Hattepaa Hechkullk
Heyaay hattepaa 'ehinch tewaa. Hattepaa peyaach wenak tewaa, tewaa, tewaa. Hechkullkch wamp tuuyiw. Hattepaa ewuuws. "Haawka!" wiis. "Memeyuu temewaa?" Hattepaach wiis, "'Aahan ta'waas." Nyaapum hechkullkch 'aashaa ewuuws. "Peyaa 'uuchechu?" wiis. Hattepaach wiis, "'Aahmaaches." Hechkullkch 'aahmaa wesaaw; waams. Hattepaach wenak tewaa. Wemii tewaa, tewaa, tewaa.
Source: Couro and Langdon, Let's Talk 'Iipay Aa (1975), Lesson 9, page 48
Heyaay hattepaa 'ehinch tewaa. Hattepaa peyaach wenak tewaa, tewaa, tewaa. Hechkullkch wamp tuuyiw. Hattepaa ewuuws. "Haawka!" wiis. "Memeyuu temewaa?" Hattepaach wiis, "'Aahan ta'waas." Nyaapum hechkullkch 'aashaa ewuuws. "Peyaa 'uuchechu?" wiis. Hattepaach wiis, "'Aahmaaches." Hechkullkch 'aahmaa wesaaw; waams. Hattepaach wenak tewaa. Wemii tewaa, tewaa, tewaa.
Source: Couro and Langdon, Let's Talk 'Iipay Aa (1975), Lesson 9, page 48
Notes
Heyaay: "A long time ago". Adverb of time, comes at the beginning of the sentence.
hattepaa 'ehinch: "A coyote". The 'ehin is like saying, "a certain": it clarifies that the hattepaa is singular and indefinite, i.e. we haven't seen it before. "hattepaa" by itself is also indefinite, generally translating to "a coyote", but "hattepaa 'ehin" adds a certain emphasis that lets you know that "hattepaa" is important.
hattepaa 'ehinch tewaa: Notice the word order: the determiner "'ehin" comes after the noun it applies to, and the verb comes at the end. "hattepaa 'ehinch" is one noun phrase, so the case marker (-ch, marking nominative case, or the subject) goes only on the last word.
tewaa: The auxiliary verb is used although there is no main verb, and in this case it means "there was".
Hattepaa peyaach: "this coyote". Once again, the determiner "this" comes after the noun, and it takes the case marker.
wenak tewaa, tewaa, tewaa: "He sat for a long, long time" or "He sat, and sat, and sat". The repetition of the auxiliary verb is how you say that an action went on for a long time.
wamp tuuyiw: "Came walking" or "walked up" or "was walking up". "wamp" is the main verb, meaning "walk". "tuuyiw" indicates the direction of the motion, which is toward the speaker, "coming". Here, the progressive construction is employed to express the direction more than to say it was carried over a certain period of time.
Hattepaa ewuuws: "It saw the coyote." Word order is object-verb. Since "hattepaa" is unmarked, we should assume it to be in the accusative case, or the object of the sentence. To know the subject, we have to refer to the previous sentence where "hechkullkch" is marked for the nominative case. Notice the use of -s here and after almost every sentence-final word in the sentence.
'uuchechu?: 'uuch "what" is given a present-tense question particle -chu, becoming 'uuchechu? "what is it?"
'Aahmaaches: "It's a quail." The emphatic ending -ches can be used after any verb for emphasis, and it can also be used in identifying things, as seen here.
Hechkullkch 'aahmaa wesaaw. "The wolf ate the quail." Check out the word order and case marking: The subject Hechkullk is marked with the nominative suffix -ch, the object 'aahmaa comes next, with no marking, and the verb comes at the end. This word order is typical but not mandatory! Since this is from an early lesson in the book, the definite article is not used, so this sentence may be taken to mean, "a wolf ate a quail." To specify that these animals are the same as those previously mentioned, we would likely want to say, "the wolf ate the quail," which would be, "hechkullkvech 'aahmaavu wesaaw."
wesaaw: Since a live quail is more hard and crunchy than mushy, "wesaaw" is used here rather than "wemaa".
wesaaw; waams: "(He) ate and went away." No conjunction needed, though orally you may add a dramatic pause.
Heyaay: "A long time ago". Adverb of time, comes at the beginning of the sentence.
hattepaa 'ehinch: "A coyote". The 'ehin is like saying, "a certain": it clarifies that the hattepaa is singular and indefinite, i.e. we haven't seen it before. "hattepaa" by itself is also indefinite, generally translating to "a coyote", but "hattepaa 'ehin" adds a certain emphasis that lets you know that "hattepaa" is important.
hattepaa 'ehinch tewaa: Notice the word order: the determiner "'ehin" comes after the noun it applies to, and the verb comes at the end. "hattepaa 'ehinch" is one noun phrase, so the case marker (-ch, marking nominative case, or the subject) goes only on the last word.
tewaa: The auxiliary verb is used although there is no main verb, and in this case it means "there was".
Hattepaa peyaach: "this coyote". Once again, the determiner "this" comes after the noun, and it takes the case marker.
wenak tewaa, tewaa, tewaa: "He sat for a long, long time" or "He sat, and sat, and sat". The repetition of the auxiliary verb is how you say that an action went on for a long time.
wamp tuuyiw: "Came walking" or "walked up" or "was walking up". "wamp" is the main verb, meaning "walk". "tuuyiw" indicates the direction of the motion, which is toward the speaker, "coming". Here, the progressive construction is employed to express the direction more than to say it was carried over a certain period of time.
Hattepaa ewuuws: "It saw the coyote." Word order is object-verb. Since "hattepaa" is unmarked, we should assume it to be in the accusative case, or the object of the sentence. To know the subject, we have to refer to the previous sentence where "hechkullkch" is marked for the nominative case. Notice the use of -s here and after almost every sentence-final word in the sentence.
'uuchechu?: 'uuch "what" is given a present-tense question particle -chu, becoming 'uuchechu? "what is it?"
'Aahmaaches: "It's a quail." The emphatic ending -ches can be used after any verb for emphasis, and it can also be used in identifying things, as seen here.
Hechkullkch 'aahmaa wesaaw. "The wolf ate the quail." Check out the word order and case marking: The subject Hechkullk is marked with the nominative suffix -ch, the object 'aahmaa comes next, with no marking, and the verb comes at the end. This word order is typical but not mandatory! Since this is from an early lesson in the book, the definite article is not used, so this sentence may be taken to mean, "a wolf ate a quail." To specify that these animals are the same as those previously mentioned, we would likely want to say, "the wolf ate the quail," which would be, "hechkullkvech 'aahmaavu wesaaw."
wesaaw: Since a live quail is more hard and crunchy than mushy, "wesaaw" is used here rather than "wemaa".
wesaaw; waams: "(He) ate and went away." No conjunction needed, though orally you may add a dramatic pause.
Vocabulary
'aahan ta'waa
'aashaa 'ehin ewuuw haawka hattepaa hechkullk heyaay memeyuu temewaa? nyaapum peyaa tewaa tuuyiw waam wamp wemii wenak wesaaw wii |
I'm doing good
bird one see hello coyote wolf long ago how are you? then this auxiliary verb "sitting", can also mean "there was" auxiliary verb, "coming" go away walk cry sit eat say |