Story Time: Yidiñ & West Futuna-Aniwa

The Original Stories plus Direct Translation

Yidiñ:

The Yidiñ language is spoken by approximately 30 people on the north-eastern coast of Queensland, roughly on the base of the Cape York Peninsula.

The following tale was originally longer, but for the same of brevity, I cut it down so that the number of Yidiñ sentences did not exceed 25. If you would like to read the full story, it is available in full in Dixon’s grammar.

This tale was initially recounted by the late Buruuñ, also known as Tilly Fuller, who sadly did not live to see the publication of Dixon’s grammar.

Furthermore, the original text did not contain a title, and thus I felt obliged to create one of my own.

Wira Gawanday Bibiyuwuy

  1. Dyadya dyambuul waguudya ŋalalala guman buñamudyay guman mugu ñinaañ.
  2. Guman badyaarr bulmbaa dyambuul galiiñ dyambuungu dyambuungu dagaadyina dyambun dagaal.
  3. Guman gundaadyiñu galbaanda bandyaal.
  4. Ŋadyin wagal dyurmaŋ ŋañdyagumaandu dyambuunda ŋayu yiŋu miña bundyal.
  5. Ŋayu gana gundyiŋ bulmbaagu ŋadyin wagal wawaaliŋgaaliŋ dyadya dyangaanŋal ŋadyin bulmbaa gana gundyiŋ wawaaldaŋgaadaŋ.
  1. Ñundu dyurmaañ ŋadyin wagal ŋudyu.
  2. Guñi wara ñaŋgaadyin ñundu dyurmaañ ŋayu ñuniñ garu bundyaŋ.
  3. And he bundyaañ gurgaamari.
  4. Ñundu wulaŋala ŋayu ŋudyu ñunuungu duwu gadaŋ ŋayu bumba ñinaŋ ñundu ŋudyu duwu bayil ŋanda bundyaañ wulaañ.
  5. Gula ñari bagaal dungu gugaa budiil.
  1. Galiiñ banaa ŋabaŋaliiñ biriiñdya maluuway gana gadaañ guluguluuy gulugulu gadaŋalñu gabulula.
  2. Ñundu waña ŋayuña ñundu ŋañañ bundyaañ ŋayu gana gandyiiñ.
  3. Wañiingu ñundu gadaŋ ŋayu gadaañdyi wawaadyina bulmbaagu.
  4. Ñunduuba guriñ ñinaŋ rhrh ŋañdyi guriñ ñinaŋ.
  5. Wañi bulu gudyil ŋañdyi dyubuñ ŋuruu.
  1. Ŋañdyi wañiiŋal yiŋu dungu ŋuñndyuuŋ dungu ñumaal.
  2. Ŋayudi manŋalala ñari bagaalna ŋayu budyiiñ ŋuridyuluu ñari bagaalna.
  3. Ŋayu garu budyiŋ ñuniñ ŋuŋu dungu ŋayu gundaal wulaañ ŋadyin ŋumbarr wawawawaalna dungula babaal.
  4. Ŋayu gundyiŋala ŋayu ñunduubañ yiŋu badyarrala ŋayu galiŋala [wu:y] [wu:y] [wu:y] [wu:y] [wu:y] ŋayu dyugimari dyadyaamaŋ guman dyadyamaŋal gumaanbi dyadyamaŋal ŋayu gumaanbi ŋayu banaa biriiñdya galiŋ.
  5. Gulugulu ñunduuba buganala miña ŋayu gadaŋalñum.
  6. Ŋayu gana gundyiŋ ŋayu ñuniñ wawal dyambulamay dyambulamay gadan.
  7. Ŋayu ganaaŋgar galiŋ badiŋ.

In English:

The Ghost of Bibiyuwuy

  1. There were two brothers, who were grown up. One had two wives, while the other had zero wives, meaning that he had to sit in front of the fire for warmth on cold nights.
  2. One day, the unmarried brother remained in the camp. Meanwhile, the married brother and one wife went out for grubs, which they cut out of the rotten wood.
  3. The married brother cut an ash tree with an axe. He cut out a grub and tasted it.
  4. “My wife is having sex with my brother. This grub has a bad slimy animal taste,” he said to himself.
  5. “I must return to the camp, and take a look at my wife and child. Something bad has been done to them in the camp. I must return – come close and have a look.”
  6. “You’ve been swiving my wife,” the married brother yelled. The unmarried brother replied: “No.”
  7. “Don’t tell lies! You swived here. By and by I am going to hit and kill you.”
  8. And he hit him across the back of the neck and killed him.
  9. “Now you’re dead. My tears will not come for you. I am sitting here dry-eyed. Hey! No tears will come to my eyes. You were hit by me and you are dead.”
  10. He dug a hole in which to bury the body. And he put the head, which he had cut off, into a bark container.
  11. The spirit of the murdered brother went into the water, and bathed in the salt water. The spirit came with a black bream, for all the people to eat. He brought the black bream on a small stick.
  12. “Who are you?” asked all the people in the camp. “It’s me, alright,” he told the people. Then he turned to his brother and said: “you killed me, but I am returned.”
  13. The people asked him: “Why are you coming here?” The spirit replied “I am returned to look at the camp.”
  14. “Are you alright sitting here?” he asks them. They replied: “Yes, we’re alright sitting here.”
  15. “What’s the stink that I can smell?” asked the spirit. We all remained silent.
  16. The people spoke amongst themselves, asking, “What shall we do with his head? The spirit smelt his own head.”
  17. “I am really frightened. We will have to dig a hole and bury the head,” said the spirit’s mother. “I told you some time ago to dig a hole.”
  18. “I will have to tell him soon,” said his mother. When the spirit next returned she said to him: “After you died I cut off your head. I wanted to gaze on the face of my dead child – on his skull.”
  19. After he saw his own skull, the spirit said, “I will return to my spirit-home in the water. I am going away now.” As he went away, he called out: “Wuy, wuy, wuy, wuy, wuy.” (This is why he is called Bibiyuwuy). He continued: “I’m jumping through the trees, I jump over one stick, I jump over another stick, and I jump over a third stick. I am going into the saltwater.”
  20. “Now you can all eat the black bream, the seafood that I brought for you.
  21. “I am returning to the water. I will see you in two days. Come in two days.”
  22. “I am the first to go, crying as I do.”

West Futuna-Aniwa:

West Futuna-Aniwa is a language with approximately 1,500 speakers (as of 2001, according to the 18th edition of Ethnologue). It is native to, and named after, the islands of Futuna and Aniwa, which fall within the Tafea Province of Vanuatu.

Its Linguistic Classification is thus: Austronesian –> Malayo-Polynesian –> Oceanic –> Polynesian –> Futunic –> West Futuna-Aniwa.

Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, Dougherty’s grammar possessed only a single story. This text is a folktale from West Futuna.

The West Futuna-Aniwa source text:

Ta Muma ma Ta Ari

  1. Ta muma neitukage i ta ari pe aia kamokage kaipenpena aia.
  2. Kaitia tan tafa.
  3. U ta ari neitu pe, “mai kanpenpena.”
  4. U aia koitia tan tafa korava kaifurusia.
  5. Koitia uai tan tafa korava kaifurusia.
  1. Koitia tan tafa korava kaifurusia.
  2. Koitia tan tafa foki korufie.
  3. Aia koitukage i ta muma pe, “jirojiroa ou mahmata.”
  4. Ta muma kojiroa jiroa kaie nigkorufie ano mahmata.
  5. U aia koitukage i ta ari pe aia kaipenpena ta ari.
  1. Koisoroa tan tafa tan tasiana.
  2. Seifurusia ma.
  3. Feipe, aia neisoroa ta muma kai ta muma neisoroa ta ari seifurusia ma.
  4. Neisoroa tan tafa tan tasiana kohlafa.
  5. U aia koitu pe kaijirojiroa ano mahmata.
  1. U ta ari koijiroa jiroa kai ano mahmata nigkosa.
  2. Ta muma ifetakaro i ateia.
  3. U aia koitukage ki ta muma pe aia neipen ta muma nirufie ano mahmata kai ta muma neipena aia nisa mafi.
  4. U aia koitukage pe ai serofakea ma ki ta hgamokara makahkata e gatama i ateia.
  5. Kaie aia kahmuni i a one.

The English source text:

The Boxfish and the Flounder

  1. A boxfish once said to a flounder that he, the flounder, before anything else should fix him, the boxfish, up.
  2. He should file his side.
  3. So the flounder said, “Come here, I shall fix you up.”
  4. So he, the flounder, files his, the boxfish’s side completely and then turns him over.
  5. He files on his side until it’s finished and then he turns him over.
  6. He files the boxfish’s side completely and then he turns him over.
  7. He fines his other side and it looks good.
  8. He says to the boxfish, “Look, look at yourself.”
  9. The boxfish looks and looks at himself and his appearance has come out well.
  10. So he says to the flounder that he will fix him up.
  11. He files just one of the flounder’s sides.
  12. He doesn’t turn him over.
  13. It is like this, the flounder filed the boxfish appropriately, but the boxfish filed the flounder without turning him over.
  14. He filed just one of the flounder’s sides until it became flat.
  15. Then the boxfish said that the flounder should look closely at himself.
  16. So the flounder looked and looked at himself but his appearance had become ugly.
  17. The boxfish had played around with him.
  18. So he says to the boxfish that he had fixed up the boxfish and his appearance became good, but the boxfish fixed him up very poorly.
  19. So the flounder says that he will not come out into the open spaces for fear that the children might laugh at him.
  20. So he will always hide in the sand.

Story Commentaries:

Yidiñ: Wira Gawanday Bibiyuwuy

  1. Tilly Fuller’s original recounting of the story included an additional 12 lines: one before the above section and eleven after it. The previous line talked about the birth of the two brothers, while the succeeding eleven mainly talk about how various family members expressed their grief. These will be discussed below:         
  1. The reference to “in two days”. On replay Buruuñ said that it should be “in three days”.

In other versions of the story, Bibiyuwuy returned on each of the three days after his death. On the third day, he saw his head and “[went] to heaven]”.

  1. In his grammar, Dixon includes two myths, both of which centre around two brothers. In both stories, one brother has two wives while the other has zero. On each occasion, this causes some sort of tension between the brothers, although the consequences thereof are different.

It would be interesting to see if this motif of the quarrelling brothers appears in more Yidiñ myths and legends.

  1. The most obvious Western archetypal story against which to compare this is the story of Cain and Abel. However, there are only three points of similarity between the two stories. The first is that it is the elder brother who slays the younger, and the second is that after the murder, the elder brother later leaves the scene of the crime. Cain is sentenced to a life wondering, as punishment from God (or Yahweh), while the elder brother leaves in order to find a new camp (although in this venture he is joined by the rest of the tribe).

However, it should be noted that the tribe’s reason for moving away is to escape the smell of Bibiyuwuy’s decomposing face.

  1. The third point, meanwhile, is by the far the most interesting, and therefore requires the most explanation. In short, it centres round why the elder brother killed the younger.

But in order to explain it, it is necessary to refer to the section left out previously:

  1. Buñadyamu mudyam badiiñ bimbi ŋañdyaguman badiiñala bundyaadyiñum.
  2. Ŋayudi wagaalgu birrmbiirdyidagaŋ wagal ŋadyin dyangan ŋayu ŋañdyaguman ŋayu wañiingu bundyaañ ŋayu bundyaañ ŋadyin ŋañdyaguman ŋadyin guyiigu guyiigu mundu biñdyula ŋudyula ŋudyula badiina wulaañala.
  3. Ŋañdyi yiŋgu ñinaŋala bulmba wawaadyiŋ wawaadyiŋ bulmba ŋaliinala.
  4. Bama badiŋ bulmbaa ŋadyin waguudya dyadya ŋayu gumanala bimbi badiŋ galŋa dyudyum ŋañdyaguman dyaŋgul badiŋ wuŋga ŋuŋguugu gumaangu wagudyagu.
  5. Guriñ bulmbaagu ŋuŋgu burriigu dagaadyina banaagu dugaadyina buñaandyi.
  6. Ŋañdyi ŋuŋgum galinala dugurr yuŋgula dyaraalna yiŋu ŋamuuray dungu ñari bagal ŋañdyi ŋumbarr ŋumbarr wawaal yiŋgu bulmbaa.
  7. Ŋañdyi galiŋ yuŋgu dyalabiñala ñinaana.
  8. Ŋayu ŋudyula ŋadyin dungu ŋumbarr waybaadyiŋala dungu ŋadyin ŋudyula.
  9. Bama dyañdyiiñ ŋuŋgum bulmban galiiñ.
  10. Dyugaabal dyaraal bulmbabiñala.
  11. Yiŋu guriñ gadaŋ ŋumbarr wawaal burgiñunda.

In English, this will be the text directly copied from Dixon’s grammar. I originally wrote it with Dixon’s original square brackets included, but they annoyed me, so I decided to leave them out. With this in mind, it is worth noting that many of the terms in the English translation have no counterpart whatsoever in the original Yidiñ, and this applies also to the tale included above. 

  1. First, just the women, including mother, are crying. Then father joins in. And now brother cries because he had killed him.
  2. The murdering brother said: “I was jealous over my wife. But it was my wife who was no good and seduced my brother. My heard is broken because of my deed. I’m spiritless, sad and depressed. But no more now. No more crying now because he’s dead and gone and nothing can bring him back.
  3. “We all sit here now, looking around the camp, gazing about the camp. The camp just belongs to you and I now,” the murdering brother tells his son.
  4. The people cried and prayed in the camp. “There’s only my boy child, I’m on my own,” father cries. And uncle, auntie, brother and sister all cry, pray for that one dead man.
  5. “He was a good man. He would cut wood for the fire at the camp there, and he would fetch water, in the daytime.”
  1. “We must go from here now, to build a camp in another place, some way off. This place smells stale. First we’ll bury the head. We’ve been seeing his face all the time here in this camp.”
  2. “We’ll go far away, to settle on the other side of the creek.”
  3. Mother said: “I feel like nothing. My head – my face and head are going round (i.e. feeling dizzy). There’s nothing for me (i.e. nothing left in life for me).”
  4. The people shifted camp from that place, and went away.
  5. They set up house frames, at another place.
  6. This mother felt better when she came to the new camp. Her head felt alright now, and she could be seen walking about.

Now, there is one line in particular that I would like to point out, and this is Line 28. Although it is not explicitly stated, it can be assumed that the speaker of this sentence is probably the camp as a whole. It goes thus:

  1. Guriñ bulmbaagu ŋuŋgu burrigu dagaadyina banaagu dugaadyina buñaandi = “He was a good man. He would cut wood for the fire at the camp there, and he would fetch water, in the daytime.”

Returning to the purpose of this section: what, I hear you ask, is the relevance of this line in relation to the story of Cain and Abel?

To answer this, we must first consider the question: Why did Cain kill Abel?

Much like our two Yidiñ brothers, Cain and Abel played different roles in their community. Cain was a farmer, while Abel was a shepherd. At the allotted time, they would both offer sacrifices from their own produce, but God always favoured Abel over Cain, and this was the cause of Cain’s envy.

While the full story is undoubtedly more nuanced, this is a sufficiently high resolution for our purposes here.

Do we see something similar in Wira Gawanday Bibiyuwuy?

Somewhat. At the start of this chapter, the married brother (with his wife) cuts down an ash tree, which is rotten and filled with grubs. Of course, for the Yidiñ, grubs would have probably been a source of nutrition, but I can’t imagine it was a particularly well-respected job (at least for a man, who could be out hunting dangerous game).

Indeed, perhaps he felt angry at being sent to slice rotten wood with his axe, while his brother had the relatively more prestigious job of cutting firewood and fetching water. It may have been this greater prestige that caused the second wife to become unfaithful (assuming that she did. Unfortunately we do not hear her side of the story, and the infidelity is never confirmed outside of the married brother’s ravings. Although for this analysis, the truth of the woman’s fidelity, or lack thereof, is immaterial.)

Anyway, does this provide evidence that the unmarried brother’s contribution to the general good was valued more highly than that of the married brother?

Possibly yes, possibly no. To answer this question I would require a greater knowledge of pre-contact Yidiñ social attitudes. Regardless, it is an interesting train of thought to consider.

  1. Before we get too ahead of ourselves, it is necessary to remember that this should not be considered a 1-to-1 with this section of the Book of Genesis. Far from it.

Perhaps the largest departure is the return of the murdered brother’s spirit, and with it the secret to fishing and eating the black bream fish. Maybe this represents an ancient ancestral memory concerning the hardship involved in gaining this skill.

  1. Yidiñ has two main dialects: Coastal and Tablelands. This tale was told in the latter. Just as Cain was exiled to the Land of Nod, which is East of Eden, maybe this means to imply that the Yidiñ once lived further inland than they do now. This is possible when one considers that the Coastal dialect group lies to the east of the Tablelanders. If it is the case that they migrated east from the Tablelands to the Coast, then it is equally possible that they once migrated from further west (or a different direction), to the Tablelands.
  2. Regardless to the truth of my pontifications, this story does have its own meanings. According to the explanatory text, this story concerns the origin of death. After being murdered by his brother, and returning to see his own skull, he goes to the land of the spirits, and enjoins everyone to follow him in due course.

To continue with our metaphorical analysis, it could be that the two or three day period mentioned by Bibiyuwuy as a reference to the two or three stages of human life.

  1. Last, but not least, we have the first sentence in our story. As mentioned earlier, this deals with the birth and infancy of the two brothers.

Without further ado:

  1. Dyambuul waguudya dyadya gabaal yiŋgu duguuda dyimurr dugurr guygi guygii bambiil dyimurula.
  2. Two male children were born, in this house. It was a large house, of loya vine. They were covered over in their cribs in the big loya vine house.

As you can tell, there is not much to really delve into here. Unless the loya vine possesses some symbolism that has escaped me, then this is the extent of my commentary on this story.

West Futuna-Aniwa: Ta Muma ma Ta Ari

  1. After some cursory searching I was unable to find any material about this myth. However, I did find some information concerning the mythology of Vanuatu and wider Melanesia in general. We won’t discuss this here, but if you’re interested I included some links at the end.

However, in my research I did find out something interesting about the location of West Futuna-Aniwa. As mentioned earlier, it is spoken in the Province of Tafea, which is the southernmost of the six that constitute the archipelago nation of Vanuatu.

Itself, the name Tafea is an acronym built from the names of the 5 main islands, these being: Tanna, Aneityum, Futuna, Erromango and Aniwa.

(Meanwhile, in the language currently under discussion, the verb tafea means either to drift or to be pulled.)

  1. Before I began writing this section, I knew what a flounder looked like, but I had never heard of a boxfish before. Having since seen a few pictures of them, I can indeed understand why it has this name. If English is not your first language and you thus haven’t heard of these two fish before, you’ll see plenty of examples in the accompanying artwork.
  2. Having established that we will not discuss the myth itself, what ever will we do with the remaining space? What will I talk about instead?

In the original chapter on West Futuna-Aniwa, there is one aspect that I did not have the time to cover there. This topic is that of the prominent winds that wash over the island, and their many individual names.

Here is a picture lifted straight from Dougherty’s grammar:

(C) indicates that the word comes from previous work by the linguist Arthur Capell, who made his own survey of the West Futuna Aniwa in 1958.

In this section, we will analyse the names of all these winds in turn, starting from the North-Eastern corner with tamtagi raki and going clockwise around the island. Naturally, not all of these will have names that can be sub-divided into smaller components.

These winds are:

  1. tamtagi raki

Neither of these words appear directly in these forms in the dictionary. Despite this, it is possible to make a guess as to their possible etymology.

tamtagi could be a contraction of the words ta and mtagi.

ta is the Singular Definite Article, i.e. it directly translates into English as the, but can only refer to one item.

mtagi, meanwhile, is the general word for wind.

There are two possibilities as to the origin of raki:

The first is that it could be a shortened form of two words:

  1. rakia, a verb which means to change.
  2. rakita, a noun which refers to a small and meaty variety of coconut.

However, it could be that raki actually comes from the word ragi, which means sky or heaven.

Personally, I am not entirely convinced by either hypothesis. This is more of an exercise in etymological detective work on my part.

  1. retuamlai

retuamlai, on the other hand, does have a dictionary entry. It is given simply as north east wind.

I did attempt to see if it could be divided into smaller components, but I drew a blank at possibilities for –lai, so we shall quickly move on.

  1. retmatoga

retmatoga, meanwhile, has two separate entries in the dictionary. These are:

  1. the north wind
  2. a wind from the east or slightly north of east.

In addition, there is also the term retmatoga ma toga, which means east south east wind.

It is possible that retmatoga can be divided into three components.

As one can expect, the latter two are ma and toga, which will be discussed shortly.

ret, in this context, is a possible reduction of retu, a word whose primary meaning is road or path. Its secondary meaning is a metaphorical extension of the first, meaning a manner of doing something or a method.

Essentially, it translates into English as way in both senses of the word.

  1. etoga

In its dictionary entry, etoga is defined as simply east wind.

  1. toga

The word toga has three meanings, two as a noun and one as an adjective.

As a noun, it can mean either Tonga, or south.

As an adjective, meanwhile, it has a range of meanings, including: faraway, distant, southern and foreign.

This lattermost meaning is present in the phrase fakai toga, which means foreign people.

  1. oritoga

In the dictionary, oritoga is given as south east wind.

The noun ori means substitute, replacement, equivalent or heir.

Furthermore, the noun ori forms the verb oria, which has a whole range of meanings. These meanings fall into three orders, which I will explore in what seems to me the most natural order:

  1. to exchange, to trade, to replace or to change.

orimoega = to change clothes

orifesao = to exchange words or to argue 

  1. to reply or to answer

au kankoria = I will answer (when speaking) or I will reply (when exchanging letters)

  1. to mete out a punishment equivalent to the crime committed

avau kagkoria i akirea a penaganea sore area = I will exchange punishments with them for their great wrongdoings

Since they do not feature in the story, I will make a quick note about the pronouns of West Futuna-Aniwa.

In West Futuna-Aniwa, Pronouns decline for four Grammatical Numbers, these being: Singular, Dual, Trial and Plural. In the 3rd Person, this gives us:

Singular:          i ateia = with him / with her

Dual:               i akiraua = with the two of them

Trial                 i akiratou = with the three of them

Plural:              i akirea = with all of them (whose number is equal to or greater than four)

Before we move on, we shall briefly explore these in context:

B – 1   avau kagkoria i ateia a penaganea sore iana = I will exchange punishments with him for his great wrongdoings.

B – 2   avau kagkoria i akiraua a penaganea sore iaraua = I will exchange punishments with the two of them for their great wrongdoings

B – 3   avau kagkoria i akiratou a penaganea sore iaratou = I will exchange punishments with the three of them for their great wrongdoings       

Indeed you may have noticed that the final word in the sentence changed each time. This occurs because it is the relevant Possessive Pronoun. Naturally, we lack the space to explore it here, but it receives plenty of attention in the original Chapter.

  1. toga rari

rari can act as either an Adjective or an Adverb.

As an Adjective it means ready, for example nikorari = it is ready.

Furthermore, this word is a double borrowing. It comes from the Bislama word rere, which itself comes from the English word ready.

As an adverb, it means exclusively, only, truly or exceedingly. For example:

e sa rari = it is exceedingly bad

te i aniua rari = it is the Aniwan use only

In this latter definition, we can assume that it comes directly from an earlier phase of the language’s development.

  1. toga ma toga

ma is a word with many meaning, and we will briefly go over most of them. (We will exclude one of the meanings because it will appear when we discuss the grammar of the main story.)

As a noun, ma means sister-in-law, but it is only used by women to identify either a potential spouse or the sibling of a spouse. It can also refer to a female cross-cousin, i.e. the daughter of one’s mother’s brother or father’s sister.

As a verb, it means either to be ashamed or to be embarrassed. (Here, however, it can take the alternate form hma).

As an adjective, it means clear or clean.

It can also translate as and or with. Examples of both include:

natuka ma pil nifagota = Natuka and Bill went fishing

akoutou nofura ma ta pal = The three of you are running with the ball

Personally, I feel that this is the best way to translate ma in the context of this wind. Based on its direction of origin, south and south appears to be a very reasonable translation.

  1. togatea

The –tea in togatea has two possible meanings.

As a Pronominal Suffix, –tea indicates the 1st Person Plural Inclusive. For example:

B – 4   niatea ru ureji = Belonging to all of us, including you, are two coconut crabs

B – 5   i tau ki akitea = It is enough for all of us, including you

B – 6   kagpena i tasi a pepa i akitea = I will make a book about all of us, including you

In West Futuna-Aniwa, the pronouns are actually extremely regular. Consequently, all 1st Person Plural Inclusive Pronouns ending in –tea, i.e. about all of us, including you, referring explicitly to four or more people.

As an Adjective, however, tea or htea means white or bright. Examples include:

a fatu tea = the white rocks

kano mata tea = the whites of the eye

Moreover, it is possible to treat this Adjective like a Suffix, for example:

kantea = white meat or fat

jihtea = white meat of a shellfish

Now, if we assume that togatea means bright wind or white wind, then this might give us a clue to the nature of the wind itself.

If togatea means bright wind, does this mean that it appears when the sun is shining with a particular brightness?

If, on the other hand, togatea means white wind, does this mean that it is a particularly powerful wind that raises many whitecaps off the ocean surface?

  1. ruitoga

ruitoga is defined in the dictionary as wind from the south.

It can also take the alternate forms uritoga and ritoga

By itself, the word uritoga is given its own entry meaning southerly wind.

  1. ruitoga tane

In the dictionary, ruitoga tane is defines as winds coming from just west of south.

It can also appear as the alternate forms uritoga tane and ritoga tane

By itself, the word tane means male, boy or man, and it only occurs in the singular form.

(It also functions as a Relative Pronoun, but based on the next entry, I’m confident that this is the intended meaning, if there is one.)

  1. ruitoga fine

Meanwhile, ruitoga fine means winds from the southwest, and can take the alternate forms of ruitgoa fina and ritoga fine

But what does fine mean?

By itself fine means female, girl, woman or wife.

Thus, it seems that the southern wind comes in three varieties: Standard, Male and Female.

I wonder if this represents the direction wherefrom the Polynesian sailors first sighted the island, or the coast whereon they first made contact with the Melanesian natives, to whom they probably introduced the breadfruit plant.

Indeed, if we take the relative locations of the male and female southern winds literally, we could propose that the Polynesian men and women travelled on separate outriggers. I do not know if this was a regular practice among them, but it does make you wonder.

  1. tokorau

tokorau is defined in the Dictionary as southwest wind.

This word is believed to be descended from the Proto-Polynesian word *tokelau, which actually means north or northerly wind.

This piece of evidence, I feel, strengthens the idea that the Polynesians discovered this island from this general direction.

If they arrived from the south, then the wind that carried them would be headed in a northward direction. Of course, once the destination is reached, the relative direction is reversed, and thus it is called a southern wind. Now that you’ve settled down, it matters less where the wind is going, but from whence it has originated.

  1. rifafa

rifafa is given two definitions in Dougherty’s dictionary, these being west wind and west south west wind.

This has two alternate forms, those being ruifafa and urifafa, both of which receive their own dictionary entries:

ruifafa = west south west winds

urifafa = westerly wind

As you will have noticed, uri appears as a Prefix in a number of winds.

Partly, this is because it is a verb which means to steer about.

  1. parapu uri
  2. parapu

In addition, uri can also function as an Adjective, which means black or dark. Examples include:

kano mata uri = iris or pupil (literally the black of the eye)

kano uri = dark meat

pena kaie niuriuri = Fix it up, but it’s really dirty

(The third example involves an incident of reduplication.)

In the dictionary, parapu uri is defined as wind blowing into Futuna from a few degrees south of due west.

parapu, meanwhile, simply refers to the wind from the west.

I’m not sure what it means that parapu uri can be translated as black wind from the west.

In addition, there is a wind unnamed on the diagram, which is parapuri.

parapuri = wind from the south-east

It is not featured on the diagram because it only affects the island of Aniwa, and not West Futuna.

  1. tokorau tu

Although tokorau enjoys its own entry in the dictionary, tokorau tu does not.

tu has many meanings, as well as a few alternative forms

As an Intransitive Verb, it has a number of meanings, some of which work slightly differently to others.

These two meanings take the Prefix h- with a Non-Singular Subject:

tu = to stand

B – 7   akoe notu i hluga = You (alone) are standing up on top

B – 8   akirea nohtu = All of them are standing

tu = to stick straight into something

B – 9   ano ntarai nohtu i ai = Its thorns will stick right into it

B – 10 kasifa e tuhtu = The reef pierces (your feet

These other three meanings do not take the Prefix h- with a Non-Singular Subject. (At least I assume this is the case, because with the previous two the presence of this Prefix is explicitly stated, whereas with the latter three it is not.)

tu = to be constant or to be continual

B – 11  e tu ta mtagi = the wind will blow constantly in our direction

tu = to be exactly on target

B – 12 nagjiria ta kuli nitu = I threw a missile at the dog and it hit

tu = to guess correctly or to be right

B – 13  pe rohtu kaia kofano = If he is right, he will go

B – 14 fakau te nitu ra = That person there is the one who guessed

As a Transitive Verb, tu takes the Alternative form tukua.

tu / tukua = to say or to tell

In addition to all these, tu also functions as an Adjective, where it takes the Alternative Form htu.

tu = straight, directly, exactly or accurately

Now, as you can tell, there seems to be a degree of continuity between the meanings of tu as an Intransitive Verb and as an Adjective. I imagine what happened is that its first meaning was to stand, and underwent semantic drift in a number of metaphorical directions.

For example, you stand on a single spot, which naturally extends to the idea of being in the exact or correct spot, and thus to being on target. In addition, standing also brings up the idea of standing by someone, which implies continuity

With all this in mind, it seems that tokorau tu means something along the lines of direct southern wind or accurate southern wind.

Maybe this is an indication that this wind is particularly reliable, or blows in a more constant direction, at least compared to its namesake.  

  1. paramisi

paramisi is curious because it has two entries in the dictionary, which contradict one another. These are:

paramisi = wind from the northwest

paramisi = wind from the southeast

The latter definition comes from Capell, while the former comes from Dougherty. I am not quite sure of the significance of this, or the reason behind it.

One hypothesis could be that the wind has two names, one on Futuna and another on Aniwa. Based on the co-ordinates given for their Longitude and Latitude, Aniwa lies north-east of Futuna. (Indeed, Futuna is the easternmost island in Tafea Province.)

If we assume that this wind can change directions (I don’t know a lot about the meteorological science about this), then on Futuna it would come from the Northwest, and on Aniwa from the Southeast.

  1. paramatua

paramatua is defined as a wind from the northwest, and nothing more

Nevertheless, I thought it would be worth our while to see if either paramisi or paramatua can be divided into smaller components

para is an Adjective which means spoiled, watery, rotten or overripe.

More interesting, although, is its etymology. para is the descendent of one or a combination of three words in reconstructed Proto-Polynesian. These are:

*pala = ripe or rotten

*pela = dirty or decayed

*pe’e = overripe

While misi does not possess a dictionary entry, matua does.

matua / mahtua = mature, full grown or large

Examples include:

poja vae matua = big toe

poja rima matua = thumb

tiaku uru matua = my first child (lit. my big head

matua is believed to have descended from the Proto-Polynesian word *matu’a, which meant parent.

  1. retmatua

retmatua is defined simply as the northwest wind.

It is possible that retmatua could be a contraction of retu matua, which would mean large path. If this is true, the inference is that this wind is particularly powerful, or affects a relatively large area at once.

  1. retuarari

retuarari is defined as a wind from the north and north west

The dictionary includes two examples of this word in use:

retuarari ma ruetu = the winds blowing from both west and east of due north

retuarari ma retmatua = north westerly winds

If we assume that retuarari is a contraction of retu rari, with the a being epenthetic (i.e. inserted to prevent an illegal letter combination), then it means something along the lines of rare wind or wind of excessive size.

Bearing in mind that on Dougherty’s diagram, there is a far greater concentration of named winds in the South than in the North. Thus it strikes me as not improbably that this wind is relatively uncommon.

  1. ruetu

ruetu is defined simply as winds from the north and north east.

Now, you may notice that the word ruetu is only one vowel away from retu, which means path.

Is this a mere coincidence, or does it indicate something deeper?

  1. ruotmatoga

Last, but not least, we have ruotmatoga, which is defined in the dictionary as the north east wind.

Schleicher’s Fable:

English:

The Sheep and the Horses:

  1. On a hill, a sheep that had no wool saw some horses: one of them pulling a heavy wagon, one carrying a big load and one carrying a man quickly.
  2. The sheep said to the horses: “My heart pains me, seeing a man driving horses.”
  3. The horses said: “Listen sheep our hearts pain us when we see this: a man, the master, makes the wool of the sheep into a warm garment for himself. And the sheep has no wool.”
  4. Having heard this, the sheep fled into the plain.

Yidiñ:

Miña Gambi Miña Yaraman

  1. Dyaruwayla miñaaŋ gambiiŋ dyibigambiildu yaraman wawaal; gumaandu yaramandu wira miwaal mundaal; gumaandu wira ŋalal dimbaañ; gumaandu bama waguda gidyaañ dimbaañ.
  2. Miña yaramanda ñaŋgaadyiñu: “ŋayu burña bagarr, wawaalñum: bamaal wagudyaŋgu yaraman bundyaaŋ”.
  3. Yaraman ñaŋgadyiñu: “binaŋa miña, ŋañdyi burña bagarr, wawaalñum: bamaal wagudyaŋgu, burrmbaaydyu, gambidyibim murray ganagayuy ñagil mulbiidyiŋ. miña dyibigimbal”
  4. Banaŋalñum, miña badyaa dyuŋgaañ

West Futuna-Aniwa:

Ta Sipsip ma Taka Hos

  1. I hgauta hgaro taka hos nei mata e sipsip tera; e tasi noi toia vaka mafa, e tasi noi fakina favaka sore, e tasi noi fakina tane ueuaha.
  1. Ki hos nei tu e sipsip: „tuku roto koi hmae, feipe kon mata: tane oi taia hos.“
  1. Ki sipsip ni tu e hos: „takomatou roto ko hmae, feipe akimatou ko mata: e tane, ariki, koi pena fufuru sipsip ki moega sokoia. ariki niana jikai fufuru”
  1. Feipe nei rogona, sipsip nei tere ki makara.

Line-by-line Translation:

Wira Gawanday Bibiyuwuy

The Ghost of Bibiyuwuy

wira gawanday = ghost

Bibiyuwuy = Bibiyuwuy

There are a number of Yidiñ words that refer to a variety of spirits. Gawanday refers specifically to the spirit of a dead person, which here translates as ghost.

But what is wira?

The Yidiñ language possesses a feature called Noun Classification. To put is simply, the typical Noun Phrase involves a Generic Noun and a Specific Noun.

In this sentence, our Generic Noun is wira, and our Specific Noun is gawanday.

In addition, all of the Generic Nouns can also act like individual nouns when they appear by themselves.

The Generic Noun wira simply means moveable object, and as a classifier it has the widest purview.

There are, if I remember correctly, between 15 to 20 Noun Classifiers, and these fall into two Categories: Inherent Nature and Function/Use.

wira belongs to the second category, and can essentially refer to everything except for humans.

We will meet a number of other Noun Classifiers as we progress through this section.

2. Dyadya dyambuul waguudya ŋalalala guman buñamudyay guman mugu ñinaañ.

2.There were two brothers, who were grown up. One had two wives, while the other had zero wives, meaning that he had to sit in front of the fire for warmth on cold nights.

dyadya = small children

dyambuul = two

waguudya = boys

ŋalalala = are now big

guman = one of them

buñamudyay = had two wives

guman = one of them

mugu = had no option but

ñinañ = sat

dyadya waguudya is another example of the Generic + Specific Noun combination.

dyadya is the Specific Noun, which means small child.

waguudya is a variant of the Generic Noun wagudya, which means male human, which by itself means man

The word buñamudyay is built from two components:

  1. buña, a noun which means woman.
  2. -mudyay is the Comitative Suffix, which roughly translates as with.

buña, meanwhile, also acts as a Noun Classifier for female humans.

Last, but not least, is the particle mugu.

By itself, mugu is given the translation “couldn’t help it”, but this is rather vague.

Basically, mugu indicates that an action was both unsatisfactory and also unavoidable.

In this sentence, it indicates that although the unmarried brother did not want to sit in front of the fire by himself, he had no choice because he had no wives of his own.

3. Guman badyaarr bulmbaa dyambuul galiiñ dyambuungu dyambuungu dagaadyina dyambun dagaal.

3. One day, the unmarried brother remained in the camp. Meanwhile, the married brother and one of his wives went out for grubs, which they cut out of the rotten wood.

guman = one, the unmarried brother

badyaarr = stayed

bulmbaa = in the camp

dyambuul = two of them, the married brother and one wife

galiiñ = went

dyambuungu = for grubs

dyambuungu = for grubs

dagaadyina = cut in order to get

dyambun = grubs

dagaal = cut

dyambuungu is the Purposive Case Declension of dyambun, which refers to a species of grub which makes its home in candlenut and pine trees.

Now what is the Purposive Case?

In many languages, Indirect Objects are indicated via the use of a Dative Case.

Yidiñ, however, makes a distinction in terms of Indirect Objects, which can be described as Passive and Active.

Passive Indirect Objects take the Dative Case, while Active Indirect Objects take the Purposive Case. We will discuss the Dative Case in greater detail when it appears naturally in the text.

Anyway, by Active Indirect Object, this indicates that it plays a major, active role in the event wherein it takes place.

Meanwhile, dagaadyina is built from three components:

  1. dagaa comes from the verb dagal, which means to cut, to chop or to sever.
  2. -dyi is a reduced from of –dyin, which has many functions. Here it fulfils its Anti-Passive purpose, which we will explore later.
  3. -na is the Purposive Suffix.

Among the languages of Australia, it is not uncommon for both nouns and verbs to take Case Suffixes. Basically, this reduces ambiguity, i.e. the Purposive Verb is used to achieve the Purposive Noun.

By itself, the Purposive Suffix means in order to.

4. Guman gundaadyiñu galbaanda bandyaal.

4. The married brother cut an ash tree with an axe. He cut out a grub and tasted it.

guman = one (the married brother)

gundaadyiñu = cut

galbaanda = with an axe

bandyaal = tasted

gundaadyiñu is built from three components:

  1. gundaa is derived from the verb gundal, which means to cut.
  2. -dyi is a reduced from of the Anti-Passive Suffix –dyin.
  3. -ñu is the Past Tense Suffix.

Now what, I hear you ask, is the Anti-Passive?

Basically, it is a natural consequence of a language taking on an Ergative-Absolutive Alignment.

To understand this, here are two sentences:

B – 15 Bamaal miwaal maŋgum = The person picked up the frog

B – 16 Bama gundyiin = The man returned

Here, we see two forms of the noun bama, which means person or human being. These are:

  1. bamaal, which is in the Ergative Case (and highly irregular), and;
  2. bama, which is in the Absolutive Case.

Now in B-15. bamaal is the Agent, i.e. the one doing the picking, while in B-16, bama is the Subject, i.e. it is doing something, but it does not take any Object.

It is not possible to swap these around, i.e. put them in the other sentence. For example:

B – 17 *bama miwaal maŋgum = The man saw the frog

This sentence is ungrammatical (or incomplete) because it is not possible to figure out who saw whom (or if some unknown third party saw them both).

miwal is a Transitive Verb, which means that it always needs both an Agent and an Object.

B – 18 *bamaal gundyiin = The man returned

This sentence is unambiguously ungrammatical.

gundyin is an Intransitive Verb, which means that it can never interact with an Ergative Agent. Never.

This leaves us with a problem. Namely, what if a man both picked up a frog and returned.

One solution is to use two sentences, thus:

B – 19 Bamaal miwaal maŋgum. Bama gundyiin. = The man picked up the frog. The man returned.

However, this is a somewhat cumbersome construction, since it involves repeating the word for man. In order to avoid this, and turn these two sentences into a singular one, we can use the Anti-Passive.

This gives us:

B – 20 Bama miwaadyiñu maŋguumba gundyiin = The man picked up the frog and returned.

To execute the Anti-Passive correctly, there are three steps to follow:

  1. Attach the Anti-Passive Suffix –dyin to the Transitive Verb (and conjugate it appropriately).
  2. Replace the Ergative Noun with its Absolutive Equivalent, i.e. the Agent turns into a Subject. Thanks to the presence of the Anti-Passive Suffix, it now acts as both Agent and Subject.
  3. Replace the Absolutive Noun with its Locative or Dative Equivalent, i.e. the Direct Object becomes an Indirect Object.

Of course, you may be wondering why they put up with this complicated process when there is a simpler solution available. I also wonder why this pattern exists myself, but personally I prefer to live in a world where it exists.

It makes me happy that there exists this diversity in forms Morpho-Syntactic Alignment. Aside from representing an entirely different conceptualisation of agency, it carries a rhythm and melody of its own.

5. Ŋadyin wagal dyurmaŋ ŋañdyagumaandu dyambuunda ŋayu yiŋu miña bundyal.

5. “My wife is having sex with my brother. This grub has a bad slimy taste,” he said to himself.

ŋadyin = my

wagal = wife

dyurmaŋ = is being swived

ŋañdyagumaandu = by my brother

dyambuunda = the grub

ŋayu = me

yiŋu = this

miña = animal

bundyal = bad taste

miña is another Noun Classifier. It is an Inherent Nature Classifier, and it refers to any form of edible flesh food, which in Yidiñ refers to any animal that is eaten, as well as eggs. Animals that are not eaten are not classified as miña.

So far, we have only discussed the Morpho-Synactic Alignment of Nouns. It is not time to discuss the Morpho-Syntactic Alignment of Pronouns, which is different.

Basically, Yidiñ pronouns operate in the same manner as English ones, i.e. they adhere to the Nominative-Accusative Alignment with which you should be more familiar.

Here are some examples, also involving the aforementioned bama and bamaal:

B – 21 Ŋayu ñambiin bama = I painted the person              (Agent: ŋayu, Object: bama)

B – 22 Bamaal ñambiin ŋañañ = The person painted me    (Object: ŋañañ, Agent: bamaal)

B – 23 Ŋayu walŋgaal = I floated in the water.                     (Subject: ŋayu)

B – 24 Bama walŋgaal = The man floated in the water        (Subject: bama)

In B – 21 and B – 22, we have the Transitive Verb ñambin, which means to paint, while in B – 23 we see the Intransitive Verb walŋgal, which means either to float in the water or to glide through the air.

Sentences B – 21 to B – 24 show us two different forms of Morpho-Syntactic Alignment. The difference between them revolves around the Subject, and which Argument it chooses to resemble.

As a general rule, Pronouns follow Nominative-Accusative Alignment, which is where the Subject acts like the Agent and the Object is specifically marked.

Nouns, as explored earlier, follows Ergative-Absolutive Alignment, which is where the Subject acts like the Object, and the Agent receives special marking.

6. Ŋayu gana gundyiŋ bulmbaagu ŋadyin wagal wawaaliŋgaaliŋ dyadya dyangaanŋal ŋadyin bulmbaa gana gundyiŋ wawaaldaŋgaadaŋ.

6. “I must return to the camp, and take a look at my wife and child. Something bad has been done to them in the camp. I must return – come close and have a look.”

ŋayu = I

gana = must

gundyiŋ = return

bulmbaagu = to the camp

ŋadyin = my

wagal = wife

wawaaliŋgaaliŋ = go and take a look

dyadya = child

dyangaanŋal = something bad has happened

ŋadyin = my

bulmbaa = to the camp

gana = must

gundyiŋ = return

wawaaldaŋgaadaŋ = come right up and take a look

This sentence, as its length would suggest, is replete with new grammatical concepts. However, we do not have time to discuss all of them here, so we shall only explore the one that does not appear again. This feature is the Reduplicated Coming/Going Aspect Suffix.

wawaaldaŋgaadaŋ is built from three components:

  1. wawaa comes from the verb wawal, which means to see.
  2. -ldaŋgaada is the Reduplicated Coming Aspect Suffix.
  3. -ŋ is the Present Tense Suffix.

Now what is the Reduplicated Coming Aspect, and how does it differ from the regular Coming Aspect?

One difference between the two is that while the Coming Aspect exists in both the Coastal and Tableland dialects of Yidiñ, while the Reduplicated variant only occurs in the Tablelands dialect.

Basically, the Coming Aspect indicates that the action was performed either during or after the act of coming somewhere. Other examples include:

B – 25 wunaŋadan yiŋgu = Come and sleep here!

B – 26 ŋadyin mudyam dyuŋgaŋadaŋ = My mother is running here (lit. My mother is coming running)

Now, as far as could be discerned, the Reduplicated form of coming means something along the lines of coming close up.

For example, while wawaaldaŋgaadaŋ means something along the lines of come right up and have a look, the regular Coming Aspect wawaaldaŋ would simply mean come and look.

Sadly, however, due to the death of language informant Buruuñ (or Tilly Fuller) in 1974, among other factors, Dixon was unable to elicit as much on this suffix as he would have preferred.

Here are the regular and Reduplicated Coming Aspect Suffixes, sorted by Verb Class:

Yidiñ has three verb Classes, the N, L and Rr Classes, which are indicated via their final noun. There is not a lot of difference among the three classes, except that their suffixes start with the eponymous letter

Anyway, now that we have discussed the Reduplicated Coming Aspect, it is worth discussing the Reduplicated Going Aspect.

As you might have guessed, the Going Aspect indicates that the action was performed during or after the act of going somewhere.

Examples of the regular Going Aspect are:

B – 27 ŋadyin bimbi dyiŋgaŋaliŋ = My father is running away (lit. My father is going running)

B – 28 Yagaldyidaa ŋayu wulaŋaliŋ = I will go and die in Yagaldyida

While the regular Coming Aspect Suffix means something like while going away, the Reduplicated Going Aspect means something along the lines of going right away.

This is the relevant table:

Now, as you may have noticed, all of the various Coming and Going Suffixes end in the letter /n/. This means that, in terms of Tense Conjugation, they act like N – Class Verbs. The same is true of the Suffix –dyin, and, for that matter, most if not all other Verbal Suffixes.

7. Ñundu dyurmaañ ŋadyin wagal ŋudyu.

7. “You’ve been swiving my wife,” the married brother yelled. The unmarried brother replied: “No.”

ñundu = you

dyurmaañ = swived

ŋadyin = my

wagal = wife

ŋudyu = no

As far as I can tell, swive is an Australian English slang word which means to engage in sexual intercourse (with).  I don’t know how widely it is used within Australia, or elsewhere in the Anglo-sphere, or anything concerning the social factors around its use. The truth is that I have only ever encountered it in grammars of Australian Aboriginal languages. Interpret this information as you will.

Anyway, the only new grammatical feature in this sentence is the negation word ŋudyu.

This word basically means anything along the lines of no, not or even never, with the exact meaning dependent on context.

8. Guñi wara ñaŋgaadyi ñundu dyurmaañ ŋayu ñuniñ garu bundyaŋ.

8. “Don’t tell lies! You swived her. By-and-by I’m going to hit and kill you.”

guñi = don’t

wara = the wrong way

ñaŋgaadyin = talk

ñundu = you

dyurmaañ = swived

ŋayu = I

ñuniñ = you

garu = by-and-by

bundyaŋ = going to hit and kill

There are two particles in this sentence: guñi and wara.

Depending on which dialect you are speaking, guñi essentially does a full 180o shift in meaning.

In the Tablelands dialect, it functions as a Negative Imperative. Basically, it is a direct translation for the English word don’t, but only when giving instructions or commands.

In the Coastal dialect, on the other hand, guñi instead means something along the lines of let [him/her/them] do [it]. Thus, rather than being a Negative Imperative, it is a Positive Hortative; it is the lifting of as oppose to the laying down of restrictions.

We will return to this difference shortly.

Our second particle wara, which means the same thing in both dialects.

In simple terms, wara means that the action was done in an inappropriate manner. In his grammar, Dixon describes it as ‘done the wrong way’, which likely comes from an informant directly. Examples include:

B – 29 ñundu dyugi wara gundaal = You cut down the wrong tree

B – 30 ŋayu bama wara galiŋalñu = I took the person to the wrong place

B – 31 ñundu ganguul wara bagaal = You speared the wallaby in the wrong place

In B – 29, it is implied that the addressee was supposed or told to chop down a different tree. In B – 30, the speaker took the person to a place where they weren’t supposed to be. In B – 31, the addressee missed the vital spot, where he should have been aiming, thereby missing out on a tasty meal.

Now, if we add the intransitive verb ñaŋgaadyin, which means to speak or to talk, we get the collocation wara ñaŋgaadyin, which means to speak falsely, or to talk in the wrong manner, but in practice it means to lie or to tell a lie.

Meanwhile, ñaŋgaadyin is the Imperative form of ñaŋgaadyin, which indicates a command or instruction.

Now, if we bring all three elements together, we get a sentence with two possible and opposite meanings:

Coastal:           guñi wara ñaŋgaadyin = Let him/her/them tell a lie!

Tablelands:      guñi wara ñaŋgaadyin = Do not tell lies!

This is probably one of the greatest differences between the Coastal and Tablelands dialects. As a rule, these dialects are very similar, and it is worth remembering that they are mutually intelligible.

9. And he bundyaañ gurgaamari.

9. And he hit him across the back of the neck and killed him.

and = and

he = he

bundyaañ = hit and killed

gurgaamari = across the back of the neck

bundyaañ is the Past Tense Inflection of the verb bundyan, which means, among other things, to strike, to beat, to hit or to kill.

In the English translation of this sentence, bundyaañ serves double duty as both hit and killed

gurgaamari is built from two components:

  1. gurgaa is a phonological variant of the noun gurga, which means neck.
  2. -mari is somewhat of a Perlative Case Suffix.

The Perlative Case is a rare feature cross-linguistically, but a relatively common feature throughout Australia. Basically, it tends to translate as across, through or along.

In his grammar, Dixon does not explicitly refer to this as a Perlative Case Suffix, but I have chosen to call it thus because the shoe fits.

Anyway –mari can be attached directly to the word, or it can follow the Locative Case Suffix, for example:

B – 32 bama burrmbay gabaañdyamari galiŋ = The well-behaved person is going along by the side of the road

B – 33 bama burrmbay gabaymari galiŋ = The well-behaved person is going along by the side of the road

According to Dixon, although both of these are valid, his informants stated a preference for the latter strategy.

10. Ñundu wulaŋala ŋayu ŋudyu ñunuungu duwu gadaŋ ŋayu bumba ñinaŋ ñundu ŋudyu duwu bayil ŋanda bundyaañ wulaañ.

10. “Now you’re dead. My tears will not come into my eyes for you. I’m sitting here dry-eyed. Hey! No tears will come to my eyes. You were hit by me and you’re dead.”

ñundu = you

wulaŋala = are now dead

ŋayu = I

ŋudyu = not

ñunuungu = for you

duwu = tears

gadaŋ = will come

ŋayu = I

bumba = dry

ñinaŋ = sitting

ñundu = you

ŋudyu = not

duwu = tears

bayil = will not emerge

ŋanda = by me

bundyaañ = hit

wulaañ = died

wulaŋala is built from two components:

  1. wulaŋ is the Present Tense Conjugation of the verb wulan, which means to die.
  2. -ala is the Now Suffix.

The Now Suffix has two forms: -la after a vowel and –ala after a consonant. It is most commonly attached to inflected verbs, but it can occur on any word. Regardless as to the word whereto it is attached, it is always the last suffix, coming after the relevant tense or case inflections.

In most if not all contexts, it is translated to the English time word now, but its exact meaning depends on where it occurs. On a verb in the Present-Future Tense, it can impart a sort of immediate future meaning.

Let us consider these two sentences:

B – 34 ŋayu galiŋ bulmbaagu = I will go to the camp

B – 35 ŋayu galiŋala bulmbaagu = I will go to the camp at once

We don’t have time to discuss every nuance of the Now Suffix, but I shall briefly discuss its effect when attached to a pronoun. For example:

B – 36 ñundu bugan = You are eating

B – 37 ñundula bugan = You are eating now or It is now your turn to eat

When attached to a Pronoun, it typically implies that it is now that person’s turn to do that action.

11. Gula ñari bagaal dungu gugaa budiil.

11. He dug a hole to bury the body. And put the head, which had been cut off, into a bark container.

gula = body

ñari = hole

bagaal = dug

dungu = head

gugaa = in a bark container

budiil = put

ñari bagaal is the Past Tense Conjugation of the compound verb ñari bagal, which means something along the lines of to dig a hole (to bury something in).

This compound verb is built from two components:

  1. ñari is a noun which means hole.
  2. bagal is a verb which means to spear or more generally to pierce with a pointed implement.

The noun ñari forms a component in two other compound verbs. These are;

  1. ñari budil = to put in a hole and cover over
  2. ñari dyaral = to put in a hole and cover over

Both of these verbs are transitive, and translate roughly as to put, but both have different additional meanings:

budil = to put down or to marry

dyaral = to put standing, to set up, to erect, to assign a name or to rain

12. Galiiñ banaa ŋabaŋaliiñ biriiñdya maluuway gana gadaañ guluguluuy gulugulu gadaŋalñu gabulula.

12. The spirit of the murdered man went to the water, went and bathed in the saltwater. The spirit came with a black bream for all the people to eat. He brought the black bream on a small stick.

galiiñ = went

banaa = to the water

ŋabaŋaliiñ = went and bathed

biriiñdya = in the saltwater

maluuway = spirit

gana = for all the people to eat

gadaañ = came

guluguluuy = with a black bream

gulugulu = black bream

gadaŋalñu = brought

gabulula = on a small stick

The particle gana is, according to Dixon, is the most overwhelmingly common particle in Yidiñ. Indeed, in the texts present in the grammar, it appears as often as all the other particles combined. But what does it actually mean?

According to the informants, it carries the general meaning ‘try’, and it also forms part of a number of other particles.

In this sentence, I translated it as for all the people to eat because it indicates that the action of bringing the black bream was for the intended benefit of other people.

guluguluuy is the Comitative Case Declension of gulugulu, which refers specifically to a small freshwater black bream.

On a word ending in a vowel, the Comitative Case Suffix is –yi, but it shortens to –y on a word with an even number of syllables. Meanwhile, on a word ending in a consonant, the Comitative Case Suffix is –dyi, and it does not change depending on the number of syllables.

Depending on context, the Comitative Case translates, among other things, as with, accompanied by, by means of and having.

gadaŋalñu is built from three components:

  1. gada is a reduced form of the verb gadan, which means to come.
  2. -ŋal is the Verbal Comitative Case Suffix.
  3. -ñu is the Past Tense Suffix.

If we combine the verb gadan with the Verbal Comitative Suffix –ŋal, we end up with the verb gadaŋal, which literally means to come with, but can also mean to bring.

gabulula is the Locative Case Declension of gabul, which refers to a small stick specifically used for carrying small fish.

13. Ñundu waña ŋayuña ñundu ŋañañ bundyaañ ŋayu gana gundyiiñ.

13. “Who are you?” all the people in the camp ask the returning spirit. “It’s me alright. You killed me,” he tells his brother in front of all the other people, “but I’ve come back.”

ñundu = you

waña = who

ŋayuña = it is me alright

ñundu = you

ŋañañ = me

bundyaañ = killed

ŋayu = I

gana = but

gundyiiñ = returned

waña is the Human Interrogative Deictic, which translates directly into English as who.

This brings us onto a discussion of the Yidiñ Deictics, which fall into two categories:

  1. The Definite: these translate into English as this, that, these or those, depending on context.
  2. The Indefinite/Interrogative: these translate into English into words such as who or what.

These differ from English in two primary aspects:

  1. They make a distinction between Human and Inanimate (with the latter category presumably including non-human animals.)

1a.       In addition, the Indefinite/Interrogative forms make a further distinction between Generic Inanimates and Specific Inanimates.

  1. They decline for six Grammatical Cases, which we will discuss now.

To discuss the Deictic Cases, we shall consider three sentences, each of which include a Human Interrogative Deictic:

B – 38 waña ŋabaŋ = Who is bathing?                                             (Subject: waña)

B – 39 wañdyuuñ wawaal bamaal = Whom did the person see?    (Object: wañdyuuñ)

B – 40 wañdyu wawaal bama = Who saw the person?                    (Agent: wañdyu)

As you can see, the Deictic have distinct forms for Subject, Object and Agent. This is called Tri-Partite Alignment, because all three are marked distinctively. Another reason is that because the Subject can go either way, it does not, as far as I am aware, have its own distinct name.

Thus, it can be referred to as the Ergative-Nominative-Accusative or Ergative-Absolutive-Accusative with equal validity, but the label Tri-Partite is far more succinct.

Among the Interrogative Deictics, only the Human ones take Tri-Partite Alignment. The Inanimates take a different Alignment.

14. Wañiingu ñundu gadaŋ ŋayu gadaañdi wawaadyina bulmbaagu.

14. The people asked him: “What are you coming here for?” And he replied, “I’ve come to have a look at the camp.”

wañiingu = what for

ñundu = you

gadaŋ = come

ŋayu = I

gadaañdyi = have come

wawaadyina = in order to see

bulmbaagu = camp

wañiingu is the Generic Inanimate Interrogative Purposive Deictic. In English, this translates as why, but a more specific translation would be something along the lines of for what general thing or the even more specific on account of what general thing.

In case you are wondering, the Human and Specific Inanimate Equivalents are respectively:

  1. wañdyuungu = for whom or on account of what person or for which person’s benefit
  2. wañiragu = why or for what specific thing or on account of what specific thing

Speaking of the Purposive, it appears twice more in this sentence.

bulmbaagu is the Purposive Conjugation of bulmba, which means camp, but it also acts as the Noun Classifier for place in general.

wawaadyina is built from two components:

  1. wawaa is a phonological variant of the verb wawal, which means to see.
  2. -dyina is the Purposive Case Declension of the Anti-Passive Suffix –dyin.

Here, the Antipassive Suffix –dyin allows the 1st Person Singular Suffix ŋayu to agree with both gadaañ, an Intransitive Verb, and wawaal, which is a Transitive Verb.

It is worth noting that it is not obligatory to put attach an Anti-Passive Suffix to an Intransitive Verb. This may be why it appears in the form –dyi, which does not cohere with the regular N-Class Verb conjugations.

15. Ñunduuba guriñ ñinaŋ ŋañdyi guriñ ñinaŋ.

15. “Are you all alright sitting here?” he asked them. “Yes, we’re alright sitting here.”

ñunduuba = you all

guriñ = alright

ñinaŋ = sitting

ŋañdyi = we all

guriñ = alright

ñinaŋ = sitting

The only aspect of note in this sentence is found in the two pronouns which appear, both of which are in the Nominative Case.

As you may have noticed, Yidiñ nouns do not inflect for Grammatical Number. For example, bama can mean person or people, and the distinction can only be drawn from context.

Pronouns, on the other hand, do inflect for Grammatical Number; but they do so differently, depending on what person they belong to.

  1. 1st Person Pronouns inflect for three Grammatical Numbers: Singular, Dual and Plural. This gives us ŋayu, which means I; ŋali, which means the two of us; and ŋañdyi, which means all of us.
  2. 2nd Person Pronouns only inflect for two Grammatical Numbers: Singular and Non-Singular. This gives us ñundu, which means you; and ñunduuba, which means all of you.
  3. Yidiñ does not possess a distinct class of 3rd Person Pronouns. Instead, as far as I can discern, the 3rd Person Pronouns are identical to the Human Definite Deictics, which do not inflect for number.

Yidiñ is not the only Australian language where the 3rd Person Pronouns are identical to the Deictics, which are more typically called the Demonstratives, e.g. words like this and that.

In fact, this is probably the norm across the languages of the world, as oppose to the exception.

16. Wañi bulu gudyil ŋañdyi dyubuñ ŋuruu.

16. “What’s the stink I can smell?” the spirit asked. We were all silent, not answering him. Why?

wañi = what

bulu = stink

gudyil = smell

ŋañdyi = we

dyubuñ = silent

ŋuruu = why

ŋuruu is another word that means why, but this one is an Interjection that has no other function. This usually occurs at the beginning of an utterance, but it can also occur on the end.

wañi is the Generic Inanimate Absolutive Interrogative.

As mentioned earlier, The Inanimate Interrogative Deictics do not take Tri-Partite Alignment. This is because they take Nominative-Accusative Alignment instead. This applies to both the Generic and Specific Inanimates.

Thus, we get the Generic Inanimate Interrogatives:

  1. Nominative: wañi
  2. Accusative: wañiindu

Their Specific cousins are:

  1. Nominative: wañiira
  2. Accusative: wañiraŋgu

There is only one other quirk with the Deictic table, which is that yiŋu is the Nominative form for both Human and the Inanimate Deictics.

17. Ŋañdyi wañiinŋal yiŋu dungu ŋuñdyuuŋ dungu ñumaal.

17. “What shall we do with this head? That spirit smelt his own head,” the people spoke amongst themselves.

ŋañdyi = we

wañiinŋal = with this thing

yiŋu = this

dungu = head

ŋuñdyuuŋ = the people

dungu = head

ñumaal = smelt

ŋuñdyuuŋ is built from two components:

  1. ŋu- is something of a Mid-Distance marker, which indicates that the thing is at a distance, but not a massive one, from the speaker.
  2. -ñdyuuŋ is the Agent form of the Human Definite Deictic.

Or basically ŋuñdyuuŋ is the Mid-Distance form of the Human Definite Ergative Deictic yiñdyuuŋ, which means something along the lines of this person.

Naturally, this raises the question: What’s all this about Distance?

Basically, the Definite Deictics can start with one of three possible Syllables. These are yi-, ŋu- and yu-, and they indicate the distance from the speaker.

We can see this most clearly when we consider the Locative forms, and their nearest English equivalents:

yiŋgu = here               (near speaker)

ŋuŋgu = there             (at a distance from speaker)

yuŋgu = yonder          (at a considerable distance from speaker, but still visible)

If we reincorporate these into the Ergative Human Definite Deictics, we get these:

yiñdyuuŋ = this person / these people

ŋuñdyuuŋ = that person / those people

yuñdyuuŋ = that person all the way over there / all those people all the way over there

Naturally, it stands to reason that these differences do not occur in the Indefinite/Interrogative forms, since by definition, there distance from the speaker is unknown.

18. Ŋayudi manŋalala ñari bagaalna ŋayu budyiiñ ŋuridyuluu ñari bagaalna.

18. “I’m really frightened. We’ll have to dig a hole and bury the head,” the dead boy’s mother said. “I told you some time ago, to dig a hole and bury the head.”

ŋayudi = I am really

manŋalala = frightened

ñari = hole 

bagaalna = have to dig

ŋayu = I

budyiiñ = told

ŋuridyuluu = a few days ago

ñari = hole 

bagaalna = to dig and bury

bagaalna is the Purposive Case Declension of the verb bagal, which means to pierce, although in this context it means to dig.

The Verbal Purposive Case has an interesting function. Basically, it indicates that the actor must, should, is trying to, or wants to achieve a particular need. In more linguistic terms, it functions as the equivalent to any or every Modal Verb.

For example, let us consider these sentences featuring gundyiina, which is the Purposive Inflection of gundyin, which means to return:

B – 41 bama wagudya gundyiina = The man wants to return.

B – 42 bama wagudya gundyiina = The man must return

B – 43 bama wagudya gundyiina = The man should return

In addition, these are often accompanied by the particle gana, but its inclusion is not obligatory.

19. Ŋayu garu budyiŋ ñuniñ ŋuŋu dungu ŋayu gundaal wulaañ ŋadyin ŋumbarr wawawawaalna dungula babaal.

19. “I’ll have to tell him soon,” Mother says, and when the spirit of her son next returns she says to him: “I cut off your head after you’d died. I wanted to gaze on the face of my dead child – on his skull.”

ŋayu = I

garu = soon

budyiŋ = will tell

ñuniñ = you

ŋuŋu = that

dungu = head

ŋayu = I

gundaal = cut off

wulaañ = died

ŋadyin = my

ŋumbarr = face

wawawawaalna = wanted to look at

dungula = on the head

babaal = on the bone

There are several features in this sentence that are worth discussion.

The first is that Yidiñ does not have a specific word for skull. Instead, rather than saying on the skull, you say dungula babaal, which literally means on the head bone.

The second concerns a smaller sentence nestled within the larger one. As one can expect, this sub-sentence brings together a number of threads explored earlier in the grammar.

This is the sentence:

B – 44 dungu ŋayu gundaal wulaañ ŋadyin ŋumbarr wawawawaalna = I cut off the head because I wanted to look at my dead son’s face

Furthermore, this sentence can be sub-divided further into two separate ones.

B – 45 dungu ŋayu gundaal = I cut off the head

B – 46 ŋayu wulaañ ŋadyin ŋumbarr wawawawaalna = I wanted to look at my dead son’s face

Sentence B – 45 does not need much exploration, aside from pointing out that it follows an Object – Subject – Verb word order. In Yidiñ, most sentences tend to follow a Subject – Object – Verb word order, but derivations are possible, if infrequent.

Indeed, at one point in the Grammar, Dixon refers to SOV preference as an ‘aesthetic fad’, i.e. it is preferred but not grammatically necessary.

Now, Sentence B – 46 involves this short phrase:

wulaañ ŋadyin ŋumbarr = my dead son’s face (lit. died my face)

The first thing of note is that the Adjective dead is identical to the Past Tense verb died, but this is not too unusual.

The second thing is the even smaller noun phrase:

ŋadyin ŋumbarr = my child’s face (lit. my face)

Now, why does this refer to the child’s face, and not to the mother’s?

This brings us back to the notion of Morpho-Syntactic Alignment.

In this sentence, ŋayu refers to mother. As explained earlier, this is in the Nominative Case, so it can refer to either the Intransitive Subject or Transitive Agent.

ŋadyin ŋumbarr, meanwhile, is in the Absolutive Case, so it can refer either to an Intransitive Subject or Transitive Object.

As a result, both ŋayu and ŋadyin ŋumbarr could, in theory, both refer to the Intransitive Subject. But in this sentence, they do not, and they cannot.

In order to make it so that the mother wants to look at her own face, you need to add the Yidiñ Reflexive marker to the verb.

The Reflexive Suffix is –dyin (identical to the Anti-Passive Suffix), and it translates into English as words such as myself, yourself, himself, herself, ourselves, yourselves and themselves.

Thus, if we want to give Sentence B – 46 a Reflexive meaning, we end up with:

B – 47 ?ŋayu wulaañ ŋadyin ŋumbarr wawawawaadyiŋalñu = I wanted to look at my own face, which is dead

One other thing to mention is that the –dyin Reflexive strongly implies that the action was deliberate, or on purpose. As a consequence I am not entirely sure as to whether Sentence B – 47 is entirely grammatical, hence why it is preceded by a question mark.

20. Ŋayu gundyiŋala ŋayu ñunduubañ yiŋu badyarrala ŋayu galiŋala wuuy wuuy wuuy wuuy wuuy ŋayu dyugimari dyadyaamaŋ guman dyadyamaŋal gumaanbi dyadyamaŋal ŋayu gumaanbi ŋayu banaa biriiñdya galiŋ.

20. The spirit said: “Having seen my own skull, I’m now leaving you all to return to my spirit-home in the water. And as he went he called out: “Wuy, wuy, wuy, wuy, wuy…”, being known as Bibiyuwuy from then on. He continued: “I’m jumping through the trees; I jump over one stick, I jump over another stick, then I jump over a third stick. I go into the salt-water.”

ŋayu = I am

gundyiŋala = returning now

ŋayu = I

ñunduubañ = all of you

yiŋu = this

badyarrala = now leaving

ŋayu = I am

galiŋala = going now

wuuy = wuy

wuuy = wuy

wuuy = wuy

wuuy = wuy

wuuy = wuy

ŋayu = I

dyugimari = over a tree

dyadyaamaŋ = jump over

guman = one

dyadyamaŋal = jump over now

gumaanbi = another one

dyadyamaŋal = jump over now

ŋayu = I

gumaanbi = a third one

ŋayu = I

banaa = to the water

biriiñdya = to the salt water

galiŋ = go

There is one very important aspect of Yidiñ that we have not yet discussed, and will do so now.

Basically, there is a preference in Yidiñ for words with an even number of syllables. This doesn’t apply to all words, as can be seen above, and it only manifests in a number of Suffixes.

This includes a number of Case Suffixes, as we can see with these two words:

In the Absolutive Case, buña means woman while gudaaga means dog.

In the Ergative Case, these are buñaaŋ and gudagaŋgu respectively.

Meanwhile, in the Genitive Case, which is an Equivalent to the English ‘s, we get buñaan and gudagani respectively.

On nouns that end in a consonant, this rule concerning Syllabicity do not apply.

In the Absolutive Case we have guygal, which means bandicoot, and badyiigal, which means tortoise.

In the Ergative Case, these become guygaaldu and badyigaldu respectively.

In the Genitive Case, we get guygaalni and badyigalni.

(In these examples, you see the evidence of another Phonological Rule concerning Vowel Length, but that is outside the purview of this explanation.)

Now, where do we see this principle of Syllabicity, or Syllable Length, in our example sentence?

The verbs in question are galiŋala and dyadyamaŋal.

galiŋala is built from two components:

  1. galiŋ is the Present Tense Conjugation of the verb galin, which means to go.
  2. -ala is the Now Suffix as it appears after a consonant.

dyadyamaŋal is also built from two components:

  1. dyadyamaŋ is the Present Tense Conjugation of dyadyamaŋ, which means to jump over.
  2. -al is a reduced form of the Now Suffix –ala, which has dropped its final /a/ in order to possess an even number of syllables.

On a related tangent, a word with one syllables is called a Monosyllabic, a word with two syllables a Disyllabic, a word with three syllables a Trisyllabic, a word with four syllables a Quadrisyllabic and a word with five syllables a Quinqesyllabic. I had seen the first three –syllabic words before, Dixon introduced me to the latter two, and I thought that you might like them also.

Now, in this sentence we see the appearance of two Noun Classifiers.

The first is dyugi, which means tree, but it can also refer to the wood, its fruit, or a stick that can be broken off from it. This can be seen in the example sentence, where it is translates as both tree and stick.

However, while dyugi can also refer to the fruit of a tree, there is another Noun Classifier, mayi, that refers to all edible non-flesh food.

For example, dyugi badil means rickety nut tree, while mayi badil assumedly means rickety nut. Furthermore, it is perfectly acceptable to say dyugi mayi badil, which means the rickety nut tree and its fruit.

However, *mayi dyugi badil is not an acceptable thing to say. This is because the Classifiers follow a hierarchy. dyugi is an Inherent Nature Classifier, while mayi is a Function/Use Classifier, and the former always comes before the latter.

The second Classifier in this sentence is bana, which is a Function/Use Classifier that refers to any form of drinkable liquid. When it is by itself it refers to fresh water, and it can occur alongside any noun indicating a natural source of drinking water, such as springs, lakes, rain, dew, creeks and steam, among others.

In addition, it can also occur alongside gulbul, which means wave, and badyagal, which means tide, because these can occur on fresh-water lakes as well as the sea.

Now, you may be asking the question: why is biriñ, or saltwater, considered bana when it is not, in fact drinkable?

This is because saltwater is characterised as gilga, an Adjective which denotes that something is imperfect or inadequate for its intended purpose, such as soft wood or a weak fishing line. Indeed, the informant stressed that saltwater is ‘soft’ like ‘soft wood’.

Before we move on, there is another suffix to explore.

gumaanbi is built from two components:

  1. gumaan is a variant of the guman, which means one. We will discuss the Yidiñ numbers later.
  2. –bi is a suffix which roughly translates as another.

Here is an example of how –bi can affect the meaning of a sentence:

B – 48 ŋañañ buñaaŋ wawaal = The woman saw me

B – 49 ŋañañ buñabiŋgu wawaal = Another woman saw me

Furthermore, if we add ŋabiiŋ, which approximately means a lot or many:

B – 50 ŋañañ buñabiŋgu ŋabiiŋ wawaal = All of the woman saw me

In B – 50, -bi literally means something along the lines of one and another and another…

However, the most common occurrence of –bi is in relation to geographical features.

For example, ŋiya means the side of the hill, while ŋiyaabi means the other side of the hill.

A less clear-cut example is dyalabi, which means the other side of the river. dyala is an Adjective which means shallow, so the link could be somewhat historic.

A more interesting use of –bi is in the word dyilibugabi, which means the next day. This is curious because dyilibuga is built of two parts, these being: dyili, which means eye; and buga, which means night, nighttime or darkness.

Furthermore, the word dyilibuga does not exist independently, at least according the dictionary provided in Dixon’s 1977 Grammar.

21. Gulugulu ñunduuba buganala miña ŋayu gadaŋalñum.

21. “Now you can all eat the black bream, the seafood that I brought for you!”

gulugulu = black bream

ñunduuba = for you

buganala = can now eat

miña = seafood

ŋayu = I

gadaŋalñum = because I brought it

For such a short sentence, there are two important aspects of import. We will unravel them in the chronological order wherein they occur.

miña is a Function/Use Classifier that refers to any form of edible flesh-food (which in Yidiñ also encompasses diŋal, or eggs.)

There are several types of animal that take their own Inherent Nature Classifiers. These are:

dyaray = bird

maŋgum = frog

muñimuñi = ant

Fish do not have their own Noun Classifier.

In this sentence, the presence of gulugulu indicates that miña refers to seafood, although it should, of course, be mentioned that the black bream is primarily a river fish. This is the first instance where I have seen the word seafood refer to edible fish in general, regardless as to its origin, so I would be curious as to how common this usage is.

gadaŋalñum is built from three components:

  1. gada is a reduced form of the verb gadan, which means to come.
  2. -ŋal is the Verbal Comitative Suffix, which creates gadaŋal, which means to bring or more literally to come with.
  3. -ñum is the Causal Subordinate Suffix.

So what is the Causal Subordinate Suffix?

Its function is to indicate an event that took prior to that of the Main Clause, i.e. the cause thereof.

In Sentence 21, the Main Clause, or main event, is that the people being addressed can now eat the black bream. The Causal Subordinate Clause, meanwhile, indicates that this because Bibiyuwuy brought it to them.

Here they are in practice:

Main Clause:               gulugulu ñunduuba buganala = All of you can now eat the black bream

Subordinate Clause:    ŋayu miña gadaŋalñum = because I brought this seafood

Now in most to all cases, the Causal Subordinate can translate into English as because, although this may not always be the most naturalistic translation.

22. Ŋayu gana gundyiŋ ŋayu ñuniñ wawal dyambulamay dyambulamay gadan.

22. “I’m returning to the water. I’ll see you in two days. Come in two days!”

ŋayu = I

gana = must

gundyiŋ = return

ŋayu = I

ñuniñ = you

wawal = will see

dyambulamay = in two days

dyambulamay = in two days

gadan = come

dyambulamay is built from two components:

  1. dyambula is the form that the Yidiñ word for the number two, dyambul, takes before a suffix is attached.
  2. -may is the Locative Day Suffix.

What do I mean by “Locative Day” Suffix?

Basically, it indicates the number of days over which an event took place, e.g. on X number of days, or over X number of days. This is the Suffix’s only function.

Naturally, this brings us to the topic of Yidiñ numbers.

In Yidiñ, it is possible to count up to 5:

guman = one

dyambul = two

dagul = three

ŋamuguñdyi = four (lit. index finger)

mala = five (lit. palm of the hand)

In addition, when counting on your fingers, one attaches the bound-form classifier waram-. The Yidiñ count by touching their fingers, starting with the smallest one. This gives us:

waramguman = one (touch the little finger)

waramdyambul = two (touch the ring finger)

waramdagul = three (touch the middle finger)

waramŋamuguñdyi = four (touch the index finger)

warammala = five (touch the thumb)

23. Ŋayu ganaŋgar galiŋ badiŋ.

23. “I am the first to go, crying as I do.”

ŋayu = I

ganaaŋgar = am the first

galiŋ = to go

badiŋ = crying

ganaŋgar is a Particle which indicates that the Subject or Agent was the first to perform a certain action. In this case, it indicates that Bibiyuwuy was the first to go to heaven, with the expectation that everyone would eventually follow him.

It is possible that ganaŋgar could be built from the Particle gana, but since there is no explanation for the Suffix –ŋgar, this could be a false equivalence.

Ta Muma ma Ta Ari

The Boxfish and The Flounder

ta = the

muma = boxfish

ma = and

ta = the

ari = flounder

The word muma has two meanings in West Futuna-Aniwa:

  1. muma = boxfish

This refers to the order of animals whose Latin name is the Ostraciidae. In common parlance, these are known as boxfishes, cotterfishes, cowfishes and trunkfishes, depending on species.

Ostraciids occur mainly in the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans, typically at middle latitudes, although some species range as far north as Cape Cod.

  1. muma = mother!

This is a special Vocative form of the word for mother. (According to Capell, this can also take the alternate form moma.)

The Vocative Case is used as a way to announce something. For example, this is what you would say to your mother when you first see her.

There is another Vocative form of the word for mother, which is nana.

For context, the non-Vocative form of mother is jinana, and it has a default meaning of his mother or her mother.

(In addition, jinana also means: mother’s sister, mother’s female parallel cousins, father’s wife, father’s brother’s wife and father’s male parallel cousin’s wife.)

ari, on the other hand, is a word which only means flounder.

The term flounder refers to a number of species that are only distantly related, but which all fall within the group known as the Pleuronectoidei.

Flounders can be found at the bottom of oceans all around the world, although a number of species will occasionally enter estuaries.

The flounder’s most-recognised feature is its eyes, which migrate to one side of its head.

1. Ta muma neitukage i ta ari pe aia kamokage kaipenpena aia.

  1. A boxfish once said to a flounder that he, the flounder, before anything else should fix him, the boxfish, up.

ta = a

muma = boxfish

neitukage = said to him

i = to

ta = a

ari = flounder

pe = that

aia = he

kamokage = before anything else

kaipenpena = should fix up

aia = him

neitukage is built from three components:

  1. nei- is the 3rd Person Singular Conjugation of ni-.
  2. tu is a verb which means to say or to tell, and it can also take the alternate form tukua.
  3. -kage is the Out Suffix, which can also take the alternate form –age.

Now, what do ni- and the Out Suffix do?

The Prefix ni- is a general Past Tense Marker. It is used to indicate a Past Action, a Simple Completed Action, a Stative Past or even a Narrative Past.

West Futuna-Aniwa has a number of Tense Prefixes, some of which we will explore as we progress through this story.

For Singular Subjects, ni- can be conjugated in the following ways. (I say “can” because it is not mandatory.)

1st Person Singular: nah-, nan-, nag- and nagk-.

2nd Person Singular: nau-.

3rd Person Singular: nei-.

Examples of the 1st Person Singular Conjugations:

B – 51 nah-fijia = I cut it up

B – 52 avau nan-feiakea ta hgoro = I led the singing

B – 53 avau nag-mentua feipe… = I thought it was like this…

Examples of the 2nd Person Singular Conjugation:

B – 54 nofa i ta kato nau-tjujia ana ta riai hkego noufirikea ta potu = You fill the basket having cut only the white riai leaves and you spread out the mat

B – 55 tano fajaga akoe nauskul i USA nau-kamata tauiroa futuna = At some time you were schooling in the USA and you started to learn about Futuna

Examples of the 3rd Person Singular Conjugation:

B – 56 nei-amoa ta namuri? = Did he get the fever?

B – 57 akai nei-avatu a fuji? = Who gave you the bananas?

Examples of the Non-Conjugated form ni-:

B – 58 nito ni-marukea ta po = It rained really hard last night

B – 59 akorua no i sia, ni-safea e faru ni-romai mo gkai? = While you two were at Sia, did you see some others who had come or not?

In total, there are around 25 Tense and Aspect Prefixes, and some of them work differently to others. Indeed, a few of these are unique in how they operate.

Now, what does –kage do?

I have called it the Out Suffix because it indicates motion away from both speaker and addressee.

This Suffix has two functions, both of which stem from this idea.

The first function is to indicate something that is some distance away from both speaker and addressee (or listener).

In this vein, -kage can be translated as out, away, over there, over yonder and to the side, among similar things.

Examples of –kage in action include:

B – 60 amosia-kage = Wipe it away

B – 61 nag-kage = I put it over there

B – 62 ta kofukofu kolakalaka-kage = Ta Kofukofu steps along sideways

In addition, we mentioned previously that –kage also possesses the alternate form –age.

I find this curious because when we combine the two words, we get the noun kageage, which means a current of air.

The second function of –kage is to indicate an action that is directed away from the speaker and addressee, but towards a third party. Thus, it can be translated as to him, to her or to it.

For example:

tu-kage = say to her or say to him

mo-kage = before him or before her or before it

mori-age = present it to him or present it to her

On a related note, there are suffixes which can be translated as to me and to you (singular). To find out what these are, you will need to read the original chapter available on this blog. 

2. Kaitia tan tafa.

2. He should file his side.

kaitia = should file

tan = his

tafa = side

kaitia is built from two components:

  1. kai- is the 3rd Person Singular Conjugation of the Tense Marker ka-.
  2. tia is a Transitive Verb which means to hit or to beat, although here it takes on the meaning to file.

ka is the Future Tense Prefix, but it can also indicate Certainty or Prescription.

It can indicate the future in an absolute sense, or in relation to another designated event.

In the 1st Person Singular, it can take the forms: kah-, kan-, kag-, and kagk-.

In the 2nd Person Singular, it can take the form kau-.

Its 3rd Person Singular form is the aforementioned kai-.

Examples of the 1st Person Singular include:

B – 63 kan-fesaoa tasi a fesaoga = I will tell you a story

B – 64 kagk-amoa = I will take it

Examples of the 2nd Person Singular include:

B – 65 akoe kau-avage =  You should give it to her

B – 66 kau-rogfakaina = You should feed them

Examples of the 3rd Person Singular include:

B – 67 aia kai-tamtea ta rama = She will extinguish the light

B – 68 kai-taia akoua kai-kaina = He will kill all of you and eat you

Last, but not least, we have some examples of the base form ka-:

B – 70 akirea konororo ka-rokaukau i ta mahmaji = They are all going to go swimming in the current

B – 71 aia roi fakea ka-roitara tano toki = Out he would come in order to sharpen his axe

In addition, ka is also a verb with two distinct and seemingly unrelated meanings.

ka = to squeal

ka (or hka) = to burn or to be burned

I am curious as to whether these two meanings of the verb are interrelated.

When you think about traditional fire-making techniques, the first image that probably comes to mind is of a steel and flint. However, this is not the only method, and was probably not the main method either.

The other method whereto I allude is the fire-stick. What you need is some kindling, a flat piece of wood, and straight stick. (An optional extra is a piece of string, buts its function can be fulfilled by one’s hands.)

The method is thus:

  1. Create a little groove in the flat piece of wood.
  2. Place the kindling in the groove.
  3. Place this between your legs and stand the straight stick upright in the kindling.
  4. With your hands (or a piece of string), begin to spin the stick, making sure the end remains inside the kindling.
  5. If you spin the stick fast enough, it will begin to smoulder.
  6. Once smoke starts to appear, use the kindling to set larger firewood alight.

Now, when you do step 4, the friction between the two pieces of wood is likely to cause a squeaking or squealing sound. Try it at home (preferably outside), if you want to experience this for yourself.

tan tafa, meanwhile, means his side, although her side and its side are equally valid translations.

tan (or tano) belongs to a special set of Inalienable Possessive Pronouns.

To be exact, tan is the 3rd Person Singular Possessive Singular Object Pronoun. Basically, it means his singular thing.

Thus, we get:

tan tafa = his one side

ruano tafa = his two sides

takano tafa = his three sides

ano tafa = his four+ sides or more simply his sides

Anyway, an Inalienable Possessive indicates that the concept is an indivisible part of a greater whole. Examples of this include human body parts, the body parts of any animal or plant, as well as parts of inanimate objects. Also included in this category are eight kin terms.

3. U ta ari neitu pe, “mai, kanpenpena.”

3. So the flounder said, “Come here, I shall fix you up.”

u = so

ta = the

ari = flounder

neitu = said

pe = that

mai = come

kanpenpena = I shall fix you up

kanpenpena is built from three components:

  1. kan- is the 1st Person Singular Conjugation of the Tense Marker ka-.
  2. pen is a partially reduplicated form of the next part.
  3. pena is a verb which means to fix, although it can also mean to prepare, to do or to make.

In addition, pena is also a noun which means preparations. For example:

B – 72 toto rufie ta pena kai = He is an expert at food preparation

pe, meanwhile, has many functions.

Here, in particular, it functions as a direct equivalent to the English that.

In this manner, Dougherty describes it as a “[marker] for direct quotation and complements to verbs of mental activity.”

Examples include:

B – 73 avau nagmiji pe avau nagkamoa a ika nihgari = I dreamt that I caught plenty of fish

B – 74 nokanieni pe akoe kamuri i atavau = I want you to follow me (Lit. I want that you will follow me)

B – 75 akoe nouiroa pe aha a pil neitukuamai? = Do you know what Bill said to me?

In West Futuna-Aniwa, pe always appears before a direct quotation. This is regardless as to whether it has a presence in the English translation.

4. U aia koitia tan tafa korava kaifurusia.

4. So he, the flounder, files his, the boxfish’s, side completely and then he turns him over.

u = so

aia = he

koitia = he files

tan = his

tafa = side

korava = finish

kaifurusia = he turns him over

kaifurusia is built from two components:

  1. kai– is the 3rd Person Singular Conjugation of the Future Tense Marker ka-.
  2. furusia is a Transitive Verb which means to turn over. Depending on context, it can also mean to completely make a turnabout and to change over.

But by far the most interesting translation of furusia is to translate from one language to another.

Personally, I like the frame of mind that this metaphor indicates. It is as though the meaning is a stone: on one side is its expression in West Futuna-Aniwa, and on the other side is its expression in another language.

korava is also built from two components:

  1. ko- is the base form of the Tense Marker ko-.
  2. rava is an Intransitive Verb which means to finish, to complete or to be done.

ko is the Tense Marker which indicates the Present, Inceptive, Habitual and Narrative Present Tenses.

The Present refers, quite obviously, to the Present Indicative, which refers to an event that is occurring in the here and now.

The Inceptive Tense refers to the beginning of an activity that was not in motion before.

The Habitual Tense refers to an activity that happens on a frequent or regular basis, i.e. a habit.

Last, but not least, the Narrative Present occurs to something that is happening in a story. In many languages, things that take place in a narrative have their own grammatical features.

In the 1st Person Singular, it can take these Conjugations: kon-, kog- and kogk-.

In the 2nd Person Singular, it can take the Conjugation kou-.

Meanwhile in the 3rd Person Singular, it can take the Conjugation koi-.

Examples of these various Conjugations include:

B – 76 akitea ko-kaina kaina kaina rofakina ko-rokaina = We eat and eat and eat and then take some home to eat

B – 77 koi-fakapopoiage ko-takakea = He bashes it in and it falls

B – 78 ko-amoa a kuru ko-rovaeakea i pau = We take breadfruit to divide it up in Pau

rava, meanwhile, has a number of other meanings.

As a Verb, it can also mean to choke, but refers exclusively to plants.

As an Adjective, it means equivalent or equal to. The latter meaning refers to being equal in some sort of context, and thus it means to draw.

5. Koitia uai tan tafa korava kaifurusia.

5. He files his side until it’s finished and then he turns him over.

koitia = he files him

uai = on

tan = his

tafa = side

korava = until it’s finished

kaifurusia = he turns him over

koitia is built from two components:

  1. koi- is the 3rd Person Singular Conjugation of ko-, which we discussed in the previous section.
  2. tia is a verb which means to file.

However, tia actually means to file (something). This is because on many verbs, the final –a acts as a Transitivising Suffix.

The Transitivising Suffix is used to indicate that the verb is transitive, which means that it affects something else. This also applies to the verb furusia, which means to turn over (something).

A verb with the Transitivising Suffix can be followed by an object. However, if there is no object on the sentence, then the default object is the 3rd Person Singular.

For example:

koitia = he files it / he files him / he files her

kaifurusia = he turns it over / he turns her over / he turns him over

uai, which can take the alternate forms ua and uei, is a Locative Preposition which indicates a Direction, Location or Interval of Space. Examples include:

uai fafa = outside of / beyond (lit. on the mouth)

uai fare = inside / indoors (lit. in the house)

uai hluga = above / on top of

uai moa = in front of (moa can take the alternate form mua)

uai mokage = proceeding (lit. in first)

uai muri = behind / after (lit. on the rear)

uai raro = below / underneath

uai roto = inside / within (lit. in the heart)

uai tafa = outside / on the other side (lit. on the side)

uai teriari = distant / out at sea (lit. on the sea)

ta hne uai roro = the place below / Hades (lit. the place in below)

In addition, some of these words have alternate meanings. One of these is fafa, which has two alternate meanings:

fafa (or fwafwa) = a game similar to draughts

fafa = to give a piggy back ride

(For non-native English speakers, a piggy-back ride is where you carry someone on your back, usually, but not exclusively, a small child. The rider typically wraps their legs around the carrier’s waste, and their arms around the carrier’s neck.)

fafa = to mount during sexual intercourse (only refers to animals)

West Futuna-Aniwa possesses a number of other Prepositions, at least one of which will be explored later in the section.

6. Koitia tan tafa korava kaifurusia.

6. He files the boxfish’s side completely and then he turns him over.

koitia = he files him

tan = his

tafa = side

korava = completely

kaifurusia = he turns him over

Unfortunately, there are no new grammatical concepts in this sentence.

Fortunately for you, however, I shall introduce some anyway. We will discuss two Aspect Markers, these being –mi- and –ro-.

-mi- is the Approaching Aspect Suffix, and it is typically attached after the Tense Marker but before the Verb.

It can also take the Alternate Form –mei-.

In the 1st Person Singular, it can take the Conjugations: -man-, -mank-, -meah-, -mag-, and –magk-.

-mau- and –mei- are the 2nd and 3rd Person Singular Conjugations respectively.

Examples include:

B – 79 avau nihmai ka-mag-tukua pe akitea kagapu i ranei = I cane to say that we should all rest today

B – 80 akimea kororo mana ki ta vaka kasa-mi-kai = All of us will go to the canoe first and then we will come and eat

-ro-, on the other hand, is the Departing Aspect Suffix, which also occurs between the Tense Marker and the main Verb. It can take the Alternate form –ra-, which features in the Conjugations.

The 1st Person Singular Conjugations are: -ran-, -rag-, -ragk-, -ron-, -rog- and –rogk-.

This has two 2nd Person Singular Conjugations are: -rau- and –rou-.

Forever alone, the 3rd Person Singular Conjugation is –roi-.

Examples include:

B – 81 ai rofakea ka-roi-tara tano toki = He would go out to sharpen his axe

B – 82 kokanieni ko-ro-kaukau = They want to go swimming

Now, why do I mention these things?

Well, let us take a step back and dissect one verb containing each Aspect Prefix. These are:

ka-mag-tukua = I will come to say                (kamagtukua)

ka-roi-tara = will go out to sharpen               (karoitara)

Now, both of these verbs are built from three components. These are

  1. ka- is the Tense Prefix.
  2. -mag- and –roi- are the Approaching and Departing Aspect Prefixes respectively.
  3. -tukua- and –tara- are the verbs, which means to say and to sharpen respectively.

Now, what would happen, if we were to translate these two verbs into Yidiñ?

This is what we get:

binarŋ-aalda-ŋ = will come to say                 (binarŋaaldaŋ)

dyurri-ŋali-ŋ = will go and sharpen             (dyurriŋaliŋ)

So what are the three components that built these two verbs?

  1. binarŋal and dyurrin are verbs which mean to say and to sharpen respectively. (dyurri is actually an Adjective which means sharp, but I could not find a specific verb.)
  2. -:ldan and –ŋalin are the respective Coming and Going Aspect Suffixes.
  3. -ŋ, meanwhile, is the Present and Future Tense Suffix.

Now, do you notice any similarities between the 2nd Component in both sets of verbs?

It appears that Yidiñ’s Coming and Going Aspects and West Futuna-Aniwa’s Approaching and Departing Suffixes. I only discovered this interesting similarity while writing this chapter, but now that I have seen it I cannot unsee it.

Of course, it is most likely that this is a coincidence, at least based on what we know so far. While my understanding of human migration patterns out of Sahul and Sundaland is merely cursory, I can’t imagine any plausible hypothesis that could give these two a direct connection. (If someone else does, they are not only welcome but encouraged to send it my way.)

I am yet to study any of West Futuna-Aniwa’s closest relatives, so I do not know if the Approaching and Departing Aspect Suffixes.

I have studied the Dyirbal language, which is the closest relative of Yidiñ, and it has neither a Going nor a Coming Aspect. Whether it appears in other related languages is another question.

So far, these are the only two languages I have found that have Coming/Approaching and Going/Departing Suffixes. (I might already know others, but am not yet aware of it. That is a possibility.)

Naturally, I shall endeavour to keep you as abreast of my own discoveries as is possible.

7. Koitia tan tafa foki korufie.

7. He files his other side until it looks good.

koitia = he files it

tan = his

tafa = side

foki = other

korufie = it is good

foki is an Adjective which means too, also or other. Examples include:

B – 83 nameragi foki = Nameragi too

B – 84 foki tasi tei = This is another one

In addition, foki can also function as an Adverb, where it means too, also or again. Examples include:

B – 85 kanfesaoa foki mana ta hkai = I will tell her a story again

B – 86 aia koipena foki ta vera = He also made a garden

B – 87 aia kokanieni mafi pe aia kafano foki = He wants very much to go too

korufie is built from two components:

  1. ko- is a Tense Marker which now requires zero introduction.
  2. -rufie is an Adjective which means good or appealing.

As you can tell, when the base form of a Tense Marker is attached to an Adjective, it can acquire the meaning of until.

More specifically, it would be something along the lines of the general state of. 

8. Aia koitukage i ta muma pe, “jirojiroa ou mahmata.”

8. He says to the boxfish, “Look, look at yourself.”

aia = he

koitukage = he says

i = to

ta = the

muma = boxfish

pe = that

jirojiroa = look, look at it

ou = your

mahmata = appearance

koitukage is built from three components:

  1. koi- is the 3rd Person Singular Conjugation of the Tense Marker ko-.
  2. tu is the very which means to say.
  3. -kage is the 3rd Person Singular Object Suffix, which Dougherty refers to as the Out Suffix.

i is an Oblique Case Marker, which indicates an Instrumental or Indirect Object. We don’t have time to discuss it here, but West Futuna-Aniwa has another Oblique Case Marker ki, and the two are, to some degree, interchangeable.

jirojiroa is a reduplicated form of the verb jiroa, which means to look carefully or to search for. On the island of Aniwa it can take the Alternate form tjiroa. (In addition, the final /a/ is the Transitivity Marker.)

According to Capell, meanwhile, jirojiroa mean to examine carefully, with the Reduplication appearing to indicate that the activity is done with a greater level of vigour.

Above we have what I assume is the original meaning of jiroa, since the verb has undergone some degree of semantic shift.

If you observe something carefully, in particular a game or a system, then you can figure out how to exploit it to your own benefit. Thus jiroa also means to cheat.

Naturally, if you’re cheating at something, then one can presume then they are doing worse then you. Thus, we get:

jiroa = to do better than

(But I assume that it doesn’t require the existence of any foul play.) 

Of course, a specific way wherein one can cheat is to defame the characters of others. As a result:

jiroa = to create an unflattering image of another

On top of that, jiroa can also mean to show up. I’m not sure how this aligns with the other meanings, but I had to include it nevertheless.

9. Ta muma kojiroa jiroa kaie nigkorufie ano mahmata.

9. The boxfish looks at himself and sees that his appearance has come out well.

ta = the

muma = boxfish

kojiroa = looks at it

jiroa = looks at it

kaie = and

nigkorufie = has become good

ano = his

mahmata = appearance

kojiroa jiroa is another instance of Reduplication. Here, however, it indicates that the action is Reflexive, i.e. it is done by oneself to oneself.

kaie is a Conjunction which means and, but or and then. Dougherty defines it as a “verbal or sentential conjunction”, which means that it can link either two separate verbs or what would otherwise be two separate sentences.

Furthermore, it also functions as a “hesitation phenomenon”, by which I assume it acts like “umm” or “ahh” or even the word “like” in English. Examples include:

B – 88 a matilta nirohkafi kaie a niau sehkafi ma = Matilta went to cook but Niau didn’t cook

B – 89 ta paisiesi nifanifo kaie neikaina a ika = The devil descended and then ate up the fish

nigkorufie is built from two components:

  1. nigko- is the base form of the Tense Marker nigko-, which indicates the Present and Past Perfect.
  2. rufie is an Adjective which means good.

As mentioned, nigko- is the Present and Past Perfect Tense Marker, which specifies that the action is or was already complete at the moment of utterance. In English, this typically translates as have done or had done respectively.  

In the 1st Person Singular, its potential Conjugations are nigkon-, nigkog- and nigkogk-.

The 2nd Person Singular Conjugation is nigkou- while the 3rd Person Singular Conjugation is nigkoi-.

Examples in action are:

B – 90 takau! nigkon-tereva = Wow! Did I get tired.

B – 91 nigkou-vaea vaea = You divided them up again and again

B – 92 kitea nigko-mafimafi ta fijikauga nitafori kai = We really worked hard until it came round to time to eat

Furthermore, it can also take the alternate form niko-.

Naturally, I must warn you against confusing this with the Tense and Aspect Marker niro-, which indicates a Past Completed (i.e. Perfect) action with a Departing Aspect.

For the purpose of brevity, I shall only list the Singular Conjugations before moving on.

1st Person Singular: niron-, nirog- and nirogk-.

2nd Person Singular: nirou- .

3rd Person Singular: niroi-.

10. U aia koitukage i ta ari pe aia kaipenpena ta ari.

10. So he says to the flounder that he will fix him up.

u = so

aia = he

koitukage = he says

i = to

ta = the

ari = flounder

pe = that

aia = he

kaipenpena = he will fix him up

ta = the

ari = flounder

Once again, we have a sentence that does not introduce any new grammatical concepts. My original plan was to explore a number of other Tense and Aspect Markers, but unfortunately they did not possess any entries in the dictionary, so instead I shall discuss a word with multiple definitions in the dictionary.

The first of these words is hgana, which is an Intransitive Verb with multiple meanings:

hgana = to make a droning sound or a rushing noise

B – 91 ta lamp no-hgana = The gas lamp goes shshsh

B – 92 no-hgana ta vai = The running water makes a rushing noise

hgana = to hear a noise, but not see the action associated with it

B – 93 norogona no-hgana = Listen, it makes a swishing noise (but it cannot be seen)

In the Dictionary, Dougherty herself gives the examples of someone cutting cane or a tree falling, both out of sight of the listener.

hgana = to sound good or to sound particularly harmonious

B – 94 nipena kirea a hgoro ni-hgana = They are harmonising and it sounds good

hgana = to rejoice in, to praise or to adore

B – 95 ka-hgana ki ateia = “Oh come let us adore him”

According to Dougherty, this particular meaning was either created or emphasises during the first quarter of the twentieth century by missionaries, and is particularly common in church contexts.

As a result, the above sentence often carries the below mission translation:

B – 96 kahgana ki ateia = “O Come All Ye Faithful”

As we can see, there appears to be some sort of Semantic Drift involved.

If we assume that the first meaning is the original, or at least the oldest, then it appears to have drifted in two directions at once.

To reiterate, the first meaning described is to make a droning sound or to make a rushing noise.

Now, two things that make such a noise include rushing water, and the gas emitting from a gas lamp. If you’re looking for a fresh spring, then your ear will probably attune itself to the sound of running water.

Similarly, while a gas lamp is no doubt helpful for seeing in the dark, one rarely looks directly at it, at least deliberately.

Through these two examples, and probably a number of others that you could think of, the rushing noise of running water and escaping gas became associated with the idea of a sound with an unseen source.

This leads us to the second direction wherein Semantic Drift occurred.

One aspect that the sound of rushing water or flaming gas is that they are constant and largely unchanging, and thus they sound quite harmonious. Furthermore, because very few people find a harmonious sound disagreeable, then the verb came also to mean to sound good.

At some point, the speakers appear to have associated the feeling of hearing a harmonious or good sound with the sound itself. Thus, the meaning expanded further to mean to praise, to adore and to rejoice in. (Indeed, it is worth noting that these three verbs have essentially the same meaning.)

11. Koisoroa tan tafa tan tasiana.

11. He files just one of the flounder’s sides.

koisoroa = he files him

tan = his

tafa = side

tan = his

tasiana = just one

koisoroa is built from two components:

  1. koi- is the 3rd Person Singular Conjugation of the Tense Marker ko-.
  2. soroa is a verb which means to file.

In addition, soroa can also mean to grate, to rub together or to rub back and forth. Other examples include:

B – 97 soroa ta pioka = Grate the manioc

B – 98 no-soroa tano rima = His hand got grated

(The context for the latter sentence is that the person accidentally rubbed it on a metal grater.)

tasiana, meanwhile, is also built from two components:

  1. tasi is the West Futuna-Aniwa word for one.
  2. -ana is a Particle which means only, and can also function as a suffix.

Other meanings of ana include just, completely and totally. For example:

B – 99 e hgamakara ana ta fare = This house is completely empty

B – 100           akoe kafesaokage ana i ateia = You will talk only to her

In addition, when it combines with the Negative Particle siki, it creates the meaning not yet:

B – 101           siki mai ana = She hasn’t come yet

It can also mean yet more generally, but this combination is particularly common.

Thus far, we have only discussed positive sentences in West Futuna-Aniwa. This is about to change.

12. Seifurusia ma.

12. He doesn’t turn him over

seifurusia = he doesn’t turn him over

ma = not

seifurusia is built from two components:

  1. sei- is the 3rd Person Singular Conjunction of se-.
  2. furusia is a Transitive Verb which means to file.

se-… ma is the Past and Present Split Negative Particle. It is called the Split Negative Particle because it comes in two parts: the Prefix se- and the Negative Particle ma, which immediately follows the verb.

The 1st Person Singular Conjugations are: sen-, seg-, and segk-.

sou- and sei- are the 2nd and 3rd Person Singular Conjugations respectively.

Here are a few examples:

B – 102           a roroveka ni-sei-taua ma ta fare nei = Roroveka did not build this house

B – 103           akoe sou-safea ma ta ne ra? = Haven’t you seen that thing?

B – 104           avau ni-sen-tia ma tahi = I did not hit one

As you can see, in the Past Tense, it can be preceded by the Past Tense Prefix ni-.

Furthermore, it is worth pointing out that ma can also be optional. For example:

B – 105           avau seg-kiroa pe ta farakau kai pena karufie mo ka sa = I do not know whether the pill will make it better or worse

B – 106           se-ragona = He does not feel like it

B – 107           ko-sou-tia = Do not strike him

In addition to se-… ma, which is more of a General Negative, there are at least to other Negative Tenses and Aspects. We shall explore these now:

  1. se… mana

This roughly means never, or at all in general, and mana does not appear to be optional. (Otherwise it would simply be the General Negative). We shall go straight to the examples, because the Conjugations of se-… are identical:

B – 108           se-forau mana = She has never travelled

B – 109           segk-iroa mana = I do not understand at all

B – 110           se-hlelesafi mana = It never fails or It never misses

On a related side tangent, it is worth noting that the Particle mana can also mean before or first. This is typically in sentences with a Positive Verb.

As a result, se… mana actually has a somewhat literal meaning of not before, which is a more gentle way of saying never.

  1. sero-… ma

This essentially functions as a Future Negative, and much like with the Present/Past Negative, the ma is once again optional.

In the 1st Person Singular, sero- can take the Conjugations: seron-, serog- and serogk-.

The 2nd Person Singular Conjugation is serou-, while the 3rd Person Singular Cojugation is seroi-.

Examples include:

B – 111           sero-puni ma = It will not be finished

B – 112           a roroveka ka-seroi-tia ma sa ika aratu = Roroveka is not likely to catch any fish tomorrow

There is one example of the Future Negative later in the text.

13. Feipe, aia neisoroa ta muma kai ta muma neisoroa ta ari seifurusia ma.

13. It is like this, the flounder filed the boxfish appropriately, but the boxfish filed the flounder without turning him over.

feipe = like this

aia = he

neisoroa = he filed him

ta = the

muma = boxfish

kai = but

ta = the

muma = boxfish

neisoroa = he filed him

ta = the

ari = flounder

seifurusia = he did not turn him over

ma = not

neisoroa is built from two components:

  1. nei- is the 3rd Person Singular Conjugation of the Tense Marker ni-, which we already discussed previously.
  2. soroa is a Transitive Verb which means to grate, to file, to rub together and to rub back and forth.

kai is an Alternate form of the Conjunction kaie, which has the seemingly contradictory English translations of and, and then and but.

In addition, -kai is also a Singular Indefinite Personal Possessive Interrogative Pronoun Suffix.

In Layman’s terms, -kai is a Suffix which means whose, but refers to only one Possessor.

Thus, we can translate it like this:

-kai = to which single person does this thing belong

-kai = to which single person do these things belong

It is worth noting that it this Suffix does not make any distinction between Singular and Plural Possessed Items. As far as I can discern, this distinction is made by others aspects of the grammar.

Examples include:

B – 113           a fare o-kai ena? = Whose houses are these? or To which single person do these houses belong?

B – 114           nio-kai a kava? = Whose kava plants are those? or To which single person do those kava plants belong?

We lack the time to discuss it here, but in West Futuna-Aniwa, there is a distinction between what are called the a and o Possessives. These are not interchangeable, but if you would like to find out more, I would direct you to the original chapter.

14. Neisoroa tan tafa tan tasiana kohlafa.

14. He filed just one of the flounder’s sides until it became flat.

neisoroa = he filed it

tan = his

tafa = side

tan = his

tasiana = one only

kohlafa = it is flat

kohlafa is built from two components:

  1. ko- is the base form of the Tense Marker ko-, which has already been adequately discussed,
  2. hlafa is an Adjective which means flat, broad or wide.

Another example of this adjective is:

B – 115           gasau sehlafa ma = Thatching cane is not flat

In addition, hlafa functions as a noun, where it means width.

Dougherty specifies that we are to understand width as the dimension “in contrast to height or length”.

hlafa is believed to derive from the Proto-Polynesian word *lafalafa. 

15. U aia koitu pe kaijirojiroa ano mahmata.

15. Then he, the boxfish, said that the flounder should look closely at himself.

u = then

aia = he

koitu = he said

pe = that

kaijirojiroa = he should look at it

ano = his

mahmata = appearance

kajirojiroa is built from four components:

  1. ka- is the base from of the Tense Marker ka-.
  2. jiro is a full Reduplication of the following component.
  3. jiro is the verb, which means to look carefully.
  4. -a is the Transitive Suffix, which specifies that the verb has an object.

Of course, it could also be said that the verb is built from only two components: ka- and jirojiroa, but I fancied breaking this word down even further.

Although it has appeared before, we shall now analyse the phrase ano mahmata.

This phrase literally means his appearances, and it appears to function as an equivalent to the 3rd Person Singular Reflexive Pronoun himself (although it could also translate as herself), even though it is technically a Plural Noun.

As mentioned earlier, ano belongs to a special set of Inalienable Possessive Pronouns.

If we replace ano with its 1st and 2nd Person Equivalents, then we get these phrases:

oku mahmata = my appearances / myself

ou mahmata = your appearances / yourself

16. U ta ari koijiroa jiroa kai ano mahmata nigkosa.

16. So the flounder looked and looked at himself but his appearance had become ugly.

u = so

ta = the

ari = flounder

koijiroa = he looks at it

jiroa = to look at it

kai = but

ano = his

mahmata = appearance

nigkosa = has become bad

nigkosa is built from two components:

  1. nigko- is the base form of the Present and Past Perfect Tense Marker nigko-.
  2. sa is an Adjective which means bad.

In addition to bad, the word sa can also mean undesirable, ugly or dysfunctional, all of which are related meanings. Examples include:

B – 116           majijiki koipena tiona noata ni-sa mafi = Majijiki made his body very ugly

B – 117           eia e sa-mai ki atavau = She is my enemy (lit. She is bad to me)

B – 118           kaie ano mahmata nigko-sa = But her general appearance was awful

Naturally, sa also enjoys a number of other meanings in West Futuna-Aniwa. We will explore these in order of simplicity of definition.

As a noun, sa means saw. This is a direct borrowing from the English noun saw.

As a particle, sa functions as a marker of intensity, or as a superlative. In this context, it can translate as English words such as very or completely. For example:

B – 119           pai sa i pau = It is very far to Pau

B – 120           ta nora rufie sa = The weather is great or The weather is very good

Furthermore, it also functions as an Indefinite Article, e.g. as a direct equivalent to the English words a, an and any. For example:

B – 121           a roroveka kaseroitia ma sa ika aratu = Roroveka isn’t likely to kill any fish tomorrow

B – 122           kapena is a hgoro = We will do it in a song

Last, but not least, sa can also function as a Tense Marker. Here, it indicates that the action or condition comes after a prior event; it is the resultant or subsequent action in a sequence; or a command.

The 1st Person Singular Conjugations are: san-, sag- and sagk-.

sau- is the 2nd Person Singular Conjugation, while the 3rd Person Singular Conjugations are sai- and sei-.

Examples include:

B – 123           sau-pena ta raurau puri = You will make the leaf wrappers for the puddings

B – 124           sa-mankapita foki = I will come to put them together again

B – 125           sai-tukuamai pe kapena i sa hgoro = (If you ask,) he will tell you so that you will tell me that we will take care of it with a song

For a number of reasons, I shall not try to link these meanings semantically. One reason is time, but another reason is that these meanings have different origins in Proto-Polynesian. For example, the Indefinite Article comes from the Proto-Polynesian *ha, where it was also an Indefinite Article, while the Adjective comes from the Proto-Polynesian *sala, which meant to err or error. 

17. Ta muma nifetakaro i ateia.

17. The boxfish had played around with him. 

ta = the

muma = boxfish

nifetakaro = played around

i = with

ateia = him

nifetakaro is built from two components:

  1. ni- is the base form of the Tense Marker ni-, which indicates the Past Tense.
  2. fetakaro is an Intransitive Verb which means to play around.

fetakaro can also mean to idle, and in general it implies that someone is being idle when something needs to be done. Capell described it as wanting to play games.

Examples include:

B – 126           aha nopena? no-fetakaro ana? = What are you all doing? Just idling?

B – 127           akimea noseria ta mrae nopenpena. a gatama no-fetakaro i ai = We sweep the village and fix it up. The children play and mess it up.

B – 128           kai no-fekataro ana foki = We just relaxed today too (In this sentence, it is implied that they did not perform their regular chores, and as a result they will eat leftovers.)

This word does not appear to be built from any smaller components.

However, a phonologically similar word to fetakaro is fetuga, which means strife or contention. I do not wish to imply that these two words are semantically or genealogically related, but I felt it was interesting enough to mention. 

18. U aia koitukage ki ta muma pe aia neipen ta muma nirufie ano mahmata. kai ta muma neipena aia nisa mafi.

18. So he says to the boxfish that he had fixed him up and his appearance became good but the boxfish fixed him up very poorly.

u = so

aia = he

koitukage = says

ki = to

ta = the

muma = boxfish

pe = that

aia = he

neipen = he fixed him

ta = the

muma = boxfish

nirufie = is good

ano = his

mahmata = appearance

kai = but

ta = the

muma = boxfish

neipena = he fixed him

aia = he

nisa = is bad

mafi = very

neipen is built from two components:

  1. nei- is the 3rd Person Singular Conjugation of the Past Tense Prefix ni-.
  2. pen is a verb which means to prepare.

neipena is built from three components. The first two are identical to neipen, but includes the Transitive Suffix –a.

Despite its length, the sentence does not contain any new grammatical concepts. To get around this, we shall explore a Tense Marker that does not appear in the story.

This is the Present Tense Marker noko-.

The 1st Person Singular Conjugations are nokon-, nokog- and nokogk–.

Respectively, the 2nd and 3rd Person Singular Conjugations are nokou- and nokoi-.

Examples include:

B – 129           noko-fagota nokoi-taia a kamkama = He is fishing and he is killing crabs

B – 130           noko-pohpoki kerea = They are all clapping

B – 131           nokoi-tujia i a kaka ma nokoi-tia i ta tapeni = She cuts from the coconut cloth and she beats it inside the shelter

On an unrelated tangent, the length of some of these sentences has led me to reconsider how I display the word-for-word translations. In future I shall format them in a manner that reduces the space vertical space they take up.

I shall not do this for the current section, because the process of doing so would require more effort than I am willing to exert.

19. U aia koitukage pe ai serofakea ma ki ta hgamokara makahkata a gatama i ateia.

19. So he, the flounder, says that he will not come out into the open spaces for fear that the children might laugh at him.

u = so

aia = he

koitukage = he says

pe = that

ai = he

serofakea = will not emerge

ma = not

ki = into

ta = the

hgamokara = open space

makahkata = might laugh

a = the

gatama = children

i = at

ateia = him

a gatama is an interesting construction, built from two components:

  1. a is the Plural Definite Article, indicating that there are no fewer than four of the things described.
  2. gatama is a special plural noun which means children.

I refer to gatama as a special form because in West Futuna-Aniwa, nouns do not take any inflections for number. One of the very few exceptions to this is tama, which is the Singular form of the noun for child or offspring.

makahkata is built from two components:

  1. maka- is a Tense Marker which is used to indicate Caveats, Contingencies, Possibilities and Anticipatory Warnings.
  2. hkata is the Non-Singular Subject Declension of the verb kata, which means to laugh or to smile.

Unfortunately, I could not find a dictionary entry for the Tense Marker maka–, so I can neither provide the Singular Subject Conjugations nor provide appropriate examples.

However, maka also has some other meanings.

As a noun, maka means sling.

As an intransitive verb, it means to shoot with a slingshot or to shoot with a spear gun.

In West Futuna-Aniwa, there are a number of verbs which take the Prefix h- in the presence of a Non-Singular subject.

hgamakara is a noun that refers to any sort of open space.

As an adjective, it means empty. For example:

B – 132           e hgamakara na ta fare. ta majira e jikai = This house is empty. There isn’t even a knife.

On a related note, there also exists the word hgamtagi, which appears to be a combination of the first syllable hga and the word mtagi, which you may remember from earlier.

Anyway, hgamtagi means the sound of oncoming wind.

20. Kaie aia kahmuni i a one.

20. So he will always hide in the sand.

kaie = so

aia = he

kahmuni = always hide

i = in

a = the

one = sand

kahmuni is built from two components:

  1. ka- is the base form of the Future Tense Marker ka-.
  2. hmuni is an intransitive verb which means to be hidden or to hide.

a one literally means the sands, but that would probably be too abstract a translation in this context.

West Futuna-Aniwa has a rich system of Articles.

As an Article, a has a wide range of functions. We have already mentioned that it is the Plural Definite Article.

In addition, it also functions as the Personal Article, which appears before personal names (as can be seen in some of the example sentences), and as the Ligative Article, which appears betwixt the number one and the object.

Glosses:

Unfortunately, Dixon did not provide a gloss for this particular tale. As a result, I have had to make it myself.

Yidiñ:

Wira Gawanday Bibiyuwuy

The Ghost of Bibiyuwuy

wira = moveable object

gawanday = spirit of a dead person

Bibiyuwuy = Bibiyuwuy

2. Dyadya dyambuul waguudya ŋalalala guman buñamudyay guman mugu ñinaañ.

2. The two male children were now big (i.e. grown-up). One had two wives, but the other had no option but to sit in front of the fire alone, since he had no wives.

dyadya = small child

dyambuul = two

waguudya = male human

ŋalalala = big now

guman = one

buñamudyay = woman – COM

guman = one

mugu = COULDN’T HELP IT

ñinañ = sit – PAST

3. Guman badyaarr bulmbaa dyambuul galiiñ dyambuungu dyambuungu dagaadyina dyambun dagaal.

3. One man, the unmarried brother, was left at the camp. Two people, the married brother and one wife, went for grubs. To cut out grubs. They cut grubs from the rotten wood in which they burrow.

guman = one – ABS

badyaarr = leave – PAST

bulmbaa = camp – LOC

dyambuul = two – ABS

galiiñ = go – PAST

dyambuungu = grub – PURP

dyambuungu = grub – PURP

dagaadyina = cut – ANTIPASS – PURP

dyambun = grub – ABS

dagaal = cut – PRES

4. Guman gundaadyiñu galbaanda bandyaal.

4. One, the married brother, cut an ash tree with an axe. He cut out a grub, and tasted it. He found it tasted of semen, and knew that his brother was misbehaving with his other wife, back at the camp.

guman = one – ABS

gundaadyiñu = cut – ANTIPASS – PAST

galbaanda = axe – LOC

bandyaal = taste – PAST

5. Ŋadyin wagal dyurmaŋ ŋañdyagumaandu dyambuundu ŋayu yiŋu miña bundyal.

5. “My wife is being swived (= made love to) by my brother. I’ve tasted a bad slimy animal taste in this grub,” the man said to himself.

ŋadyin = I – GEN – ABS  

wagal = wife – ABS

dyurmaŋ = swive – PRES

ŋañdyagumaandu = brother – ERG

dyambuundu = grub – ERG

ŋayu = I – NOM

yiŋu = this – ABS

miña = meat – ABS

bundyal = bad taste – ABS

6. Ŋayu gana gundyiŋ bulmbaagu ŋadyin wagal wawaaliŋgaaliŋ dyadya dyangaanŋal ŋadyin bulmbaa gana gundyiŋ wawaaldaŋgaadaŋ.

6. “I must return to the camp, go right up and have a look at my wife, and my child. Something bad has been done to my folks in the camp. I must return – come close and have a look.”

ŋayu = I – NOM

gana = TRY

gundyiŋ = return – PRES

bulmbaagu = place – PURP

ŋadyin = I – GEN – ABS

wagal = wife – ABS

wawaaliŋgaaliŋ = see – GOING – REDUP – PRES

dyadya = small child

dyangaanŋal = bad – CAUSVERB

ŋadyin = I – GEN – ABS

bulmbaa = camp – LOC

gana = TRY

gundyiŋ = return – PRES  

wawaaldaŋgaadaŋ = see – COMING – REDUP – PRES

7. Ñundu dyurmaañ ŋadyin wagal ŋudyu.

7. “You’ve been swiving my wife,” the married man challenged his brother, getting the reply: “No”.

ñundu = you – NOM

dyurmaañ = swive – PAST

ŋadyin = I – GEN – ABS

wagal = wife – ABS

ŋudyu = not/no

8. Guñi wara ñaŋgaadyi ñundu dyurmaañ ŋayu ñuniñ garu bundyaŋ.

8. “Don’t tell lies! You swived her. By-and-by I’m going to hit and kill you.”

guñi = NEG.IMP

wara = DONE.WRONG

ñaŋgaadyin = talk – IMP

ñundu = you – NOM

dyurmaañ = swive – PAST

ŋayu = I – NOM

ñuniñ = you – ACC

garu = by-and-by

bundyaŋ = hit – PRES

9. And he bundyaañ gurgaamari.

9. And he hit him across the back of the neck and killed him.

and = and

he = he

bundyaañ = hit – PAST

gurgaamari = neck – ALONG

10. Ñundu wulaŋala ŋayu ŋudyu ñunuungu duwu gadaŋ ŋayu bumba ñinaŋ ñundu ŋudyu duwu bayil ŋanda bundyaañ wulaañ.

10. “Now you’re dead. My tears will not come into my eyes for you. I’m sitting here dry-eyed. Hey! No tears will come to my eyes. You were hit by me and you’re dead.”

ñundu = you – NOM

wulaŋala = die – PRES – NOW

ŋayu = I – NOM

ŋudyu = not

ñunuungu = you – PURP

duwu = tear – ABS

gadaŋ = come – PRES

ŋayu = I – NOM

bumba = dry – NOM

ñinaŋ = sit – PRES

ñundu = you – NOM

ŋudyu = not

duwu = tear – ABS

bayil = emerge – PRES

ŋanda = I – DAT

bundyaañ = hit – PAST

wulaañ = die – PAST

11. Gula ñari bagaal dungu gugaa budiil.

11. He dug a hole to bury the body. And put the head, which had been cut off, into a bark container.

gula = body – ABS

ñari = hole – ABS

bagaal = pierce – PAST

dungu = head – ABS

gugaa = bark – LOC

budiil = put down – PAST

13. Galiiñ banaa ŋabaŋaliiñ biriiñdya maluuway gana gadaañ guluguluuy gulugulu gadaŋalñu gabulula.

13. The spirit of the murdered man went to the water, went and bathed in the salt-water. The spirit came with a black bream for all the people to eat. He brought the black bream on a small stick.

galiiñ = go – PAST

banaa = water – ALL

ŋabaŋaliiñ = bathe – GOING – PAST

biriiñdya = salt water – LOC

maluuway = spirit – ABS

gana = TRY

gadaañ = come – PAST

guluguluuy = black bream – COM

gulugulu = black bream – ABS

gadaŋalñu = come – COM – PAST

gabulula = stick for carrying fish – LOC

13. Ñundu waña ŋayuña ñundu ŋañañ bundyaañ ŋayu gana gundyiiñ.

13. “Who are you?” all the people in the camp ask the returning spirit. “It’s me alright. You killed me,” he tells his brother in front of all the other people, “but I’ve come back.”

ñundu = you – NOM

waña = who – ABS

ŋayuña = I – EMP

ñundu = you – NOM

ŋañañ = I – ACC

bundyaañ = kill – PAST

ŋayu = I – NOM

gana = TRY

gundyiiñ = return – PAST

14. Wañiingu ñundu gadaŋ ŋayu gadaañdi wawaadyina bulmbaagu.

14. The people asked him: “What are you coming here for?” And he replied, “I’ve come to have a look at the camp.”

wañiingu = Generic Inanimate Interrogative – PURP

ñundu = you – NOM

gadaŋ = come – PRES

ŋayu = I – NOM

gadaañdyi = come – PAST – ANTIPASS

wawaadyina = see – ANTIPASS – PURP

bulmbaagu = place – PURP

15. Ñunduuba guriñ ñinaŋ ŋañdyi guriñ ñinaŋ.

15. “Are you all alright sitting here?” he asked them. “Yes, we’re alright sitting here.”

ñunduuba = you all – NOM

guriñ = good – ABS

ñinaŋ = sit – PRES

ŋañdyi = we all – NOM

guriñ = good – ABS

ñinaŋ = sit – PRES

16. Wañi bulu gudyil ŋañdyi dyubuñ ŋuruu.

16. “What’s the stink I can smell?” the spirit asked. We were all silent, not answering him. Why?

wañi = Generic Inanimate Interrogative – ABS

bulu = rotten – ABS

gudyil = smell – PRES

ŋañdyi = we all – NOM

dyubuñ = quiet

ŋuruu = why

17. Ŋañdyi wañiinŋal yiŋu dungu ŋuñdyuuŋ dungu ñumaal.

17. “What shall we do with this head? That spirit smelt his own head,” the people spoke amongst themselves.

ŋañdyi = we all – NOM

wañiinŋal = Inanimate Generic – COM

yiŋu = Inanimate Deictic – ACC

dungu = head – ABS

ŋuñdyuuŋ = there – Human Indefinite – ERG

dungu = head – ABS

ñumaal = smell – PAST

18. Ŋayudi manŋalala ñari bagaalna ŋayu budyiiñ ŋuridyuluu ñari bagaalna.

18. “I’m really frightened. We’ll have to dig a hole and bury the head,” the dead boy’s mother said. “I told you some time ago, to dig a hole and bury the head.”

ŋayudi = I – EMPH

manŋalala = be frightened – PRES – NOW

ñari = hole – ABS

bagaalna = pierce – PURP

ŋayu = I – NOM

budyiiñ = tell – PAST

ŋuridyuluu = a few days ago

ñari = hole – ABS

bagaalna = pierce – PURP

19. Ŋayu garu budyiŋ ñuniñ ŋuŋu dungu ŋayu gundaal wulaañ ŋadyin ŋumbarr wawawawaalna dungula babaal.

19. “I’ll have to tell him soon,” Mother says, and when the spirit of her son next returns she says to him: “I cut off your head after you’d died. I wanted to gaze on the face of my dead child – on his skull.”

ŋayu = I – NOM

garu = by-and-by

budyiŋ = tell – PRES

ñuniñ = you – ACC

ŋuŋu = that – ABS

dungu = head – ABS

ŋayu = I – NOM

gundaal = cut – PAST

wulaañ = die – PAST

ŋadyin = I – GEN – ABS

ŋumbarr = face – ABS

wawawawaalna = see – REDUP – PURP

dungula = head – LOC

babaal = bone – ABS

20. Ŋayu gundyiŋala ŋayu ñunduubañ yiŋu badyarrala ŋayu galiŋala wuuy wuuy wuuy wuuy wuuy ŋayu dyugimari dyadyaamaŋ guman dyadyamaŋal gumaanbi dyadyamaŋal ŋayu gumaanbi ŋayu banaa biriiñdya galiŋ.

20. The spirit said: “Having seen my own skull, I’m returning now to my spirit-home in the water. And as he went he called out: “Wuy, wuy, wuy, wuy, wuy…”, being known as Bibiyuwuy from then on. He continued: “I’m jumping through the trees; I jump over one stick, I jump over another stick, then I jump over a third stick. I go into the salt-water.”

ŋayu = I – NOM

gundyiŋala = retun – PRES – NOW

ŋayu = I – NOM

ñunduubañ = you all – ACC

yiŋu = Definite Deictic – NOM

badyarrala = leave – PRES – NOW

ŋayu = I – NOM

galiŋala = go – PRES – NOW

wuuy = wuy

wuuy = wuy

wuuy = wuy

wuuy = wuy

wuuy = wuy

ŋayu = I – NOM

dyugimari = tree – ALONG

dyadyaamaŋ = jump over – PRES

guman = one

dyadyamaŋal = jump over – PRES – NOW

gumaanbi = one – ANOTHER

dyadyamaŋal = jump over – PRES – NOW

ŋayu = I – NOM

gumaanbi = one – ANOTHER

ŋayu = I – NOM

banaa = water – LOC

biriiñdya = salt water – LOC

galiŋ = go – PRES

21. Gulugulu ñunduuba buganala miña ŋayu gadaŋalñum.

21. “Now you can all eat the black bream, the seafood that I brought for you!”

gulugulu = black bream – ABS

ñunduuba = you all – NOM

buganala = eat – PRES – NOW

miña = edible flesh food – ABS

ŋayu = I – NOM

gadaŋalñum = come – COM – CAUS.SUB

22. Ŋayu gana gundyiŋ ŋayu ñuniñ wawal dyambulamay dyambulamay gadan.

22. “I’m returning to the water. I’ll see you in two days. Come in two days!”

ŋayu = I – NOM

gana = TRY

gundyiŋ = return – PRES

ŋayu = I – NOM

ñuniñ = you – ACC

wawal = see – PRES

dyambulamay = two – DAY.LOC

dyambulamay = two – DAY.LOC

gadan = come – IMP

23. Ŋayu ganaaŋgar galiŋ badiŋ.

23. “I’m the first to go to heaven, crying as I go.”

ŋayu = I – NOM

ganaaŋgar = DO.FIRST

galiŋ = go – PRES

badiŋ = cry – PRES

This is the gloss as it appears in Dougherty’s grammar. It is not particularly detailed, and I felt it wise to warn you of this.

Ta Muma ma Ta Ari

The Boxfish and The Flounder

ta = ART

muma = boxfish

ma = CONJ

ta = ART

ari = flounder

1. Ta muma neitukage i ta ari pe aia kamokage kaipenpena aia.

1. A boxfish once said to a flounder that he, the flounder, before anything else should fix him, the boxfish up.

ta = ART

muma = boxfish

neitukage = TNS – 3SG – say – OUT

i = to

ta = ART

ari = flounder

pe = that

aia = he

kamokage = TNS – front – OUT

kaipenpena = TNS – 3SG – fix – TRANS

aia = him

2. Kaitia tan tafa.

2. He should file his side.

kaitia = TNS – 3SG – file – TRANS

tan = 3SG – POSS

tafa = side

3. U ta ari neitu pe, “mai, kanpenpena.”

3. So the flounder said, “Come here, I shall fix you up.”

u = CONJ

ta = ART

ari = flounder

neitu = TNS – 3SG – SAY

pe = that

mai = come

kanpenpena = TNS – 1SG – fix – TRANS

4. U aia koitia tan tafa korava kaifurusia.

4. So he, the flounder files his, the boxfish’s, side completely and then he turns him over.

u = CONJ

aia = he

koitia =  TNS – 3SG – file – TRANS

tan = 3SG – POSS

tafa = side

korava = TNS – finish

kaifurusia = TNS – 3SG – turn – TRANS

5. Koitia uai tan tafa korava kaifurusia.

5. He files his side until it’s finished and then he turns him over.

koitia = TNS – 3SG – file – TRANS

uai = on

tan = 3SG – POSS

tafa = side

korava = TNS – finish

kaifurusia = TNS – 3SG – turn – TRANS

6. Koitia tan tafa korava kaifurusia.

6. He files his, the boxfish’s side completely and then he turns him over.

koitia = TNS – 3SG – file – TRANS

tan = 3SG – POSS

tafa = side

korava = TNS – finish

kaifurusia = TNS – 3SG – turn – TRANS

7. Koitia tan tafa foki korufie.

7. He files his other side until it looks good.

koitia = TNS – 3SG – file – TRANS

tan = 3SG – POSS

tafa = side

foki = other

korufie = TNS – good  

8. Aia koitukage i ta muma pe, “jirojiroa ou mahmata.”

8. He says to the boxfish, “Look, look at yourself.”

aia = he

koitukage = TNS – 3SG – say – OUT

i = to

ta = ART

muma = boxfish

pe = that

jirojiroa = look – look – TRANS

ou = 2SG – POSS

mahmata = appearance

9. Ta muma kojiria jiroa kaie nigkorufie ano mahmata.

9. The boxfish looks and looks at himself and sees that his appearance has come out well.

ta = ART

muma = boxfish

kojiroa = TNS – look – TRANS

jiroa = look – TRANS

kaie = CONJ

nigkorufie = TNS – good

ano = 3SG – POSS

mahmata = appearance

10. U aia koitukage i ta ari pe aia kaipenpena ta ari.

10. So he says to the flounder that he will fix him up.

u = CONJ

aia = he

koitukage = TNS – 3SG – say – OUT

i = to

ta = ART

ari = flounder

pe = that

aia = he

kaipenpena = TNS – 3SG – fix – TRANS

ta = art

ari = flounder

11. Koisoroa tan tafa tan tasiana.

11. He files just one of the flounder’s sides.

koisoroa = TNS – 3SG – file – TRANS

tan = 3SG – POSS

tafa = side

tan = 3SG – POSS

tasiana = one – ONLY

12. Seifurusia ma.

12. He doesn’t turn him over.

seifurusia = NEG – 3SG – turn – TRANS

ma = NEG

13. Feipe, aia neisoroa ta muma kai ta muma neisoroa ta ari seifurusia ma.

13. It is like this, the flounder filed the boxfish appropriately, but the boxfish files the flounder without turning him over.

feipe = CONJ

aia = he

neisoroa = TNS – 3SG – file – TRANS

ta = art

muma = boxfish

kai = CONJ

muma = boxfish

neisoroa = TNS – 3SG – file – Trans

ta = ART

ari = flounder

seifurusia = NEG – 3SG – turn – TRANS

ma = NEG

14. Neisoroa tan tafa tan tasiana kohlafa.

14. He filed just one of the flounder’s sides until it became flat.

neisoroa = TNS – 3SG – turn – TRANS

tan = 3SG – POSS

tafa = side

tan = 3SG – POSS

tasiana = one – ONLY

kohlafa = TNS – flat

15. U aia koitu pe kaijirojiroa ano mahmata.

15. Then he, the boxfish, said that the flounder should look closely at himself.

u = CONJ

aia = he

koitu = TNS – 3SG – say

pe = that

kaijirojiroa = TNS – 3SG – look – look – TRANS

ano = 3SG – POSS

mahmata = appearance

16. U ta ari koijiroa jiroa kai ano mahmata nigkosa.

16. So the flounder looked and looked at himself and saw that his appearance had become ugly.

u = CONJ

ta = ART

ari = flounder

koijiroa = TNS – 3SG – look – TRANS

jiroa =  look – TRANS

kai = CONJ

ano = 3SG – POSS

mahmata = appearance

nigkosa = TNS – bad

17. Ta muma nifetakaro i ateia.

17. The boxfish had played around with him.

ta = ART

muma = boxfish

nifetakaro = TNS – play-around

i = OBL – i

ateia = him

18. U aia koitukage ki ta muma pe aia neipen ta muma nirufie ano mahmata kai ta muma neipena aia nisa mafi.

18. So he says to the boxfish that he had fixed him up and made his appearance good, but the boxfish had fixed him up very poorly.

u = CONJ

aia = he

koitukage = TNS – 3SG – say – OUT

ki = to

ta = ART

muma = boxfish

pe = that

aia = he

neipen = TNS – 3SG – fix

ta = ART

muma = boxfish

nirufie = TNS – good

ano = 3SG – POSS

mahmata = appearance

kai = CONJ

ta = ART

muma = boxfish

neipena = TNS – 3SG – fix – TRANS

aia = he

nisa = TNS – bad

mafi = very

19. U aia koitukage pe ai serofakea ma ki ta hgamokara makahkata a gatama i ateia.

19. So he says that he will not come out into the open spaces for fear that the children might laugh at him.

u = CONJ

aia = he

koitukage = TNS – 3SG – say – OUT

pe = that

ai = he

serofakea = NEG – emerge – DURATIVE

ma = NEG

ki = into

ta = ART

hgamokara = open spaces

makahkata = TNS – laugh

a = ART

gatama = children

i = at

ateia = him

20. Kaie aia kahmuni i a one.

20. So he will always hide in the sand.

kaie = CONJ

aia = he

kahmuni = TNS – hide

i = in

a = ART

one = sand

Sources:

Janet W. D. Dougherty, West Futuna-Aniwa: An Introduction to a Polynesian Outlier Language (California: University of California Press 1983)

Futuna-Aniwa language – Wikipedia

Tafea Province – Wikipedia

Melanesian Religions: Mythic Themes | Encyclopedia.com

Working Together in Vanuatu: Research Histories, Collaborations, Projects and Reflections

Ostraciidae – Wikipedia

Flounder – Wikipedia

Engyprosopon vanuatuensis, a new species of bothid flounder (Pleuronectiformes: Bothidae) from off Vanuatu, South West Pacific | Semantic Scholar

  1. M. W. Dixon, A Grammar of Yidiɲ (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1977)

Jordan B. Peterson, Biblical Series V: Cain and Abel: The Hostile Brothers (27/06/2017: Biblical Series V: Cain and Abel: The Hostile Brothers – YouTube)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sooty_grunter

 

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languageswithwilf

In our quest to observe the true diversity of human language, we will sail across oceans, carve paths through dense jungle, risk frostbite on the icy plains at the roof of the world, and even make forays into the world of the dead. This shall be our journey, and I hope that everyone joins me on what is sure to be a wild ride.

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