Tuesday, June 24

The kids had just finished school and gone out to play, and I was watching the banana muffins in the oven when I heard a knock at the bottom of our steps.  Barnabas had come by to story with Aaron.  

As I pulled muffins out of the oven, I listened to the two of them talk about the bits and pieces of Lavukaleve.  Barnabas is special because he is one of the few that understands a little bit about how his language is put together.  I remember that none of my friends had been able to successfully explain to me the difference between the verb roots "nore" and "noai" (both glossed as "to plant"), so I hopped out to the porch to ask Barnabas.  He didn't know either.  I've heard possible theories of transitive vs. intransitive verbs, but I always hear both of them used as transitive verbs.  And I've also heard that maybe one of them is to be used when you are planting lots of things vs. when you are planted only one thing at a time.  

When I left to deliver banana cake to neighbors, Barnabas and Aaron were still debating the finer points of Lavukaleve...