Re: Fijian gender

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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