Basic Words

ao – cloud
atua – gods, spirits
awa – river
Haere mai – Welcome
hau – wind
ika – fish
iti – small
kai – food
kainga – village
Ka pai – Thank-you
mang – stream, tributary
manu – bird
maunga – mountain
moana – sea, lake
motu – island
nui – big
one – beach, sand, mud
po – night
puke – hill
puna – water spring
rangi – sky or heaven
roa- long
roto – lake
rua – two, hole
te – the
Tena koe – Hello (to 1)
Tena koutou – Hello (to more than 3)
wai – water

1. 

   sigs says:

   April 29, 2011 at 4:18 pm

   Words don’t make a language. Sorry to say, but don’t start with just a wordlist. Start with stories, rather; how did they come to use these words? Where, why and by whom were they first spoken?

   Consider issues of translitteration. Use IPA right from the start. Please *pretty please* don’t use English-style litteration, it’s braindead and retarded, burdened by tradition that has nothing to do with your world. You must have noticed that when you attended school.

   You know, where I come from, children in pre-school are told that in English-speaking countries, there are contests called “spelling bees” where children compete on who knows how to write words. Hard for a pre-schooler to understand; what a hilarious idea! How could someone *not* know how their own words are spelt? People generally learn perfect reading and writing in half a year. With six years of age, and I’m talking about national averages.

   Words are important, don’t just fart them up. Shape matters, pronunciation matters; litteration matters. If the words are just any letter combinations, why not rip them from an existing language; say, Latin?