984 Pa lera
ida na
ne and
day one
and and
‘And one day then…’ Paragraph boundaries in hortatory or expository texts may be indicated purely by a new direction
the thought is taking, or they may be indicated by the use of a vocative to indicate a shift to a new idea.
9.5 Ritual language
Formal or ritual speech in Luang is referred to as lir marna ‘language of the high class’. This type of speech consists of parallelisms which take the form of word pair compounds or even compound clause
parallelisms. The higher the language the greater the number of word pairs, often every word or every other word. The compounds are often made up of abstract nouns or descriptive word pairs similar to
idioms. Narrative folklore, hortatory, expository, prayers-anything having to do with the unseen spirit world, God or traditional culture must have at least some elements of this type register.
Two propositions make up each of these parallelisms, both with an identical grammatical structure. The first proposition usually stays the same in given pairs but the second proposition may be changed to
create a different semantic meaning. The propositions may be nouns see §3.1.3, verbs see §5.2.2.1, time expressions §3.8.1, numbers §3.5.2, adjectives §3.3, or even clauses. Although it is always
possible to figure out the literal meaning of one of the propositions of the parallelism, it is not always possible with the other proposition. Sometimes it only has meaning as it relates to the first and together
they produce one unitary meaning.
9.5.1 Nouns in ritual language
985 Ina-ama ina-nara
‘relatives’ mother-father
mother-brother 986 Upa-a’na
‘descendants’ grandchild-child
987 Ili-watu ‘stonemountain’
rock-stone
9.5.2 Verbs in ritual language
988 Nakoki-nayapi ‘create’
form-make 989 Na’ana-nemnu
‘eat a meal’ eat-drink
990 Na’uhu-na’apnu ‘pregnant’
have breasts-have stomach
9.5.3 Time in ritual language
991 Lera-mela ‘day and night’
day-night 992 Me’eta-anni
‘seasons and years’ season-year
993 Ululu-plailiai ‘long ago’
long ago-before
9.5.4 Numbers in ritual language
994 Ida-woru woru-wotelu ‘a few’
one-two two-three 995 Riwnu-halli
‘many’ thousands-many?
9.5.5 Adjectives in ritual language
996 Melu’uta-maliena ‘completely dark’
dark-thick? Semantically the second element in a set may be a synonym or similar meaning to the first or it may
be an opposite or counterpart to the first. It may also be an added description to the whole. Examples of synonyms:
997 Il-ya-mou-Wat-ya-toha ‘Heaven’
Stone-NOM-clean-Rock-NOM-set apart ‘mountain which is clean and pure’
998 Hi-hi’a-yap-yapi ‘deeds’
RDP-do-RDP-make 999 Wehla-ta’wa
‘knife type weapons’ machete-knife
1000 N-ni-o’a-n-ni-atu ‘advice’
NOM-promise-NOM-know 1001 Lera-wolla
‘all starsplanets in the heavens’ sun-moon
9.5.6 Examples of opposites or counterpart in ritual language
1002 Or-gahi-Or-ha’a ‘Lord of all’
owner-dig-owner-climb ‘one who owns reaches everywhere-knows all’
1003 Ku-ku’u-ni-la-lawan-ni ‘everyone’
RDP-small-NOM-RDP-big-NOM ‘the small and the great’
1004 Pata-muanu ‘everyone’
female-male 1005 Uhu-nu-ewat-ni ewat-ni-lahwa-ni
‘all over’ corner-GEN-width-GEN width-GEN-length-GEN
9.5.7 Examples of descriptions in ritual language
1006 K-ni-ola-tieru-n-ni-awur-nehla NOM-hug-neck-NOM-hold-waist
‘worshipprayer’ 1007 Gen-tutulu-Wat-lio’ona Il-wio’itu-Dar-wonema Il-ya-mou-Wat-ya-toha
place-tall-rock-highest stone-seven-layer-six stone-NOM-good-rock-NOM-set apart ‘The highest mountain place of the seventh height and the sixth layer which is pure and set apart
as holy. Heaven’
1008 Mak-tera-k-dema mak-kohi-k-ara maka-willa-ka-yomti-a who-waters-REL-cares for who-creates-REL-forms who-cares for?-REL-protects-OBJ
‘The One who takes, creates, cares for, sustains. God’ Although some of these word pairs do occur in every day speech, most of them are reserved for
specific religious or traditional purposes. As a result young people, who are not of the certain genealogical line to be trained in these things, will insist that they do not understand this language. It
appears to be less of an issue of understanding, however, and more of an issue of being in the right social position to speak these words. The people with the right status are those who cannot only speak these
words but can be creative with them as well, putting various propositions together. To a certain degree, the propositions which can occur together are fixed. There does appear to be however, for those who
‘know’, some amount of creativity allowed. However, this creativity is limited. For example, people cannot make up new pairs of words or take any two sets of words and just put them together. They can
only mix and match certain sets of words which must collocate with each other and which are context driven. It is not unusual to have arguments over these words, with each asserting his own opinion as
right, and asserting his social position which proves this.
It has been stated by native speakers that the first proposition of a parallelism is the language of the original people on Luang, and the second proposition originating from the language brought in from
outsiders, especially from Timor. It is interesting to note that the part of the Luang language which seems to be most well understood by people from a broader area-interdialect and even to nearby
languages such as Kisar, appears to be this lir marna or language of parallelisms.
9.6 Oral and written speech
