|
TRANSLATIONS
We are now prepared to look at the Tahua text:
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Aa2-1 |
Aa2-2 |
Aa2-3 |
Aa2-4 |
| Ko te ohoga |
i vai ohata |
eko te
nuku erua - no te
tagata |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
Aa2-5 |
Aa2-6 |
Aa2-7 |
Aa2-8 |
| vero tahi |
ma te hupee |
ka pu te ipu |
ka pu - i te mahigo |
Immediately we can see that my earlier efforts to put
Metoro's words and the glyphs in parallel have not
been fully successful here. The uncertainty, I thought,
was only at Aa2-3--4, not at Aa2-5. But we now know that
a suitable appellation for Aa2-4 is vero.
Aa2-5 I have, hesitantly, classified as belonging to
GD48 (tao):
... The border line
between GD48 and GD86 is, though,
hard to define. Aa2-5 (which I
initially classified as GD86, but
now have reclassified as GD48) is an
unusual glyph because it has not so
sharp ends as other GD48 glyphs:
Furthermore it is
shorter than normal. Possibly there
is an influence from the preceding
glyphs (Aa2-3--4):
|
When looking for a suitable label for GD48 it was far
from self-evident what name to choose. Several possible
labels competed.
The most frequent word was huki (45 examples),
but regarded in relation to the total number of huki
(220) it was not relevant, only 20 % of the 220 were
associated with glyphs which I had classified as GD48:
|
Total number in: |
B |
A |
C |
E |
sum |
at
GD48 |
% |
|
hoko |
28 |
24 |
44 |
48 |
144 |
40 |
28 |
|
huki |
60 |
38 |
56 |
66 |
220 |
45 |
20 |
|
tao |
5 |
6 |
0 |
1 |
12 |
7 |
58 |
|
tino |
1 |
6 |
2 |
4 |
13 |
2 |
15 |
|
vero |
17 |
18 |
11 |
2 |
48 |
10 |
21 |
|
sum |
111 |
92 |
113 |
121 |
437 |
104 |
24 |
Vero was one of the candidates. Luckily, though, it became
tao, which means I can use the label vero
for the new glyph type we now have become accostumed to call
vero. Indeed, I am just about to add it as a new
GD in the glyph dictionary.
We must learn more about the words:
| Tao
1. To cook in an oven, to sacrifice. P Mgv., Mq., Ta.:
tao, to cook in an oven. 2. To carry away. 3. Abscess, bubo,
scrofula, boil, gangrene, ulcer, inflammation, sore. Mgv.: taotaovere,
small red spots showing the approach of death. Mq.: toopuku,
toopuu, boil, wart, tumor. Ta.: taapu, taapuu,
scrofula on neck and chin. 4. Mgv.: a lance, spear. Ta.: tao, id.
Sa.: tao, id. Ma.: tao, id. 5. Mgv.: taotaoama, a
fish. Sa.: taotaoama, id. 6. Ta.: taoa, property,
possessions. Ma.: taonga, property, treasure. Churchill.
Sa.: tao, to bake; taofono, taona'i,
to bake food the day before it is used; tau, the leaves used to
cover an oven. To.: tao, to cook food in a oven, to bake. Fu.:
taò, to put in an oven, to cook. Niuē:
tao, to bake. Uvea:
tao, to cook, to bake. Ma., Rapanui:
tao, to bake or cook in a
native oven, properly to steam, to boil with steam. Ta.: tao,
the rocks and leaves with which a pig is covered when cooking; baked,
boiled, cooked. Mq., Mgv., Mg., Tongareva: tao,
to bake in an oven ... The word refers to the specific manner of cookery
which involves the pit oven. The suggestion in the Maori, therefore,
does not mean a different method; it is but an attempt more precisely to
describe the kichten method, a very tasty cookery, be it said. The
suggestion of boiling is found only in Tahiti, yet in his dictionary
Bishop Jaussen does not record it under the word bouillir;
boiling was little known to the Polynesians before the European
introduction of pottery and other fire-resisting utensils ... Churchll
2. |
The idea of tao = spear is presumably not what
comes first to mind for a Polynesian. If we look at
neighbouring words the sense is not spear either:
| Taohi
Mgv.: to preserve, to take care of. Mq.: taohi, to
take, to keep, to preserve. Sa.: taofi, to keep, to retain. Ha.:
kaohi, id. Churchill. |
| Taomi
Mgv.: to squeeze, to press down. Sa.: taomi, to
press down. Ha.: kaomi, to press, to squeeze. Churchill. |
| Taora
Convulsive, convulsion. Churchill. |
| Taota
Pau.: taste, savor. Ta.: taota, taste. Churchill. |
I notice: '... Mgv.: taotaovere,
small red spots showing the approach of death ...' a)
tao is repeated b) vere is similar to vero
c) approach of death d) red spots. If sun (Kuukuu)
'dies' at autumn equinox, then he must show signs of
sickness before that, and presumably red spots appears
in his face. At sundown the sun is changing colour
towards red.
Checking what vere means a
veritable gold-mine of associations become knitted
together, and we can begin to understand why kao
(in henua kaoa?) means not only 'side' but also
'cloth' - spiderwebs and cloth are similar:
| Vere
1. Beard, moustache (vede G); vere gutu,
moustache; verevere, shaggy, hairy, tow, oakum. Mgv.: veri,
bristly, shaggy, chafed (of a cord long in use). Mq.: veevee,
tentacles. Ta.: verevere, eyelash. 2. To weed (ka-veri-mai,
pick, cut-grass T); verevere, to weed. P Mgv.: vere, to
weed. Mq.: veéveé, vavee, id. 3. Verega, fruitful,
valuable; verega kore, unfruitful, valueless, contemptible, vain,
futile, frivolous; tae verega, insignificant, valueless;
mataku verega kore, scruple. Mgv.: verega, a design put into
execution; one who is apte, useful, having a knowledge how to do things.
4. Ta.: verevere, pudenda muliebria. Ma.: werewere, id.
(labia minora). Churchill.
Sa.: apungaleveleve, apongaleveleve, a
spider, a web. To.: kaleveleve, a large spider. Fu.:
kaleveleve, a spider, a web. Niuē:
kaleveleve, a cobweb.
Nukuoro: halaneveneve, a
spider. Uvea: kaleveleve, a
spider. Mgv.: pungaverevere,
a spider. Pau.: pungaverevere,
cloth. Mg.: pungaverevere, a
cobweb. Ta.: puaverevere, id.
Mao.: pungawerewere,
puawerewere, puwerewere,
a spider. Ha.: punawelewele,
a spider, a web. Mq.: pukaveevee,
punaveevee, id. Vi.:
lawa, a fishing net;
viritālawalawa, a cobweb;
butalawalawa, a spider. Churchill 2. |
Sun becomes entangled in the web. That means he is not
the spider.
|