Learn Niue Homepage

Fakaalofa lahi atu!  The above is a screen shot from the Learn Niue homepage which looks like a good place to start learn the basics and get a little acquainted with the language and culture of Niue.  During these past few days I have been using this homepage to make a comparison between Hawaiian grammar and Niuean grammar.  This is how I am making a comparison.  In a Word document I wrote down all the main Hawaiian grammatical points from one of my textbooks with an example sentence of each in Hawaiian.  Next, as I read through the material on the Learn Niue homepage, I write the sentences under the appropriate grammar item in Word.  This is what my comparison notes look like at the moment and they will hopefully change and become much more detailed as I continue to find example supporting example sentences.

Number 05 is for demonstratives.  The example sentence in Hawaiian is Hauʻoli kēia kāne. (This man is happy.)  Working through the material on the Learn Niue homepage, I found these sentences which contain demonstrative looking examples and added them.

Ko e heigoa a e? – What is this? 

Ko e tapulu mafana a na. – That is a cardigan. 

Ko e heigoa a na? – What is that? 

Ko e fua moli a na. – That is an orange.

Of course, I could be making wrong assumptions about the grammar in the Niuean sentences, but as I continue to study, I will edit my comparison notes.  Since I am very much familiar with the material, order and examples of the Hawaiian grammar book, I can organize my notes for learning a new Polynesian language by making such a comparison in Word.  I have started doing the same for Tahitian and Samoan, but have only just started those because of a lack of time, not interest.

The Learn Niue homepage contains a lot of information for a beginner, so check it out!  I am very much impressed with the greetings have audio files in order to hear the language as it is spoken.  Unfortunately at the time I am writing this blog entry here, the audio files are rather limited, but I welcome anything and cannot complain!  After registering for free at the site, you can go into the learning area which has these items:

So far, I have worked through the Common Words/Phrases, Alphabet, Greetings, Questions, and Numbers.  Today I plan on studying the section called Days, Times and Seasons.  Usually, I copy down all the vocabulary and sentences from this site by hand and then look at those notes and type in the sentences in my Word document.  Also, I try to learn the new vocabulary before continuing on to the next section of that homepage. 

Yesterday I got an email saying that my Niuean-English-Niuean Dictionary has been shipped out and expect it either today or tomorrow, more likely tomorrow than today.  Once I get the dictionary, I feel that I can start learning more seriously.  It is almost certain that the editors spent a lot of time and effort checking the validity of the information for the dictionary.  Also, it isn't only a list of translated words as we often find in some of the less studied language dictionaries, but instead, most of the entries have example sentences which I find to be extremely important when learning a foreign language.

Koe kia!