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Re: Fijian gender

From:Roger Mills <rfmilly@...>
Date:Saturday, September 25, 2004, 4:25
Thanks to my dumb boo-boo, I'm over quota, so this will have to wait 40+
minutes...........

Trebor wrote:

> "I don't have a grammar of Fijian, but the dictionary notes that ke- > (edible) forms can be used with things characteristic of a person. > > Any examples? I don't quite understand that.
Here's the entry for _ke_: "...indicating (1) that the object is to be eaten _na kena uvi_ 'his yam, to eat', as against na nona uvi 'his yam, e.g. to plant'. (2) concerning a person or thing _na kena i tukutuku 'the story about him or it'; (3) expressing certain characteristics of a person or thing [no example]."
> Oh and another question: What are Formosan langs? ...Wait a minute, isn't > there an island/archipelago called Formosa-something? *shrugs*
Older name for Taiwan; probably not PC anymore. Anyway, what
> are some distinguishing characteristics?
On the endangered list, for one thing. Some consider them "close" to the Proto-Austronesian state because they are apparently very conservative phonologically; grammatically they're mostly trigger-type. A lot of vocabulary that isn't reflected in any of the other AN languages.
>Oh yes, one more... lol... Any info > on Tahitian? Google is unhelpful...
I know; I tried to find something on Tahitian too. Here are some references from a paper I have: Coppenrath, Hubert & Paul Prevost 1975, Grammaire approfondie de la langue tahitienne. Papeete. (Language Training Mission) 1973, Te re'o Tahiti no te mau misionare. Provo Utah [That's probably BYU] The reason these aren't very up to date is that they come from a paper published in 1979.

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Philip Newton <philip.newton@...>