In a strange linguistic twist, the Romanian speakers have a word that looks as if it should belong in the Hawaiian lexicon: lalelele! Try saying that a few times fast. I would ask if anyone would like to guess what it means, but I know everyone will just head to the Google Translate function (except Darol, who would use Bing), so I'll just save everyone the extra few seconds and tell you.... it means "tulips." I think. I haven't quite figured out the whole article/plural thing yet.
And, even better, lalelele mele means "my tulips." I love the way that sounds on the lips, but I also love the concept it represents! And with the warmer weather finally blowing in, I hope to lay my eyes on lalelele soon. (I hear lalelele have been blooming since November or some such thing at home in the U.S.... crazy no-winter year.)
On another note, the Romanian language continues to amaze me with its syntax and spelling. We learned the word for "children" recently -- it's copii. Those 2 "i's" seem strange to me... but then Olga, our language tutor, informed us that are occasions when the word actually would be spelled copiii. THREE "i's!" That just puts me over the edge.
I guess it's all relative, though... Olga said that when she was beginning to learn English, the first time she came across the "wh" letters together in a word, she thought she would never figure out this language!
So I'm just going to go back to muttering lalelele mele, and dreaming of Spring.
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