Ternate - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

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TERNATE THE TERNATESE LANGUAGE
The possessive pronoun ma is often added, e.g. ngomi gura or ngomi ma-gura, our garden.
Before verbs mi is added, e.g. ngomi mi waje, we speak.
ngongaje, story, see also ngaje-ngaje.
ngongare, a youth or unmarried man; ngongare ici, young man.
ngongiri, children of brothers or sisters, or of other relatives.
ngongudi, helm; singongudi, to man the helm, steer.
ngoni, you; personal pronoun, masculine and feminine plural; also possessive pronoun with nia
added, e.g. ngoni nia nyau, your fish.
Before verbs ni is added instead of nia, e.g. ngoni ni waje, you say.
Ngoni is also used in its singular form when one does not want to address an inferior with the
coarse ngana.
ngoomi, green pigeon.
ngoowora, the patola snake, Python reticulatus; it is the most dangerous of snakes since the
bigger ones attack even women and children.
Harmless species on Ternate are: the wange-wange, with green spots;
the saiboro, with yellow stripes, which feeds especially on chickens’ eggs;
and the matabuta, which wriggles like a blind man not knowing the way.
ngori, I; personal pronoun, masculine and feminine singular, used for inferiors; also possessive
pronoun, e.g. ngori falah, my house.
When used as a personal pronoun placed before verbs, to is added between the two, e.g. ngori to
golaha, I did it.
ngosa, see wosa.
ngote, stairs, step; ngote ma-adu, at the bottom of the stairs.
The palace of the Sultan is built against the slope of a hill: at the back it is on the same level as
the ground; in the front it has a set of stairs with thirty-four steps.
ngowaro: nyau ngowaro, a fish species, Hemiramphus, dried and salted, marketed especially
by the people from the villages of Marieku on Tidore.
nguai, ditch, ravine, gully, dry brook with stony bed. In the Malay of the Moluccas, it is
commonly known as brangka.
ngudu, a tree, Evia amara Commers.; the fruits are eaten.
It is less correctly called “mudu” by Miguel and Filet.
ngusu, a tree, Terminalia Catappa L.; the bark is a remedy against thrush in children.
In Miquel and Filet it is called “nusu,” which is Moluccan Malay.
ni, you; masculine and feminine plural, seldom used alone; usually combined with ngoni, e.g.
ngoni ni waje, you say.
Used alone it implies an order, e.g. ni tagi, go away; ni tego, sit down.
Before a noun it indicates a singular form, masculine as well as feminine, then usually with
ngana, e.g. ngana ni falah, your house.
Like no it is sometimes used for the third person; see the example under no.
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