Local Drinks

1. ilumel

   Ilumel (a drink; beverage)

   Usage

   The cover term for drinks in general. Examples: Ak olab a ilumel el mo er a party. ("I'm bringing drinks to the party") and Ng chamatter a ilumel. ("We have plenty of drinks"). The verb "drink" is melim: Kede ousbech a kor el melim a ilumel. ("We use cups to drink")

2. ralm

   Ralm (fresh water; drinking water)

   Usage

   It means fresh water, as opposed to seawater (daob). There are also the phrases beches el ralm (clean water), ralmchull (rainwater) and chedaol el ralm (holy water), and an example for declining cold water, Ng mekngit a mekelekolt el ralm er ngak. The same spelling also carries "carpenter's level" and "an easy matter", and there is a separate word, spelled the same, for a tree.

3. osechel a mengur

   Osechel a mengur (the water of a coconut at drinking stage)

   Usage

   This phrase means the coconut juice of a coconut at the mengur stage. Palauan names coconuts by ripeness stage, and mengur is the one between Ngebekebokel and Odimalmekebud: the stage "when juice is best for drinking and meat is soft enough to be easily removed with finger". There is no word that translates "coconut water" directly. The nut itself is lius

   Grammar Note

   Palauan possession is "possessed form + a + possessor". Here osechel, the third-person possessive of uasech "liquid", is followed by a mengur, giving "the liquid of a mengur-stage coconut". The proverb Ng kora osechel a mengur, el di ngar er a milkolk el mo er a milkolk. ("like coconut water, passing from darkness to darkness" — of talk kept out of public view) has the same shape

4. kohi

   Kohi (coffee)

   Usage

   Borrowed from Japanese kōhī, and spelled kohi in Palauan; it is not spelled kofi. Examples: Ng bai soak a kohi er a tii. ("I like coffee more than tea") and Ng soam el melim a kohi. ("You want some coffee")

   Grammar Note

   Mekeald ("hot water; hot drink") points first of all to coffee. "I would like to drink ..." uses the possessive of sau "liking", and its subject marker is ng, not ak: Ng soak el melim a kohi.

5. tii

   Tii (tea)

   Usage

   Borrowed from English; the spelling doubles the vowel: tii. The example Ng bai soak a kohi er a tii. ("I like coffee more than tea") is a fair picture of where the everyday hot drink sits in Palau

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