Paiwan Every Day 43: samulja // kisamulja

I went to Tava Tavan Kiukai today to listen to a sermon in Paiwan. Like many places in the world as well as like in the past, the preservation of indigenous languages owes its greatest to the cohort of evangelical clergy. "Next to a classroom, the church is the best place to learn the language," so my teacher said.

Today the sermon was on fighting for faith. The Paiwan word for 'fighting' is "samulja" (effort), and the preacher used a variety of conjugated forms out of this word in her sermon. I didn't understand a whole lot yet, but I caught what the preacher wants her congregation to say to cemas tjai i vavau (God in heaven):

inika aken a napalikuz, sa inika aken a namalupi i kacauan. 

kisamulja izua kamayan. 

In English:

I have not falled behhind, nor have I become lazy in the world. I continue to fight there. 

Glossary: 

1. inika: will not 
2. na-pa-likuz: to fall behind. na- 'perfective (PRF)'; pa- 'to cause to be'; the root is likuz 'back'. 
3. sa: then, conjunction (CONJ)
4. na-ma-lupi: to have become lazy. ma- 'to be affected by'; the root is lupi 'laziness'. 
5. i: in or at, locative (LOC) 
6. kacauan: world
7. ki-samulja: work hard. ki- 'to get or obtain'; the root is samulja 'effort'. 
8. i-zua: there. i- 'LOC'; zua 'that or there'. 
9. kamayan: still 

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