Grammar and Vocabulary of the Lau Language | Page 7

(i. e., a verb which does not take a transitive suffix): gera da qele ana they marvelled at him, gu ingo amu I beseech thee, dau agu touch me, bota ana blessed is he.
4. With verbs when the object is separated from the verb: nia bubu tete adalu he regarded them fixedly, ka lugatai saufini ana let him go secretly, da bae aisile ana they spoke scornfully of him: ala meme gamu to bite and rend you, is a variant.
5. To express, of, from, among: ati mwane agamu what man of you?
6. The forms ending in lu denote a restriction in the number of the people concerned.
7. The adverb afoa apart is also followed by the possessive: afoa ana apart from him.
8. It will be seen that the one possessive in Lau does the work of the three that are used in Sa'a. A Port Adam man asking for a wife at Sa'a and saying geni ana (as has happened at times) would be asked whether he wanted to eat her--the Sa'a use being keni nana, _'ana_ being reserved of things to eat.
ADJECTIVES.
1. Words which are qualifying terms may also be used in the form of verbs, but some may be used without verbal particles and follow the qualified word. Mwane baita a big man, mwela tou a little child.
2. Some words have a form which is used only of adjectives, either of termination or of prefix.
a. Adjectival terminations are: a, la.
The termination a is suffixed to substantives and verbs: rodo night, rorodoa dark, darkness, cloud; bulu to be black, bubulua black.
La is suffixed to substantives and verbs: mwai a bag, mwaila rich, kobu to be fat, kobukobula fat, whole, big; tagalo to be wandering, tagalola matted, thick, of forest.
b. Adjectival prefixes are a, ma, tata, m. These are all prefixed to verbs.
The a is prefixed to verbs to form participles: luga to loose, aluga loose; la to lift up, alaa upwards, up.
Ma denotes condition: lingi to pour, malingi spilled, ngi to divide, mangisingisi broken, divided, matala only, merely; tefe mwela matala an only child.
Tata denotes spontaneity: tatagwelu headlong.
M as a prefix appears to be used in the word moi broken, (Sa'a _'o'i_ to break, _ma'o'i_ broken).
3. Comparison: Degrees of comparison are shown by the use of prepositions or adverbs, or by a simple positive statement. The prepositions used are fasi from, tasa beyond, in excess. The suffixed pronoun is used with fasi, but the possessive is used with _tasa_: na boso nia baita fasia na asufe a pig is larger than a rat; gera baita tasa agera these are much larger than those.
The adverbs employed are gele little, somewhat, asia very, too much: nia baita asia it is very (too) large.
A positive statement carries comparison by implication: doo ne nia baita that is biggest, _sai ai ne ni diena, sai ai nena ni taa na_ this is good, that is bad; i.e., this is better than that.
VERBS.
Almost any word may be used as a verb by prefixing the verbal particles, but some words are naturally verbs as being the names of actions and not of things. There are also verbs which have special forms as such by means of a prefix or termination. Verbal particles precede the verb; they have a temporal force.
1. The verbal particles are ka, ko. The particles are written apart from the verb, but the speakers like to join them to the governing pronouns of the first and second persons singular, gu, o.
Ka is used both of present and of future time: nia ka bae uri he speaks thus, ka urina if that be so, tasi doo taa gera ka odea what will they do? lelea ka rodo go till nightfall; the illatives fi, fe, may be added.
Ko is used only with the personal pronoun, second singular o, and may express either present or future time: the illative may be added.
The preposition fuana to him, to it, in order that, is used as a subjunctive or optative.
2. Time and Moods: A subjunctive is formed by ana if, when, followed by the particle ka, or by the use of saea.
Conditional affirmation is expressed by saumala.
The illatives are fi and fe, and mean, then, in that case, following upon, just now, for the first time: ta ka fi uri then said he, gami mifi saitamana na tala uta and how shall we know the way?
Fe as an illative denotes, in that case, following upon; fe is also used like _ha'i_ in Sa'a, to denote repetition or continuance or restoration: na abana e fe boeboela lau his hand was restored whole again, gera ka fe dao toona they will certainly reach him, daro fe lea lau go they went on again, da tefe bae ana tesi baela they all cried out together.
Na is used following the verb to