The blacksmith saw the pirate, and so fled

[justira]

I love linguistics.

Your language lesson for the day:

Tukang Besi is an Austronesian language spoken off the southern tip of Sulawesi, in Indonesia.

No'ita te sanggila ma tukatutu jari notode.
The blacksmith saw the pirate, and so fled

No’ita’e te sanggila na tukatutu, jari notode
The pirate saw the blacksmith, and so he [i.e., the blacksmith] fled

Ikiki’iaku
You (pl) bit me

Nopapotandutandu’e na wembe
He incited the goats to butt each other

Notowilangkenemo na tukatutu
The blacksmith was accompanied

Nunabu’e na beka
You (sg) dropped the cat

Norodongokomiu te kumbou
The goanna heard you (pl)

Nomanga’e na wurai te kumbou
The goanna ate the sarong


Random excerpts from the last case study I did. Fascinating language. I'd put up my full analysis, but it's pages and pages long oO;

I love this problem set. Usually we just get "the man beat the woman with a stick," but this time we get pirates, blacksmiths, goats, goannas, and sarongs XD.

Comments

[twinofmunin.livejournal.com]

i want to see the full analysis...!

[justira.livejournal.com]

It's long and not even complete =P

But linguistics rocks and I might be posting more of these little things.

[flyboymike.livejournal.com]

Neato. My sister got her masters in linguistics.

[justira.livejournal.com]

I'd add it as a third major if I... oh, wait, I can. I just tell myself not to.

But who knows. Maybe I'll drop the math double major and go for linguistics instead. Or just go ahead and triple major. I'm a retard.

[aciel.livejournal.com]

Sometime you should read Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things by Lakoff.

[justira.livejournal.com]

Eh?

[cyrnelle.livejournal.com]

I'm more amused of this than I should be. Whoever gave you the problem set was obviously making a pun out of the language's name. "Tukang besi" in Malay means blacksmith XD. Odd name to give an archipelago, I think.

Hi. Ninja-ing around your journal. I think I'm going to like it here. XD (Though now I have to go and look up what a goanna is.)