Sunday, April 5, 2020

Paiwan Every Day 29: tjengelai

One time I made this sentence in class; it drove the men into laughter of disbelief. For you will never hear this from a Paiwan girl. This is so called "a culturally impossible though linguistically permissible sentence". And here it is from me, a Paiwan woman.

tjengelaiu tjanuaken. 

In English:
You must like me.

Glossary:
1. tjengelaiu: the root is "tjengelai" (to like). [tjengelai-u] is the imperative voice.
2. tjanuaken: oblique case for first person singular.

Reading:

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Paiwan Every Day 668: pai

pai, kinemnemanga tiamadju tu kemacu tua ljigim nua kakinan.   Free translation : Now, they decided to take their mother's sewing needle...