Waa Lessons - Introducing Yourself

In this lesson, you will learn how to introduce yourself, and how to ask about basic information about others.

Part 1:

Dialogue 1

JOHN: Nama yu wea?

MARY: Nama mi Mary. E yu? Nama yu wea?

JOHN: Nama mi John. E tiaoka naa, kia wea?

MARY: Kia bote mi. Nama kia Peter.

JOHN: What's your name?

MARY: My name is Mary. And you? What's your name?

JOHN: My name is John. And that man, who's he?

MARY: He's my brother. His name is Peter.

Vocabulary

nama - name

wea - what, which

mi - I, me, my

yu - you, your

e - and

tiaoka - man, person

kia - she, he, it

bote - brother

Language notes

Possessive phrases

In a possessive phrase, the possessor is placed right after the possessum: nama yu 'your name', bote mi 'my brother', nama kia 'his name' etc. Note that the 'basic' form of the pronouns are used. Mi can mean both 'I/me' and 'my'. The same for yu 'you', 'your'. Kia is a gender neutral third person pronoun, which can be translated 'he', 'she', or 'it' - or 'his', 'her' or 'its', depending on the context.

Personal pronouns

The full set of personal pronouns is as follows:

mi - I

yu - you (singular)

kia - (s)he, it

miera - we

yuera - you (plural)

kiaera - they (plural)

To say 'that (one)' or 'this (one)', you and naa ('that') or nei ('this') to the third person pronoun:

kia naa - 'that one'

kia nei - 'this one'

kiaera naa - 'those ones'

kiaera nei - these ones'

Naa and nei can also be added to regular nouns, to indicate 'that' or 'this':

tiaoka naa - 'that person'

tiaoka nei - 'this person'

Asking what

To ask 'what' or 'who' something is, you can just add wea after the nouns or pronoun in informal speech:

Yu wea? - 'Who are you?'

Kia wea? - 'Who is (s)he?' Or 'What is that?'

Tiaoka naa wea? - 'Who is that person?'

In more formal speech, there is a special copula nea ('to be'):

Kia nea wea? - 'Who is (s)he?'

Nama yu nea wea? - What is your name?'

Part 2

Dialogue 2

JOHN: Hero. Yu nea Peter?

PETER: Ye. Mi Peter. E yu nea ...?

JOHN: Mi nea John. Mi weko i keuna sama e Mary.

PETER: Ou. Mi siu. Kesiu bono.

JOHN: Kesiu bono rika.

JOHN: Hello. Are you Peter?

PETER: Yes. I'm Peter. And you are ...?

JOHN: I'm John. I work for the same company as Mary.

PETER: Oh. I see. Nice to meet you.

JOHN: Nice to meet you too.

Vocabulary

hero - hello

nea - to be

ye - yes (signifying agreement with a positively stated question; see below)

weko - to work

keuna - company

sama - the same

e - (here) as

sama e - the same as

ou - oh

siu - to see, to meet

kesiu - meeting

bono - good, right

kesiu bono - nice to meet you

Language Notes

The conjuntion e 'and'

The conjunction e corresponds more or less to 'and' in English. It can be used to join together phrases and clauses of various kinds:

yu e mi - you and I.

yu e bote mi - you and my brother.

katu e huno - the cat and the dog; a cat and a dog

Kia itu e minu. - He's eating and drinking.

Katu itu en huno minu. - The cat is eating and the dog is drinking.

Kia nea logo e biu. - (S)he is tall and beautiful.

Sometimes it can be translated as 'with', indicating companionship:

Mi weko e bote yu. - I work with your brother.

Responding to questions

A regular statement may be turned into a question by raising the intonation at the end:

Kia nea katu. (With flat or slightly falling intonation) - That is a cat

Kia nea katu?. (With rising intonation) - Is that a cat?

To agree with the statement in the question, you use the word ye. To disagree with the statement in the question, use the negative marker ku:

Ye. Kia nea katu. - Yes. That is a cat.

Ku. Kia ku nea katu. - No, that is not a cat.

As long as we are dealing with positively stated questions, this is not too different from how English works. But when we have a negatively stated question, the responses ye and ku relates to the truth of the statement, rather than whether the event described in it occurred or not.

Kia ku nea katu. - Isn't that a cat?

Ye. Kia ku katu. - No (=the statement is true). That is not a cat.

Ku. Kia nea katu. - Yes. (the statement is not true). That is a cat.

Vocabulary

katu - cat

huno - cat

itu - to eat

minu - to drink

Dialogue 3

Kia nea wea?

JOHN: Kia nea wea?

PETER: Kia wea?

JOHN: Ona i naa.

PETER: Mi ku wita. Mi ku kena kia. Aku kia.

JOHN: Mi ku ene siu kia i pasu.

JOHN: Who is that?

PETER: Which one?

JOHN: The woman over there.

PETER: I don't know. I don't know her. Ask her.

JOHN: I've never seen her before.

Vocabulary

ona - woman

i - on, at, in, to

i naa - there

ku - not, no

wita - to know, to be aware

kena - to know (personally), to be aqunainted

aku - to ask

ene - ever

ku ene - never

pasu - past, to pass

i pasu - in the past, before, earlier