dui, n.title (for village chief or family head).
dui
a
a
a
a
er
a
a
kuk
a
oba
diakn.poss.1s
diamn.poss.2s
dialn.poss.3s
a
dui
el
a
er
ng
el
a
dimamn.poss.1pe
diadn.poss.1pi
dimiun.poss.2p
dirirn.poss.3p
meluchel er a duiexpr.hold title.
Examples:
> It's not like the sickness that I have!
> His family and the villagers were quite surprised at the boy's sudden good health and quick recovery.
> If you don't like it, then don't tell me to do it.
> The rain's stopped.
> Because humans aren't as smart as animals.
Proverbs:
> He's like Chelebesoi of Ngeriil, dead in a fishtrap not his own.
A man named Chelebesoi (also the name of a fish) was robbing another man's fish trap when a head-hunting party came by and removed his head. He lost both his head and his reputation. The idiom may apply to one who gets hurt while trying to do someone else's job.
> It's like the foam of the sea, which forms unexpectedly and then disappears.
It's a matter that comes up for lengthy discussions and then is dropped without resolution or effect. Some things, like sea foam, drift on without settlement. Endless discussion without reaching agreement.
> If it is my lunch it can be divided, if it is yours then it cannot
Two men habitually trapped fish in the same region of the lagoon. One would occasionally ask the other to join him at lunch, the other would always refuse. One day the man who refused arrived with no lunch. When the usual invitation was extended the man refused, saying that, anyway, he had no lunch. The invitation was insistently pressed until the reluctant one gave in. As they split the taro between them the one who shared made the above statement. The idiom is a mild rebuke of a retentive person
> An ukall tree won't become a titimel tree.
i.e., a child will resemble its father; human nature will not change. The ukall, a lumber tree, resembles the titimel, a fruit bearing tree, at least to the extent that both are trees and become quite large. Both have assets but are quite different. The idiom is applied in the sense that a child resembles its father and will become what its father was. It may also be used to mean "human nature can't be changed."
> Title pride.
A title (dui, also "coconut leaf," which is sometimes used as the receptacle for a title pending the selection of a successor) is to be worn in humility, but a person who has just received a new title may sometimes be oppressively haughty or prideful.
More Examples:
> English
> Excluding Ulang seems excessive.
> He's all talk (his mouth is exploding) but no action.
> I'm not thirsty.
> You all take turns bailing the boat so that it will be finished quickly.

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