Re: OT: Humor: was Re: Profiles

Hate to disappoint you, Yitzik the Snakie, but there are no snakes in New
Zealand - besides the human kind of course - though some snakes have been
discovered dead while trying to sneak into the country.

All this healthy sea air, and no food for weeks on end - it's hard for any
snake trying to smuggle themselves here. ;)

"Ngata" in The Reed Concise Maori Dictionary, is "slug; snail; with
difficulty";
in The Revised Dictionary of Modern Maori", it's "satisfied; snail";
in A Dictionary of the Maori Language", by H.W. Williams M.A. it's
"Ngata (i), n. 1. Snail, slug, leech.
2. Anything small, speck.
"Ngata (ii), a. 1. Appeased, satisfied.  Kihai i ngata te puku riri o Waikato
ki nga tangata o taua nei. (N. 140)
2. Dry.  Ka ngata te wahie nei i roto i te kapura."

There you have it.  In translation the quote concerning Waikato would be: "The
angry belly (heart, liver, whatever) of Waikato wasn't appeased with the men
of this raiding party."  (The Waikato is of course known as "Waikato taniwha
rau, he piko, he taniwha" - "Waikato of the thousand taniwha, a bend, a
taniwha", where "taniwha", a major nature spirit, is used to refer to a
chief, "for every bend in the river there's a chief!")

And that of course brings me to one of my major focuses - how does everyone
handle proverbs, conventional knowledge and mockery of stupidity, etc, in
their conlangs?

In my Yhe Vala Lakha I had a few, mostly concerned with showing the difference
a matriarchy based on the women being bigger and more numerous than the men,
would make.  I haven't made any concerning the Rakhebuitya, mostly because I
haven't been doing anything with Li' Anyerra-Tarah lately, and there are none
in Nu Aves Khara-Ansha because as a technically enslaved population - though
they fail to see it that way - they don't have the liberty to say anything,
beyond:

"Inu venya'en zai'i fari; iayat inu'bayatere vralnei; iayatsai venya'en
nuraa." The which being translated: "The strongwoman had many men; in the
"Kennel" they never saw the (sun)light; that strongwoman has nothing (now)."

Supplied by Nu Tiroya Venya of the Southern Tropical Great Sea Region, in the
desolate lands just south of the mountains; a comment on some venyaya who
were jealous of their breeding rights, who lost those rights - and everything
else - when the men sickened from being kept away from the Hunt.

Well, it's a rather long-winded reply, Snakie, and sorry, but ...

Shalom

Wesley Parish

On Sunday 13 April 2003 09:10 pm, you wrote:
> Wesley Parish ikrí:
> > Just pop along the lines to the
> > http://www.learningmedia.co.nz/ngata/
>
> The word "ngata" means "snake", doesn't it?
--
Mau e ki, "He aha te mea nui?"
You ask, "What is the most important thing?"
Maku e ki, "He tangata, he tangata, he tangata."
I reply, "It is people, it is people, it is people."