Nuts and Bolts: Kalau Lagau Ya

 Kalau Lagau Ya is a language of the Western Torres Strait Islands. It used to be spoken widely, being the lingua franca of an area that stretched into parts of mainland Australia and Papua New Guinea. Kalau Lagau Ya doesn't have quite so many speakers nowadays, but it still has a 'light' simplified-for-foreigners form, as well as a pidginised form.

Kalau Lagau Ya is a wonderful thing. Instead of English's dull past, present and future tenses, Kalau Lagau Ya has tenses for the remote past, the recent past, the today past, the present, the today or near future, and the remote future.

Kalay Lagau Ya has three different major spelling systems, and, as well as these, spelling will depend upon age, family, island, village (and other factors such as whether you're transcribing poetic speech). 

And everywhere people have very strong opinions about 'correct' Kalau Lagau Ya spelling!

Cases in the language of Kalau Lagau Ya include nominative, acusative, instrumental, dative, purposive, ablative. avoidative, specific vocative, specific locative, global locative, privative, similative, resultative and proprietive.

I am never going to learn Kalau Lagau Ya. In fact I can't help but be slightly glad I don't have to.

But what a wonder of the world it is, all the same.

Word To Use Today: I think that today might be a time to admire the sophisticated command you have of the grammar of your own first language.