User:Keishapaulino

Samian Language

Samian is a language of nomadic voyagers who find their home in whatever island they land on next. Their language is primarily focused on the sea since they worship it and everything that comes with it. They are also a hybrid language of the Hawaiian and Samoan people and often use phrases that would be associated with one of those two languages.

Phonology

Samian has either 5 or 25 vowel phonemes, depending on how long vowels and diphthongs are analyzed. If the long vowels and diphthongs are treated as two-phoneme sequences, the total of vowel phonemes is five. However, if the long vowels and diphthongs are treated as separate, unit phonemes, there are 25 vowel phonemes. The short vowel phonemes are /u, i, o, e, a/. If long vowels are counted separately, they are /uː, iː, oː, eː, aː/. If diphthongs are counted separately, they are /iu, ou, oi, eu, ei, au, ai, ao, ae, oːu, eːi, aːu, aːi, aːo, aːe/.

Consonants

Samian has 16 consonant phonemes. This is due to the fact that Samian has taken two big influences within its own language, the Hawaiian and Samoan languages.

The phonetic symbols used below are from the International Phonetic Alphabet (Links to an external site.) (IPA).

Vowels

Samian has 5 vowels. a e i o u or au, ao, ea, oi, ua. which are pronounced the same as in English

Allophones

In Samian does not distinguish between [t] and [k]. Few languages do not make this distinction, though several Polynesian languages have independently undergone the historical shift from /t/ to /k/ after the change of /k/ to /ʔ/; Samoan is notable for using [k] in colloquial speech where [t] is used in formal speech, and often times Samian does the same.

Proxemics

The people of Samian are a small tight nit tribe. They often don't pay attention to personal space even when it comes to people they don't know. It is not something that they can help or something they are even aware of.

Below is a list of the distance usually put between one another:

Greetings and Farewells

Language

The Samian language has a couple sayings for hello and goodbye but two are most commonly used. These words include;

“E komo mai" and "A hui hou".  "E komo mai" is the hawaiian term for welcome whereas "A hui hou" is the hawaiian term for until we meet again. Since my people are again so heavily influenced by them and the samoans they often take some of their phrases and incorporate them into their own language.

Gestures

Samian's use a variety of gestures as greetings but their most known for two of them.

Gesture used in greetings: Marking Differences

Social differences within my people would be to divided language by age. This would mean that all the older more traditional people in my tribe would speak in older more “dead” language then the younger generations. They, (the elders) would use words that seem foreign to the younger people because the new slang has evolved so drastically that even youngsters have special words to use when speaking to elders, so they don’t come off as disrespectful. I have also decided that when it comes to language that my tribe uses words from the Hawaiian and Samoan culture and has basically made it their own hybrid version. So as a greeting they would use the Hawaiian word for welcome witch is E komo mai, whereas for a taboo word the term little dog in Samoan (tamai taifau), Is the biggest insult you can say to someone because not only are you calling them out of there name but you are also saying that they are so beneath you that they walk on four legs and bark. As for a farewell the Hawaiian term for “until we meet again” is just beautiful so they will use that so, “A hui hou” or until we meet again.

Samian Words

Nouns

Fish - I'a

ocean - moami

crabs- paoki

boat- movaa

island - motupuni

arm- aalima

leg- wa vae

food - meaai

family - aiana

Verbs

Give - foa' awi

run- taholo

take- ave aku

sit- hohofo

Adjectives

Big - hupoa

small- Li'itit'i

many - mmoele

few- toakaiiti

Pronouns

You- oe

me- I'ou

we- matoa