Quick links:

Palauan Adjectives

The following is a brief discussion about Palauan adjectives. For a longer exploration, please refer to discussions of state verbs in the Joseph Handbooks. According to the official Lewis Joseph grammar book of Palauan, there are no Palauan parts of speech called adjectives. However, Palauan does, of course, have words used to describe other words. In English, we call these words adjectives. Examples of English adjectives are dangerous, beautiful, and hot.

Palauan Resulting State Verbs

In Palauan, words corresponding to English adjectives are called state verbs. There are several types of Palauan state verbs. The most common are resulting state verbs which occur as a result of a verb. Some examples:

Here is a list of seven random Palauan verbs and their resulting state verbs:

chelibiob, v.r.s.made round; rounded.
See also:
cheltachet, v.r.s.touched impurely.
See also:
cheltiot, v.r.s.(point of knife, spear, etc.) broken or bent.
a
mla
a
See also:
delbaet, v.r.s.(person) asked to pay for non-participation in work.
See also:
telmotm, v.r.s.sucked in, on or out; dredged; syphoned; kissed.
a
mla
a
a
See also:
ulekesiu, v.r.s.copied; imitated; made the same.
a
el
mo
ua
mla
a
er
a
a
a
See also:
uliit, v.r.s.deflected; turned away.
a
mla
mla
er
a
a
a
er
a
a
a
See also:

 

Palauan Anticipating State Verbs

Anticipating state verbs in Palauan are like resulting state verbs. However, instead of describing the state of something after a verb has modified it, these describe the state of something before a verb is anticipated to modify it. Here's seven random Anticipating State Verbs:

chesbedengall, v.a.s.(face) is to be slapped.
a
el
le
a
See also:
eleball, v.a.s.is to be covered (with blanket, etc.).
a
el
er
er
a
a
er
a
See also:
otongall, v.a.s.is to be included.
a
el
a
a
me
a
me
a
me
a
er
See also:
rekemall, v.a.s.is to be broken into pieces or smaller denomination; (money) is to be exchanged.
See also:
semesmochel, v.a.s.is to be bidden farewell or given divorce payment; is to be refused gracefully.
See also:
serochel, v.a.s.is to be stepped on, toured or visited.
See also:

 

State Verbs with Related Nouns

In English, a common thing to do is to ask 'how XXXX is something,' where XXXX is an adjective. For example, 'how hot is that,' or 'how dangerous is that,' are common English expressions.

This is true in Palauan as well in a form like, 'ng uangarang a kleldelel,' which translates literally perhaps to something like, 'it is like what, its heat,' or figuratively as, 'how hot is it.' The word kleldelel is a possessed noun meaning 'its heat.' See the nouns page for a longer explanation of possessed nouns.

Many of these Palauan nouns have related state verbs which translate to, and are used as, English adjectives. Here is a list of seven random Palauan nouns along with their corresponding state verbs.

Palauan_NounEngish_NounPalauan_AdjEnglish_Adj
martilionghammer.martiliongclumsy; ungraceful; untalented; (person) blunt or hard-hitting (in his words).
mechasold woman; titled woman; foreign woman; male's father's sisters; girlfriend; wife.mechasget blackened with soot or ink; (pot) get burned or discolored.
bukcorner; angle; joint; node.bkebkuulhaving many nodes; rough-edged; (shin of leg) have bumpy surface.
burachedskin disease in which white spots spread over body.burachedskin disease in which white spots spread over body.
rubakelder; old man; chief; foreign man; boyfriend; husband.bekerubaksmell like an old man.
telengtungdwild tamarind; lead tree.telengtungdwoven with small weave.
kurstwitching (nervous disorder) .kurstwitching.

Reng Idioms as Adjectives

There are many Palauan expressions which use a state verb to describe the Palauan word reng which means spirit or heart. These are idioms which mean their literal and figurative meanings are not the same. Typically, but not always, the figurative meaning describes an emotion. An example is kesib a reng, which literally means a sweaty heart but figuratively it means to be angry. Here is a list of seven random examples of these reng idioms:

PalauanEnglish
seitak
a
: Palauan of seitak a rengul'>
a
(person is) very choosy; picky.
ungil
er
a
: Palauan of ungil er a rengul'>
er
a
fine or all right with.
techetech
a
: Palauan of techetech a rengul'>
a
stubborn; obsessed; determined.
smiich
a
: Palauan of smiich a rengul'>
a
feel proud about (someone).
mengurs
er
a
: Palauan of mengurs er a rengul'>
er
a
attract.
bebeot
a
: Palauan of bebeot a rengul'>
a
rather undecided about something; not taking something too seriously.
kedeb
a
: Palauan of kedeb a rengul'>
a
short tempered; impatient.


Fatal error: Uncaught mysqli_sql_exception: Table 'belau.log_bots' doesn't exist in /home/johnbent/tekinged.com/functions.php:520 Stack trace: #0 /home/johnbent/tekinged.com/functions.php(520): mysqli_query(Object(mysqli), 'INSERT INTO log...') #1 /home/johnbent/tekinged.com/functions.php(1838): visitlog(NULL) #2 /home/johnbent/tekinged.com/grammar/adjectives.php(109): belau_footer('/grammar/adject...') #3 {main} thrown in /home/johnbent/tekinged.com/functions.php on line 520