The Aukipi Dictionary, now in its second edition and sold at Lost Island Theme Park in Waterloo, Iowa, can be useful in understanding all the signs you see in the park.
The dictionary itself is needed to understand the subtitle:
“An Official Auk Modu Language Guide”
Auk means “lost” and modu means “island”, so it is the Lost Island Language Guide for the island’s language, Aukipi. And you can infer some meaning of that word if you know that ipi means “to speak.”
They must have had such a great time coming up with this language!
With our dictionary in hand, let’s translate some signage we see in the parks…
Realms (lands) of the park
- Ara Matua – “to open” “ground”
- Awa – “water”
- Mura – “fire”
- Tamariki – “spirit”
- Udara – “air”
- Yuta – “earth”
Rides of the park
Not all of the rides use the Aukipi language. You will find things like “Sea Swell” that are in English. But, some of them make more sense if you know what the word(s) mean…
- Amara Aviators – amara means “flying machine”
- Awaati Water Battle – awaati means “otter”
- Eeki Eeki Escape – eeki eeki means “giant squid”
- Golapa Sprouts – golapa is a “species of tree, identified by its helicopter seed pods”
- Kapulele Gliders – kapulele means “butterfly”
- Kukui Station – kukui means “crazy”
- Lokolo – “caterpillar”
- Mama Pezaki – pezaki is a “topical fish; fuchsia in color”
- Mura Dancer / Mura Fury – mura means “fire”
- Nopuko Air Coaster – unofficially, some fans pronounces this as “no puke, oh!” and say it means “do not puke”. It is not listed in the dictionary 😉
- Ohu Hoppers – ohu means “frog”
- Tuka Tumbler – tuka means “turtle”
Shops of the park
While some of the locations have English names, such as “Whalebone Grill” and “Thirsty Voyager”, others use the in-park language:
- Totara Market – totara is a “species of tree”, and this food location looks as if it was built into the base of a large tree.
- Udaran Delights – Udarans are the people of the Udara (air) realm.
- Ummi Ummis – ummi ummi means “food” so this location is literally a stand with “Foods” on it 😉
Where to go now?
And with the dictionary giving us the Aukipi word for restroom – wakatiki – you might expect to look for that on signs, but thankfully they went with English on those.
The one thing that might make this more fun is if the signage were bilingual, like the signs at the Japan Disney parks. I have never been to those parks, so I don’t have a photo to include, but here is a blog post about it if you are curious:
https://tdrexplorer.com/17-basic-japanese-phrases-for-tokyo-disney-resort
And there’s more!
The people of Lost Island will speak to you with phrases in this language, and you will find more items to decode (using the dictionary, or my online translator) throughout the park. They even have a special font they use.
This is not your average amusement park — it is an actual theme park.
I love Lost Island so much.
What did I miss that you think should be in this article? Leave a comment…