Paiwan Every Day 478: kai (VII)

‘a patagitagilj a ta semansisiu ‘ata sambika 

a kasi i casaw a mareka rutjaucikecikel, 

sinivecik tua kai nua sepaiwan 

tu sikamadjuluan nua vecik ta kai, 

sa ‘ivavadaqan tua ramaljemaljeng, sa patagilj a semanvecik tua tjakai. 

pai, a kinateveteveljan na kiukai

namasanpazangal aravac ta tjakinitulu tua tjakai a sepaiwan. 

Free translation: 

Every missionary that came from outside started to make the Bible and hymns. 

The Paiwan language was written down, 

in order that the written language is easy to understand, 

they asked elders and started to make the writing of our language. 

Now, the meeting in the church 

has become a very important place for our instruction of our Paiwan language. 

Word gloss: 

1. ‘a or ka: a time in the past
2. pa-tagi-tagilj: in the beginning or start to. The root is tagilj 'start' in RED. 
3. a: LIG
4. ta seman-sisiu ‘ata (or kata) sambika: the making (that is translating or writing) of the Bible and praise songs, AV. s<em>an 'to make or manufacture'; both sisiu and sambika are loanwords from Japanese 聖書せいしょ and 賛美歌さんびか. 
5. kasi-i-casaw: that coming from outside or the outsider
6. mareka: every, each
7. ru-tjau-cike-cikel: missionary or teacher. The root is tjaucikel 'story' in RED. 
8. s<in>i-vecik: used as written word, UV and IF. The root is vecik 'writing, pattern, drawing'. 
9. tua: OBL
10. kai: language
11. nua: of, GEN
12. se-paiwan: Paiwan people
13. tu: in order that, complementary. This is also an interesting functional word. 
14. si-ka-ma-djulu-an: to make something easy to understand, UV. si- 'IF'; ka-an 'principal, main'; ma- 'to be in the condition of, agent marker'; the root is djulu 'easy'. 
15. tja-kai: our language. tja 'our, 1st person plural GEN prolitic'; kai 'language'.
16. nua: GEN, here used as the subject of the UV verb
17. vecik ta kai: the writing of language
18. sa: then, and, CONJ
19. ‘ivavadaqan or ki-va-va-daq-an: were asking, AV. The root is vadaq 'ask, question' in RED. 
20. ramaljemaljeng: elders
21. pai: vocative
22. k<in>a-teve-tevelj-an: meeting or congregation. The root is tevelj 'meet, gather' in RED. 
23. kiukai: church, loanword from Japanese 教会きょうかい. 
24. na-masan-pazangal: have become important
25. aravac: very, quite
26. tja-k<in>i-tulu: our instruction, UV. The root is tulu 'teach'. 
27. tja-kai nua sepaiwan: our Paiwan language. It is obvious that this article uses a lot of the prolitic tja, which indicates that language is a community rather than individual property. 

Voice file: 

From tinagiljan a semanvecik tua kai nua sepaiwan 'The Origin of Writing in Paiwan Language'. 

This article is narrated by Pastor ljumeg, Tsai Ai-lien, and very likely written by her too.