Re: Hawaiian

Adam wrote:
<<
Does anyone know what kind of grammar system Hawaiian has? I am
fascinated
by it, but I can't find much on the grammar where people are using any
technical terms. Although, I found a lot about the phonetics.
 >>

Oh, man...  I have a lot of work to do, and I've got to do it now,
but I have just about every book published on the Hawaiian
language.  It's one of my favorites.

If you want a very basic sketch, it goes something like this:

TMA V SBJ i OBJ

Nouns precede adjectives, genitive pronouns precede possessed
nouns, but when it's two nouns, the possessed precedes the
possessor (much like English "his book" vs. "the book of the man"),
VSO, prepositional...

A noun phrase will look like this:

he kane loloa
INDEF. man tall
"a tall man"

Hawaiian has an indefinite article, a singular definite article, and
a plural definite article.  Plurality is marked on the articles only,
except in a few common nouns (and there, it's usually by stress).
Though the nouns/articles are singular/plural, the pronouns
have singular, dual and plural numbers (and there's an inclusive/
exclusive distinction in the first person dual and plural).

There's an perfect/imperfect distinction in the tense system.
Generally, "he" works for the imperfect; "ua" for perfect (there
are other markers that do other things, but that takes care of
the basics).

The object phrase is preceded by /i/, though that preposition
can be used for locational phrases, and also for benefactive
phrases.  Sometimes it can precede the subject.  There are a
certain class of verbs (called "loa'a verbs") that display the
same order and marking, but the order of elements is VOS.
Lots has been written about these; some people say the first
phrase is still the subject; some say these verbs show an ergative
alignment; some that these are intransitive verbs, and the last
element is an oblique...  I have no stake in the analysis: I just
know how it works.

I know someone else on the list will be able to fill in some more
of the gaps, but I've got some papers to grade.  Hawaiian's a
fun one, though!

-David
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