Paiwan Every Day 246: vava // kivava

vaik sun nutiyaw a kivava ta puvaljawvaljaw?

vaik sun nutiyaw a kidjamai tua pucekecekelj?

In English: 

Are you going to the wedding tomorrow?

Glossary:

1. vaik: go. 
2. sun: you, 2nd person singular nominative (NOM) 
3. nu-tiyaw: tomorrow. nu- 'prefix that indicates future'; the root is tiyaw 'the day before'?
4. a: ligature (LIG)
5. ki-vava: to drink wine, understood as 'go to a wedding' by Paiwan speakers in the south. ki- 'to get something'; the root is vava 'wine'. Its synonym is ki-djamai (to get dishes, to attend a wedding) used by Paiwan speakers in the north. 
6. pu-valjaw-valjaw: to get a partner or wedding. pu- 'bearing, owning something; to have'; the root is valjaw 'spouse, partner' in reduplication (RED). Its synonym is pu-ceke-cekelj (to get a partner) used more often by Paiwan speakers in the north. 
7. ta or tua: oblique (OBL) case marker  

Reading: 

From kaviyangan village and kina naluku. 

I went to see a performance at kaviyangan village last evening. Before the show started, I wandered about visiting booths set up by Paiwan artists selling various handicrafts, and I stopped at the earring booth. 

Already several women were standing there, choosing and debating which pair looks better. I picked up one pair of dangles dotted with three red beads at the top and put them on. The designer-owner and the women immediately turned to me, pouring compliments one after another. 

One of them said, "You can definitely go kidjamai with this pair!" I was a bit confused so I asked, "To buy vegetables in a market?" She answered, "No, to a wedding! kidjamai means to go to a wedding."  Ah, I see. 

My knowledge of Paiwan automatically set me to take the word ki-djamai apart and see it as 'to get vegetables', although it is not quite right either because djamai refers to cooked dishes, not raw vegetables. ki-ljaceng (to get vegetables) would be a better word for getting vegetables from a supermarket or a market. 

kina naluku said in our village in the south of Taiwan, we use kivava (to get wine or drunk) rather than kidjamai (to get dishes) to refer to something like 'going to a wedding'. As it is also very common in Taiwan for  invited guests to bring bags of uninfished dishes from a wedding home, I find the word kidjamai quite a happy match with the reality too. Interesting.