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[Kiwiwid] -it

A word with -it means: his [word] / its [word] / her [word].

Example: Aniden = flag; anidenit = his flag ≈ flag of.


THat is ALMOST correct. The third person singular possessive suffix is -/in/ or -/en/. The -/it/ is used when the next word begins with /e/ or /t/ (without trying every combination in Nauruan). Examples are:

Amin Aiwo - person from Aiwo district BUT Amit Ewa - person from Ewa district

Iriangin Naoero - Nauruan songs BUT Iriangit imago - foreign songs

equon ima - ship of the dead BUT equot epe - phosphate ship

ewakin ditsin - kitchen BUT ewakit earak - hospital

Even more common in some people's orthographies is the seperation of the possessive from the root. Therefore, some people are writing ewak it earak, iriang in Naoero and so on.

A similar rule applies to conjugating verbs that end with -/n/. But i can explain that later.


A lot of words remain the same in the plural.

Example: itsio (S) (servant) → itsio (P)

Yes, again that is correct. But the itsio (and i suppose all nouns) is assumed to be emicaly plural. But saying itsio means nothing. It doesn't actually mean 'servant' but is the lowest of the classes in Nauruan hierarchy and refers to the people who own no land and are in some way 'indentured' to a higher ranked person. To speak of 'that itsio' or 'those itsio' one must then state the number of them. FOr example: Eiy ngea amin itsio - 'that single man/woman who is itsio' Amerumane itsio - 'these two itsio here'

Thanks a lot for this information!!! Belgian man 17:53, 14 September 2005 (UTC)