There were quite a few categories, including pronouns, nouns and noun phrases, possessive constructions, verbs and the verb complex, sentences, and similarities and differences, that were even further broken down to more categories to explain the similar grammar and structures of the Oceanic Languages.
I wanted to bring up the “Form of the Noun” classification, using the Hawaiian language as an example taken from the text. The author, Lynch, made it clear that nouns in the language of the Oceanic people “does not change form to mark singular and plural, nor generally do nouns take prefixes and suffixes.” (Lynch 107) In the Hawaiian language, they transform a singular meaning, to that of plural, simply by lengthening a vowel as seen in the example below.
Hawaiian Singular Plural
Luahine ‘old woman’ Luähine
Kahuna ‘priest’ Kähuna
Kupuna ‘grandparent’ Küpuna
(Lynch 108)
Before taking this class, I was so oblivious to the fact that there are so many other languages, besides Hawaiian, that exist and is still being spoken today. While reading this chapter, a thought came to my head. I do know that there are many charter schools in Hawaii, known as Hawaiian emergent schools, such as Hälau Wänana,
where Hawaiian is the primary language they use to speak and teach. I was wondering if there are these same charter schools on the other islands that teach their own language and how strong these languages are today. I do realize that the Hawaiian language was almost dead at one point in the past because the native language was banned in schools, but was managed to be brought alive and is spoken proudly today and taught in schools as a foreign language option, including UH Manoa and the Kamehameha Schools. Not only that, but the language is also spread by means of media, including movies, songs, television shows, etc...
Works Cited:
Lynch, John. Pacific Languages: an Introduction. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998. Chapter 6(p. 100-165).
"Halau Wanana: Center of Higher Learning." Halau Wanana. 1 Feb. 2009
"Keali`i Reichel." Musical Artist & Kumu Hula. 1 Feb. 2009.
"Cartoons." Rhymes with Cars and Girls. 1 Feb. 2009.
Lynch, John. Pacific Languages: an Introduction. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1998. Chapter 6(p. 100-165).
"Halau Wanana: Center of Higher Learning." Halau Wanana. 1 Feb. 2009
"Keali`i Reichel." Musical Artist & Kumu Hula. 1 Feb. 2009
"Cartoons." Rhymes with Cars and Girls. 1 Feb. 2009
1 comment:
Thanks Kerri for your summary of chapter 6 in Pacific Languages by Lynch. As a student majoring in Hawaiian Language, this information is very interesting to me and quite pertinent to my field of study. I noticed that you found the section on “Form of the noun” intriguing. The Hawaiian language does use the kahakō to pluralize a word such as the examples you named, but it also adds a definite article that marks the noun as plural. One such example of this is the word pua which can mean flower in Hawaiian, and when you add nā before it: “nā pua,” you are saying “the flowers.” I also noticed that you had a question regarding the existence of indigenous language immersion schools in places other than Hawai‘i. I searched on the net a little bit for other immersion schools and found some information about the revitalization of Maori in Aotearoa. Here is the link http://brj.asu.edu/v22234/articles/art11.html. I do agree that it is a great thing that the Hawaiian language is being given new life today, but there are some challenges when people that don’t completely understand the language try and use it in the media. This lack of knowledge causes inaccurate assumptions of the language to spread rapidly. There are many rules that may seem minute, but they are actually extremely important and essential to the language. Lynch clearly shows the differences in grammar among oceanic languages in chapter 6.
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