umai

Updated: May 28, 2025

'Umai handan, machibito endan, usemono ninso kaso kichikyo no urainai! The cry of the itinerant fortune-teller. 'Ame-yu! The musical cry of the seller of midzu-ame, the sweet amber syrup which children love. 'Amail' The shrilling call of the seller of amazake, sweet rice wine.

Lafcadio Hearn - Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan : First Series

Regarding the allusion to a terminal vowel, it may be mentioned here that as most Kowrarega words end in a vowel, its absence when a vowel commences the following word is commonly owing to elision. Example: udzu umai = my dog becomes udz'umai. When the last consonant in a word is the same as the first in the following word, one of the letters is omitted.

John MacGillivray - Narrative of the Voyage of H.M.S. Rattlesnake, Commanded By the Late Captain Owen Stanley, R.N., F.R.S. Etc. During the Years 1846-1850. : Including Discoveries and Surveys in New Guinea, the Louisiade Archipelago, Etc. to Which Is Added the Account of Mr. E.B. Kennedy's Expedition for the Exploration of the Cape York Peninsula. By John Macgillivray, F.R.G.S. Naturalist to the Expedition. — Volume 2