Kara Tete

[Garmt de Vries-Uiterweerd]

Prompted by the discussion on names in "Livonie", I was curious about names in some lesser known languages. So I searched for "Kara Tete", the Maori chief in "Grant". Turns out this is actually a real word, meaning "orgueilleux, colérique" in the dialect of the northern island of NZ, exactly as Verne claims in the novel:

"Il se nommait Kara-Tété, c’est-à-dire « l’irascible » en langue zélandaise."

The word is listed in the vocabulary in Dumont d'Urville's report (which Verne probably consulted):

https://dn720503.ca.archive.org/0/items/voyagedelacorvet02dumo/voyagedelacorvet02dumo.pdf

The word Kai-Koumou is not as obvious: "Kaï" means eating, and "Koumou" can be either anus or beard. Make of that what you will...

Cheers,

Garmt

[Christian Sánchez]

"Kara-Tété, irascible"
"Kaï Koumou, qui mange les membres de son ennemi".

From page 134 of "Océanie ou Cinquième partie du monde. Revue géographique et ethnographique de Malaisie, de la Micronésie, de la Polynésie et de la Mélanésie", tome 3, by Grégoire Louis Domeny de Rienzi, 1836.

Best regards,

Christian Sánchez

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Jules Verne Forum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to jules-verne-fo...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jules-verne-forum/CAFuNt7dpi%2BcKPU-p4eVJUNqaCARnJ1-1y4p9hnHMvHd5C9QZpQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Garmt de Vries-Uiterweerd]

Now, what about Thalcave and Thaouka?

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jules-verne-forum/CANyD%3DecpTBFoSTNwA%3DVuL5tcn28%2BspdRqrx7s%2Bwwu%3D5XvnFBTg%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jean-Yves Puyo]

Hello

Thalcavé : « tonnant » ! Mais chez les Araucans...

Encyclopédie théologique ; 24-27. Dictionnaire universel historique et comparatif de toutes les religions du monde.... Tome 2 / rédigé par M. l'abbé Bertrand... ; publ. par M. l'abbé Migne,... 1848-1851

Bien cordialement

Jean-Yves Puyo

________________________________

Puyo Jean-Yves (2023), « Léo Dex et les “romans aérostatiques” », Studia Romanica Posnaniensia, n° 50, 2023, pp. 55-68

https://hal.science/hal-05265359

Puyo Jean-Yves (2022), « Deux ans de vacances. Du livre au feuilleton : le merveilleux géographique interrogé », Saison. La revue des séries, n° 4, 2022 – 2, Géographies imaginaires, pp. 15-34. https://hal.science/hal-05265329v1

[Tad Davis]

Sitting in Starbucks, about to dip into my French copy of Hier et demain (still struggling with vocabulary, but less so with each passing week)—and I almost spit out my coffee. It's not often that something makes me laugh out loud in public.

— 
Tad Davis
tad.dav...@gmail.com

--

[Christian Sánchez]

Thalcave is one of the names of God among the Araucanians.
Thaouka seems to be the name of an island in the South Pacific, though Verne says it means "bird" in Mapudungun.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/jules-verne-forum/CAFuNt7fbiUtxiuP1xYLYnGoH9UGwAfh2LHkZwK1yVN38vuVTuA%40mail.gmail.com.

[Don Sample]

Just about every word of Māori, in Captain Grant, including the names, can be found in Kendall and Lee’s A Grammar and Vocabulary of the Language of New Zealand, first published in 1820, though Verne’s spellings are different.

On Jun 28, 2026, at 10:14 AM, Garmt de Vries-Uiterweerd <garmtd...@gmail.com> wrote:



--