Jan. 31st, 2020 12:37 pm
Ke hoʻomaʻamaʻa nei au i nā lā a pau
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muckefuckElbert and Pukui's Hawaiian grammar arrived last night. It's not as comprehensive as I would've wanted but I'm hoping to supplement it with some monographs and articles. In particular, it doesn't provide much information on usage but that's typically something you only get from seeing lots of examples of everyday use anyhow. That's something Elbert's textbook seems good for, despite its other limitations.
For the nonce, I'm relying heavily on Duolingo to drill vocabulary and sentences, despite its flaws. For instance, the Weather unit teaches the word polalauahi which it glosses as "vog" [sic] even though E&P label it "rare" and gloss it as "haze, as during a volcanic eruption". As you might expect, several examples sound literally translated from English, such as "E komo i loko" for "Come inside". (Elbert prefers repetition of "mai", lit. "hither"; use of directionals seems pretty common in native Hawai'ian.)
I'm also doing something I've seldom done when learning a language before and seeking out videos. I initially did it because I needed pointers on a the pronunciation of a couple of words but it helps to hear whole sentences repeated at something like a natural speed. I'm also finding some interesting songs, and that always drives my interest.
It feels good to get this into a language again. It's been years since the last time and I was beginning to think maybe I didn't have it in me any more. I guess the lesson is that it takes some external stimulus, preferably travel. That, after all, was what prompted me to get my Chinese conversational. And in the couple weeks before the event at the IAHC, I was drilling my Irish every day.
Does this mean I'm going back to Hawai'i? It's hard to make that kind of prediction, but much of what I've learned should be transferable to other Polynesian languages. Māori in particular seems close to the point of partial intelligibility and New Zealand is still up there on the list of places I'd love to visit eventually.
For the nonce, I'm relying heavily on Duolingo to drill vocabulary and sentences, despite its flaws. For instance, the Weather unit teaches the word polalauahi which it glosses as "vog" [sic] even though E&P label it "rare" and gloss it as "haze, as during a volcanic eruption". As you might expect, several examples sound literally translated from English, such as "E komo i loko" for "Come inside". (Elbert prefers repetition of "mai", lit. "hither"; use of directionals seems pretty common in native Hawai'ian.)
I'm also doing something I've seldom done when learning a language before and seeking out videos. I initially did it because I needed pointers on a the pronunciation of a couple of words but it helps to hear whole sentences repeated at something like a natural speed. I'm also finding some interesting songs, and that always drives my interest.
It feels good to get this into a language again. It's been years since the last time and I was beginning to think maybe I didn't have it in me any more. I guess the lesson is that it takes some external stimulus, preferably travel. That, after all, was what prompted me to get my Chinese conversational. And in the couple weeks before the event at the IAHC, I was drilling my Irish every day.
Does this mean I'm going back to Hawai'i? It's hard to make that kind of prediction, but much of what I've learned should be transferable to other Polynesian languages. Māori in particular seems close to the point of partial intelligibility and New Zealand is still up there on the list of places I'd love to visit eventually.
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