I am Indian and live in India, so I'm trying to dig something of relevance out of the songs I know.

Here's a Marathi (the language of Maharashtra) song sung by fishermen:

Vallhavre nakhva vallha vallha
Dhariyaavari amche dole hori
Gheyun masaacha dolina aamihaav zaati che koli

Vaadlacho vaalonetho paav saacha dhaara
Toofan dhariya latha tsa maajha
Koli maayi konache dam kis kinaara... Dhariya

Khandu devatsa lavun bhandaara
Tyaavar bharosa thevun kisara
Baadal banyaanshi gaatun kinaara ...Dhariya

Dhariya saagar hai amcha raja
Taache jiva vammi karthava maajha
Naral punavela naaral soniyatsa ...Dhariya


I'm attaching a quick recording of the song as I learnt it (here) , just to give you a sense of the words and melody. Now, please note Marathi is not my mother tongue and I didn't learn this song directly from a Marathi, so my pronunciations will certainly be off, but probably much closer than a Western interpretation of the lyrics I've written above. I'm afraid that apart from a few words that I'm sure you, Gibb, can guess as well as I can, I don't know the exact meaning of the song. The rough sense I get is the song speaks of the fisherman's relationship with the sea, and the perils of storms, etc as they go out to fish.

Each line is sung twice. The men sing it first and the women follow, singing the lower melody. The men add several "Hoy!"s.