Talk:Aitu

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Oceania Portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject Polynesia, which collaborates on articles related to Polynesia. To participate, you can edit this article or visit the project page for more details.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the quality scale.
???	This article has not yet received a rating on the importance scale.
Assessment comments This article has not been rated for quality and/or importance yet. Please rate the article and then leave comments here to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.

[edit] Atua

I took out the reference to Atua as being a Marquesan equivalent to ʻaitu. Not so, atua is just the general Polynesian word for 'god', found in many languages, and is not connected to 'aitu in any way. The Tongan equivalent has a vowel change: otua: quite common for a to become o in Tongan when a u follows in the next syllable. And Nuku-mai-tore is Māori. Rewrote that as an article, it was a redirect to this article. Kahuroa 10:45, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

I thought so too. But then someone has put atua redirecting to aitu, so I did not feel qualified to query it at this spoint. --Tauʻolunga 23:22, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

You also took out the Samoan word. However, if I recall it properly, but I do not have the references any more, aitu are 'native' to Sāmoa, and also known in the Cooks. --Tauʻolunga 23:27, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

I probably didnt mean to take out the Samoan, but it's a fairly common Polynesian word: in NZ Māori it means sickness, calamity, demon; the related word aituā means misfortune, accident, disaster etc. Here's a list:

• KAP Eeitu. :Ghost, spirit (Ebt)@
• KAP1 Eidu. :Spirit, ghost (Lbr)@
• MAO Aitu/aa. :Misfortune (especially a death); bad omen@
• MQA Aitu. :Espece d'esprit fort; celui qui demeure dans les sacrés avec les tuhuka (Dln)@
• NIU Aitu. :Evil spirit (i), ghost (Mce)@
• OJA Aiku. :Spirit, deity@
• RAR Aitu. :Ghost, spirit@
• REN `Aitu. :Deity@
• SAM Aitu. :Ghost, spirit@
• SIK Aitu. :Ghost, spirit@
• TAH Aitu. :God@
• TAK Aitu. :Spirit, ghost, deity (Hwd)@
• TON Lau/`aitu/. :"from the spirit"@
• TON1 `Eitu/matupu`a. :Proper name of a spiritual being@
• TUA Aitu. :Ghost, spirit@

Maybe I'll have another look at Aitu in this regard. As for atua, it's pretty stupid for it to redirect to Aitu. I'll have a look at that too. And then there is also Tupu'a/Tupua/Tipua/Kupua (haw) is another word like that - think there is an article about the Hawaiian version - Kupua. Tupua/Tipua are mentioned in a lot of Māori waiata (traditional songs). Kahuroa 00:01, 6 September 2006 (UTC)

The best thing to do for those words is as you did to give all the meanings and pronunciations in the different languages when we can find them. I've added Stephen Savage's explanation. I didn't find it anywhere else. It is not in "Te Korero o Aitutaki, na te are korero", (1992) Nevertheless, concerning cook islands oral traditions, Savage dictionary is a reliable source. He was indeed the official interpreter at the land court from 1903 to 1920. Concerning Atua, it should be interesting to have a look to this article "The Polynesian Word Atua: Its Derivation and Meaning", Walter G. Ivens, Man, Vol. 24, Oct., 1924 (Oct., 1924), pp. 146-147[1]. I can have an access to JSTOR database but not from home. I will try to have a look to it, later this month Nevers