata i kz> he mitaki i a Misi. The common noun subject is
33
preceded by 0 (as for intransitive verbs) while the compared object Misi will take the article a after i. The second method using the possessive is identical to the former in using i or ke followed by the appropriate article to mean 'than (that o f ) ' T h a t woman is taller than Si fa' could translate as Kua mua e loa he fifine na i a Sifa. Literally, 'Th^twoman's height is greater than (that of) Sifa'. The reason for the switch from i to ke before common nouns is to avoid possible confusion when two common nouns are compared, e.g. 'The girl is happier than the woman' — Kua mua atu e fiafia he tama fifine ke he patu fifine. If ke was not used, we would have the ambiguous sentence Kua mua atu e fiafia he tama fifine he patu fifine Which can also translate as 'The girl of the woman is happier', i.e. 'The woman's girl is happier'. Niueans may ensure greater separation of the common noun subject and common noun object by using (i) the first method above, thus: Kua mua atu e tama fifine he fiafia ke he patu fifine, or (ii) to separate even further by placing the subject before mua, thus: Ko e tama fifine kua mua he fiafia ke he patu fifine. Rather than belabour comparatives here, practice and experimentation will enable you to perfect your facility in this area. 35.4 With verbs, the superlative may sometimes be expressed using taha, e.g. Gahua taha — 'Work your hardest!' Adjectives often take an unpredictable form in the superlative: humelie ke lea ku lahi
1
sweet' 'bad' 'short' 5 large'
homo atu humelie muikau ku motimoti makimaki ~
sweetest' worst' ! shortest' huge/the biggest'
It will be best to stick with the to lahi e ... construction initially, even though this is essentially a comparative rather than a superlative. 36
FOR'
36.1 There is a further group of pronouns in Niuean which mean 1 for me', 'for you 5 , etc. It isn't really necessary to spell them out for they are identical to the possessive pronouns, except that the initial h is changed to m. Even the ha possessive article changes to ma thus; 'For Tepi ' — ma Tepi; ' for .me3 maaku; 5 for you (two) ' — ma mua „ « „ etc 36.2 Essentially the ma . .. construction is an adjective and so can also be used like a verb: Kua ma tautolu e tau mena kai nei which means the same as Ko e tau mena kai nei ma tautolu — fThis food is for us (plural inclusive) ! .
34 37.
SHOULD/MUST/TRY and BECOME
Four very useful constructions are presented to conclude our brief study of the main aspects of Niuean grammar. 37.1 'Should1 is translated as lata ke * 'You should rest now' is Kua lata ke okioki a koe he mogonei. Lata can also mean 'worthy of' or 'amounting to': Kua lata mo e limagofulu tala e totogi — 'The price amounted to fifty dollars'. 37.2 'Must', being an intensive of 'should' in English, is similarly treated in Niuean using lata tonu ke: 'They must return next year' — Kua lata tonu ke liliu mai a lautolu he tau ka hau. 37.3 'Try' is translated by lali. For instance, Lali lahi ke fakaako ke he vagahau — 'Try hard to study the language'. 37.4 'To become' uses eke mo % 'The Liku people became my friends' is Ne eke mo tau kapitiga haaku e tau tagata Liku.
THE A
NIUEAN BASIC
LANGUAGE: VOCABULARY
\
iM
37 THE USE OF THE VOCABULARY It is not always possible to match perfectly words and concepts in English to those in another language, and vice versa. Many words, especially nouns, are not subject to this difficulty but more abstract concepts can be and there are hence a few Niuean words in the following vocabulary which are very close to but not completely identical in meaning to the English definition given. In such cases it can be difficult to convey the complete essence of the Niuean word in a few English words when really a paragraph or a page might be needed. ClfO 3 S reference to McEwen will often give further information. Moreover, within the scope of the following vocabulary, it has not been possible to list the various derivatives and parts of speech that a word has. Cross reference to McEwen will give this fuller treatment in most cases. To study the language firsthand is, of course, the best text and it is suggested that, when and where possible, one asks Niueans to explain their understanding of the abstract words presented in the vocabulary. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS adj. adv. c.f. conj. e.g. etc.
adjective adverb compare conjunction for example and so on
n. pass. p.p. prep, pron. v.i. v.t.
noun passive form past participle preposition pronoun verb intransitive verb transitive
SPELLING Many Niuean words contain a f t f in spelling but one finds the rt' being pronounced ? s f in conversation. The practice in the following text has been to underline those * tr s that are pronounced ' s' . There are, however, a considerable number of introduced words containing * s' which are customarily spelt with the f s' , and hence this spelling is maintained in the text.
#
n §11
K
is lis II n
I I Ti" f.. A.
I I e
I
I
ENGLISH abandon abdomen (the lower part) able physically to do something above abundant (in food) abuse accept accident accuse ace (in cards) ache across Adam's apple add addition address admirable adopt {a child) adopted child advise (to give advise to) afraid after afternoon again again (please) age aggressive agreement aim (e.g. a rifle) air albino alcohol (beer) alert already although always America anaesthetise ancestor anchor angel anger (towards someone) animal annoy anoint (with oil) answer answer back ant ant-nest
NIUEAN
NOTES
11 ak x Cuapale
v.t. n.
fahia (i) luga mahu amuamu talia mena tupu'fakalutukia hokotaki sai mamahi, uhu fakalava poloka, ponaua lafi lafilafi matahigoa he kaina houa hiki tama hiki hataki {fakatonu,akonaki) matakutaku, hopoate hili, oti ~ pale la liu (preposed), agaia (postposed) liu foki (fakamolemole) tau fiatau maveheaga fakakimo pulagi mahele kava kona mataki^e, hakahakau fita Pp! e tumau Amerika fakaligo tupuna taula agelu vaha loto kelea/ita manu faguna tSkai tali tali kupu lo fatalo
v.i. adv. adj. v.t. v.t. n. v.t. n. v.i. adv. n. v.t. n n. adj. v.t. n. v.t. v.i. adv n adv
v.i. n adj. n. v.t. n. n. n. adj. adv. conj. adv. n. v.t, n. n. n. n. n. v.t. v.t. v.i. v.i. n • n -
ENGLISH appearance apple apron arm armpit army arrange arrowroot ascend ash ashamed ashtray ask (inquire) ask (request) ask parents for their daughter's in marriage assemble assembly asthma (to go) astray atop attractive audience August autumn avenge avoid axe
NIUEAN fofoga 5pala paao lima tefine kautau fakamau, fakatokatoka pia hake efuefu ma ta efu tapaka huhu ole uta vagahau fakapotopoto, tolo fakapotopotoaga,toloaga iniini, kai-ifa hehe (i) luga gali, fulufuluola papata Aokuso vaha mateafu taui ~ kalo kehe toki
NOTES n. n. n. n. n. n. v. t. n. v. i./v n. ad j . n, v. i. v. i. v. i, v. i. n. n. v. i. adv. ad j. n. n. n. v. t. v. t. n.
41
ENGLISH baby back (of the body) backside bad luck bad-tempered bait bald ball balloon banana band (of musicians) bandage bank (money) bang down barb bare bare foot bare (the teeth) bark (of a dog) bark (of a plant) barren (of a woman) bashful basin basket bat (for use in games like cricket) bath, bathe battery (for a torch) battery (for a vehicle) bay beach beach (near the high tide mark) beans (the vegetable) beard beat/hit beautiful because beckon bed bed pan beef beehive beer beforehand beg beg by holding out the hand begin begin sprouting
NIUEAN
NOTES
tama mukemuke tua muimui malaia hauhaua, ita-noa, ita-fua page kila, muna (fua) polo (fua) paluni (fua) futi kau ta kofe kala pipi fakahu tupe pahu hoe tunatuna hui-kula fakaxte ko he~kuli, au kili-akau tufua meo patea, pesini kato
n. ' • n. n. n. ad j . n. adj . n. n. n. n. n. v. i. v. t. n. adj . adj/adv. v. t. n. n. adj . adj . n. n.
pake koukou maka kasa puha hila afaga matafaga
n. v. i. n. n. n. n.
pokoahu pine haf e keli pulapulaola, fulufuluola h£, nukua alo mohega, moheaga po mimi, po fakavao vala povi fata px kava, pia fakamua kaiole
n. n. n. v. t. adj . con j . v. t. n. n. n. n. n. adv. v. t.
apo kamata tuputupu
v. t „ v.i./v.t. v, i,
42
ENGLISH
NIUEAN
(i) tua, (i) mui behind (in position) fakatato belch tua believe logo bell pipi belt loloku bend mauku bereavement hulalo beseech fakamamao beware tohi tapu bible pasikala taholi bicycle mavehe bid farewell lahi big matahuimotua big toe hahai, lilx bind manu-lele bird aho fanau birthday keke, paka falaoa, paka keke biscuit gagau, gugu^i bite bite off (e.g. rind, etc.) eti kona fifiti, kona vivi bitter (to the taste) bitterness (towards someone) vahaloto kelea uli black blackboard lapa tohi blanket mamoe, kafu bleeding nose pa toto e ihu bless fakamonu ina bless you.' - (said to someone tupu ola, moui hohoko who sneezes) matapouli blind blow (a musical instrument) ulo blow (of the wind) agi blow out air through puhi the mouth blow the nose f agu blue lanu moana blue-eyed mata lito, mata pusi blunt penu board lapa, laupapa boast hula boastful fia lahi body tino, tino body (of a person dead) £ino gati boil (of water) moho, puna bolt (of a nut) polu bonito takua book tohi bottle lupo bothersome okaoka, fakahoha, fair A 1 1 aim W
All
V N / 4
V*^ 7
NOTES adv v.i v.i n. n. v. t n. v.i, v.i, n. n. v. i adj n. v. t n. n. v. t v. t adj n. adj n. n. v.i v. t v.i. adj . v. t. v.i. v. t. V. t. adj . adj . adj . n. v.i. adj. n. n. vi. i n. n. n. n„ adj .
43
ENGLISH
NIUEAN
NOTES
bow (of a boat) bow (to a person) bowl (large) bowl (in cricket) bow-legged box box (the ears) boxing boy bra brackish (of water) brakes branch of a tree bread breadfruit break break of day break open breast (of a woman) breathe breeze breezy brink Britain broadcast broken broken (of language) broom (of coconut midribs) brother (of a male) (older) brother (of a male) (younger) brother (of a male)
ulu-vaka fakatokolalo, pa£ea Jeka hui takeke, hui kehokeho puha mo to humomi, taumoto-momi tama taane palehuhu maai taofi la-akau falaoa-tao (fua) mei lipi matafatafa, mahegihegi fela, lipi huhu fafagu havili, agiagi havilivili tapitapi Peritania fakapuloa, uta he leotaogo maona, maiona, mapaki ai iloa mitaki, kokekoke tafi (kaniu)
n. v.i n.
brother (of a female) brown bruise brush (for the hair) brush (general) bucket bud bullet buoy burden bury bus bush bush-knife bush track bus-stop busy butt (into a conversation) butt (of a cigarette) butter butterfly
taokete 1 plural is formed I by preposing tehina J 'lafu* matakainaga - nowadays more commonly used in the sense of 1brethren1 tugane kaki unoko, poloteka see 'comb' pulosi pakete tuputupu mata-pulu poe kavega tanu pati vao pelu hala-vao tuaga pati lavelave, apiapi oho noa mata potu pata pepe
adj nv. t n. n. n. adj, n. n. n. n• v.t, n. v.t n. v. i, n. adj n. n. v.t, adj adj n. n. n. n. n« adj n. n. n• n. v. i n. n• n. n. n. n. n. n. n. adj v. i nn» n•
44
ENGLISH cabbage (ordinary) cabbage (Chinese) cabinet calendar call call (or to name) calm (of the sea) calm down camera can (of food) candle can opener capsize captain captivity cards care care for careful careless carpenter carrot carry (between two people using a pole) carry (in the arms) carry (on the back) carry (on the shoulder) carry (under the arm) carry (with the hands) carry away cart cassava casette tape cat catch (e.g. a hen) catch (something thrown) catch fire Catholic cause trouble ceiling cement centennial centipede certainly chair challenge change change (e.g. bowlers in cricket) change (of money)