Re: Teach Yourself Kamakawi

yes, i understand kamakawi's point of view regarding equative and creation
freedom. i was just interested in understanding how kamakawi works and why. i
only know about tahitian and nothing about "predicative tag" but since hawaiian
"he" and "i" seem to work like tahitian "'e/e" and "i" and 'a'ole looks like
tahitian 'aore--well, I think we can understand each other ;-) "he is a man"
would be said: 'e ta'ata 'oia = "a man he". "he is strong": e ta'ata pûai 'oia =
"a man strong he". "he is not strong": 'aore/'aita 'oia i pûai = "not he (i)
strong". so ok, i understand that the predicative tag "i" of kamakawi makes the
positive equative sentence work like the negative one without needing to put
first a noun like tahitian does. and anyway with tahitian number you may put
either the figure or the noun as predicate: "there are 4 men": e maha (tau na)
ta'ata // e na ta'ata e maha.

David Peterson <DigitalScream@...> wrote:
>>>
   ?  Well, first off I should say that I'm not trying to make it a
realistically possible Polynesian language, but just to kind of sound like
one, and do some similar things.  From that point, I've been creating on my
own.
    The only Polynesian language I "know" (I'm learning it--I'm only up to
about chapter 9) is Hawaiian, and in that one, you don't even use anything
like a predicative particle in declarative sentences: "He mau Amelika laua" =
Active.pres. "some" "America" 3dual = "They two are Americans".  If you think
of the "Amelika" as being a verb, I can see what you mean about the word
order not changing...  Well, kind of in the negative: 'A'ole au he Amelika =
not I ? "America" = "I'm not American".  How does the kind of statement
marker "he" work there...?  Is it a predicate marker?
    Anyway, the only true predicates I've ever encountered have been in
Creoles, like Tok Pisin, where it is kind of like you state the subject, then
the predicate marker precedes the rest of the sentence.  That was the kind of
idea I was thinking about.  So, whereas in a normal sentence you have: (1)
subject status marker, (2) verb, (3) subject, (4) predicate marker/other, (5)
object; in the equative you drop (2), which is  understood, leaving just the
subject marker, but since it's in the present, this subject marker can be
dropped (it's obligatory in the past).  This is the kind of system I became
familiar with in Arabic in Russian.  Because of the VSO word order, are you
saying this type of thing doesn't work?  Or is just totally unnatural...?
VSO is really new territory for me (I studied modern Arabic, not classical).
-David
"Zi hiwejnat zodZaraDatsi pat Zi mirejsat dZaCajani sUlo."
"The future's uncertain and the end is always near."
                --Jim Morrison
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Mathias