Grammar and Vocabulary of the Lau Language, Solomon Islands |
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Common terms and phrases
adverb aena aiai angita aqala artificial islet baea baela baita bali Big Malaita daro denotes dual excl fafi fanga fangala fasi fasia fera follows fonosi forms fuana fufue gamelu gami gamoro gamu geni genitive gera gula gwou idalu ifai igera inao inau inia kafi langi Lau language locative lofo maae maaedangi madiu Malaita mamana manata manga matala Mota mwane mwela nena ngado noni numeral pers plural Port Adam poss prefix prep prepositions pron qaimani qalu qe ia Ramarama ro fe ro mwai rodo ruana Sa'a saea Saʻa sasi sasina sing subj suff suffix to verb suffixed pronoun suli susu taifili tala tangafulu tani tefe telana things toongi transitive suffix v. v. tr verbal nouns words
Popular passages
Page 1 - Lau is the name given to the language spoken by the inhabitants of the artificial islets which lie off the northeast coast of Big Malaita, Solomon Islands. The language spoken on the coast from Uru on the northeast to Langalanga, Alite Harbor, on the northwest of Big Malaita, is practically Lau. On the west coast there is considerable admixture of Fiu, which is the language of the bush behind the Langalanga lagoon. In Dr. Codrington's "Melanesian Languages,
Page 1 - ... forefathers migrated from Suraina, near Atta Cove, 80 miles away, along the coast to the north. The Lau of this grammar and vocabulary was learned from dealings with the Port Adam natives and also from a stay of several weeks with Rev. AI Hopkins, at Mangoniia, on the mainland opposite the articial islet Ferasubua. It is not claimed that the Lau here presented is the same as the Lau of the northeast coast of Big Malaita. Doubtless owing to the Port Adam peoples being surrounded by Sa'a-speaking...
Page 1 - ... the northeast coast of Big Malaita. Doubtless owing to the Port Adam peoples being surrounded by Sa'a-speaking peoples, they have adopted Sa'a words and methods of speech to some extent. The women of the hill peoples above Port Adam have largely been procured as wives for the Port Adam men and this there has been a tendency for the distinctiveness of the Lau language to disappear and for the Sa'a words to be adopted. While this tendency was perhaps not very great previous to the introduction...
Page 2 - ... author, he has endeavored to eliminate these Sa'a elements from the present work. In the translations made into Lau, some use has been made of the gerundive, following the use in Sa'a; but until we have further evidence of the validity of this usage it must be regarded as not belonging to the genesis of the Lau language, and it is therefore omitted here. It will be seen that Lau is a typical Melanesian language and has few marked peculiarities. In Sa'a there is a distinctive use of the shortened...
Page 2 - ... has few marked peculiarities. In Sa'a there is a distinctive use of the shortened forms of the pronouns of the first and second persons, du and 'o, suffixed to verbs and prepositions as object; in Lau the same shortening is not effected and the longer forms nau, oc, are used. It has not been throught proper to represent any break in pronunciation such as occurs in Sa'a in such words, eg, as ia fish, Sa'a i'e. Lau shows generally the dropping of such consonants as are dropped in Sa'a, but it is...
Page 1 - Flu, which is the language of the bush behind the Langalanga lagoon. In Dr. Codrington's 'Melanesian Languages', pp.39 et seq., certain words are given as spoken at Alite in Langalanga. These words are probably Fiu rather than Lau. The purest Lau is spoken at Sulufou, one of the articial islets near Atta Cove. The inhabitants of Ai-lali, on the mainland of Big Malaita opposite the island Aio, are an offshoot of the Lau-speaking peoples. In Port Adam...
Page 2 - ... be regarded as not belonging to the genesis of the Lau language, and it is therefore omitted here. It will be seen that Lau is a typical Melanesian language and has few marked peculiarities. In Sa'a there is a distinctive use of the shortened forms of the pronouns of the first and second persons, du and 'o, suffixed to verbs and prepositions as object; in Lau the same shortening is not effected and the longer forms nau, oc, are used. It has not been throught proper to represent any break in pronunciation...
Page 48 - ... four; ro lima maa ono, six ; ro fiu maa qalu, eight. maabala: to no effect; rao maabala, to work unprofitably. S. maatala. maabe: vi, to be willing, obedient, gentle, to be soft, easy; mu maabe ni elea, you were willing to rejoice. maabea : vn, gentleness, willingness. maabesi: vt, to be willing. maadara (gu) : n., forehead. S. dara.
Page 51 - ... ngwane gi, men's heads; i tolona fera, on the tops of the hills; used as object with certain verbs : too, toona. S. na. no, 3: noun ending, added to cardinals to form ordinals; added to nouns to denote relationship; haasi, haasina, S. na. na, 4: adv., follows the verb and denotes a preterite...
Page 1 - Adam (Malau) on Little Malaita, some 12 miles north of Sa'a, there are two villages, Ramarama and Malede, inhabited by Lau-speaking peoples, and the inhabitants of these villages hold as a tradition that their forefathers migrated from Suraina, near Atta Cove, 80 miles away, along the coast to the north.