Fyeest Tekemaki
Tenaay Tekemakm 'aa ta'aa. 'Ekwiy tewaas. Kupilly nyaamat 'ekwiys. Marwayvech 'ewaa netepachkh umaaw. Metenyaally, maaykally, 'enaamh Tekemakm. 'Iipay 'ewuph. 'Iipayvech fyeest wechaawchh. Shawii 'emachh. Kuhunn nyaamat 'ech'eyaawchh, 'ichemaachh. Puully 'ehechalyp ta'nyewayh. Nyaapum Tekemakek 'enekemichh. 'Enyewaam 'enekemichh.
Source: Couro and Langdon, Let's Talk 'Iipay Aa (1975), Lesson 24, page 118
Tenaay Tekemakm 'aa ta'aa. 'Ekwiy tewaas. Kupilly nyaamat 'ekwiys. Marwayvech 'ewaa netepachkh umaaw. Metenyaally, maaykally, 'enaamh Tekemakm. 'Iipay 'ewuph. 'Iipayvech fyeest wechaawchh. Shawii 'emachh. Kuhunn nyaamat 'ech'eyaawchh, 'ichemaachh. Puully 'ehechalyp ta'nyewayh. Nyaapum Tekemakek 'enekemichh. 'Enyewaam 'enekemichh.
Source: Couro and Langdon, Let's Talk 'Iipay Aa (1975), Lesson 24, page 118
Notes:
Tenaay: "Yesterday". Note similarity with tenay, "late". Adverb of time, comes at the beginning of the sentence.
Tekemakm: "To Mesa Grande". -m is the ending meaning "to". If the name Tekemak ended in a vowel, it would have taken the definite ending vu/ve- (e.g. Haasaa "Julian" becomes Haasaavem "to Julian". The vu/ve- is optional for place names that end in a consonant.
'aa ta'aa: In English we would say "I went", but the construction is more like, "I was going". Notice how the sense of the auxiliary verb ta'aa/tewaa agrees with the sense of the main verb 'aa/waa, "to go". This progressive construction appears to make the sentence more in tune with the next one, which uses the progressive to describe the setting.
'Ekwiy tewaas. "It was raining." Compare to the next sentence, where 'ekwiy by itself means, "it rained". The final -s adds a bit of emphasis, a bit of emotion.
Kupilly nyaamat "all day". Notice how nyaamat, "all, every", goes after the noun it applies to. Kupilly "day" is unmarked, perhaps in the accusative case since it is not the subject, but describes the duration of time during which 'ekwiy, "it rained".
Side note: Kupilly "day" appears to come from pily, "now", made into a noun meaning "that which is now". It is a synonym with 'enyaa, also meaning "day", but since 'enyaa means "sun", maybe it means more specifically, "daytime".
Marwayvech: The definite article -vech makes this "the others" as opposed to simply marway, "others". This word is always plural, as you can tell from the plural verb, netepachk. The way to make it singular, to say "the other (one)" is with 'ehin, "a/one".
netepachkh umaaw: "They do not come out". Remember that negative construction consists of -h umaaw, where the -h suffix on the main verb indicates that the verb didn't actually happen. Note that although "umaaw" is conjugated for person, there is no plural distinction.
Metenyaally, maaykally: "Tomorrow, early in the morning". Once again, these adverbs describing time come at the beginning of the sentence. The more general one comes before the more specific one. Metenyaally is a hint that the verb will be in the future tense.
'enaamh: "We will go". Unlike 'aa ta'aa, this is a simple, singular action that needs no auxiliary verb. Remember that naam is the plural of waa "he goes", and to make it 1st person, since naam begins with a consonant, you need to add a shwa (e) to make the glottal stop (') audible.
'Iipay 'ewuph: "We will see people." 'Iipay is unmarked, but we can tell it is the object, not the subject, because the prefix '- on the verb indicates that the subject is first person and the verb stem ewup is plural (of ewuuw, "he sees"), meaning the subject is "we". Since it is 'iipay, it can mean "people" or "a person" - there is no plural.
'Iipayvech: "The people". Since this form has the definite article, we know it refers to "people" already mentioned, in this case, in the previous sentence. Since the article ends in -ch, we know 'iipay is the subject of the sentence.
fyeest wechaawchh: Since the verb wechaawch is the plural of wechuw, "to make", it tells us that 'iipayvech, the subject, is indeed plural, meaning "the people" and not "the person", though the forms are identical. Take note of how in 'Iipay Aa, you don't "throw" or simply "have" a party, you "make" a party. Fyeest "party" is the unmarked object, meaning it is indefinite: "a" party, not "the" party (which would be fyeestvu in this sentence).
Kuhunn nyaamat: "All night". Like kupilly, kuhunn "at night" comes from a root word hunn "dark, night" which has taken the nominalizing prefix ku- to become kuhunn, "that which is night". Again, this form is unmarked, and the verb of the sentence lasts throughout the duration of kuhunn nyaamat, all the night.
Puully: "Over there". Another adverb, this time indicating place, coming at the beginning of the sentence.
'ehechalyp ta'nyewayh: "We will be happy". Though auxiliary verbs are usually left out of future constructions, here it is kept, perhaps because hechalyp "happy" is a verb describing state or quality rather than action, or because the speaker wants to say that we're going to be happy over a certain period of time, while other things are going on. Notice how both hechalyp and tewaa are conjugated for person and number, but only the final verb gets the future tense marker, -h.
Tekemakek 'enekemichh. 'Enyewaam 'enekemichh. The beauty of case marking. These sentences demonstrate how one can pam "arrive" both from a place (Tekemakek, "from Mesa Grande") and at/to a place ('enyewaam, at/to our house).
Tekemakek: In order to add the suffix -k "from" to a word ending in an identical or very similar sound, a shwa is inserted making the suffix -ek.
'Enyewaam: Based on the context and subject of the sentence (we), this most likely means "our house", and is evidence that there is no singular/plural distiction between prefixes for "my" and "our" ('enye-) in 'Iipay Aa.
Tenaay: "Yesterday". Note similarity with tenay, "late". Adverb of time, comes at the beginning of the sentence.
Tekemakm: "To Mesa Grande". -m is the ending meaning "to". If the name Tekemak ended in a vowel, it would have taken the definite ending vu/ve- (e.g. Haasaa "Julian" becomes Haasaavem "to Julian". The vu/ve- is optional for place names that end in a consonant.
'aa ta'aa: In English we would say "I went", but the construction is more like, "I was going". Notice how the sense of the auxiliary verb ta'aa/tewaa agrees with the sense of the main verb 'aa/waa, "to go". This progressive construction appears to make the sentence more in tune with the next one, which uses the progressive to describe the setting.
'Ekwiy tewaas. "It was raining." Compare to the next sentence, where 'ekwiy by itself means, "it rained". The final -s adds a bit of emphasis, a bit of emotion.
Kupilly nyaamat "all day". Notice how nyaamat, "all, every", goes after the noun it applies to. Kupilly "day" is unmarked, perhaps in the accusative case since it is not the subject, but describes the duration of time during which 'ekwiy, "it rained".
Side note: Kupilly "day" appears to come from pily, "now", made into a noun meaning "that which is now". It is a synonym with 'enyaa, also meaning "day", but since 'enyaa means "sun", maybe it means more specifically, "daytime".
Marwayvech: The definite article -vech makes this "the others" as opposed to simply marway, "others". This word is always plural, as you can tell from the plural verb, netepachk. The way to make it singular, to say "the other (one)" is with 'ehin, "a/one".
netepachkh umaaw: "They do not come out". Remember that negative construction consists of -h umaaw, where the -h suffix on the main verb indicates that the verb didn't actually happen. Note that although "umaaw" is conjugated for person, there is no plural distinction.
Metenyaally, maaykally: "Tomorrow, early in the morning". Once again, these adverbs describing time come at the beginning of the sentence. The more general one comes before the more specific one. Metenyaally is a hint that the verb will be in the future tense.
'enaamh: "We will go". Unlike 'aa ta'aa, this is a simple, singular action that needs no auxiliary verb. Remember that naam is the plural of waa "he goes", and to make it 1st person, since naam begins with a consonant, you need to add a shwa (e) to make the glottal stop (') audible.
'Iipay 'ewuph: "We will see people." 'Iipay is unmarked, but we can tell it is the object, not the subject, because the prefix '- on the verb indicates that the subject is first person and the verb stem ewup is plural (of ewuuw, "he sees"), meaning the subject is "we". Since it is 'iipay, it can mean "people" or "a person" - there is no plural.
'Iipayvech: "The people". Since this form has the definite article, we know it refers to "people" already mentioned, in this case, in the previous sentence. Since the article ends in -ch, we know 'iipay is the subject of the sentence.
fyeest wechaawchh: Since the verb wechaawch is the plural of wechuw, "to make", it tells us that 'iipayvech, the subject, is indeed plural, meaning "the people" and not "the person", though the forms are identical. Take note of how in 'Iipay Aa, you don't "throw" or simply "have" a party, you "make" a party. Fyeest "party" is the unmarked object, meaning it is indefinite: "a" party, not "the" party (which would be fyeestvu in this sentence).
Kuhunn nyaamat: "All night". Like kupilly, kuhunn "at night" comes from a root word hunn "dark, night" which has taken the nominalizing prefix ku- to become kuhunn, "that which is night". Again, this form is unmarked, and the verb of the sentence lasts throughout the duration of kuhunn nyaamat, all the night.
Puully: "Over there". Another adverb, this time indicating place, coming at the beginning of the sentence.
'ehechalyp ta'nyewayh: "We will be happy". Though auxiliary verbs are usually left out of future constructions, here it is kept, perhaps because hechalyp "happy" is a verb describing state or quality rather than action, or because the speaker wants to say that we're going to be happy over a certain period of time, while other things are going on. Notice how both hechalyp and tewaa are conjugated for person and number, but only the final verb gets the future tense marker, -h.
Tekemakek 'enekemichh. 'Enyewaam 'enekemichh. The beauty of case marking. These sentences demonstrate how one can pam "arrive" both from a place (Tekemakek, "from Mesa Grande") and at/to a place ('enyewaam, at/to our house).
Tekemakek: In order to add the suffix -k "from" to a word ending in an identical or very similar sound, a shwa is inserted making the suffix -ek.
'Enyewaam: Based on the context and subject of the sentence (we), this most likely means "our house", and is evidence that there is no singular/plural distiction between prefixes for "my" and "our" ('enye-) in 'Iipay Aa.
Vocabulary
'aa, waa (pl. naam)
chepak (netepachk) 'echweyuuw ('echweyaawch) 'ekwiy 'ewaa ewuuw (ewup) fyeest hechalyp iimaa (ichemaach) 'iipay kuhunn kupilly maaykally marway metenyaally nyaamat nyaapum pam (nekemich) puully shawii ta'aa (1st pers.), tewaa (3rd) ta'waa (1st), tewaa (3rd) (pl. tenyeway) Tekemak tenaay umaaw wechuw (wechaawch) wemaa (wemach) |
I go, he goes
He comes out He sings It is raining House He sees Fiesta, party He is happy He dances People, person At night Day early in the morning The others, the rest Tomorrow All, every, the whole, everyone Then Arrive Over there Acorn mush Progressive auxiliary verb, "going" Progressive auxiliary verb, "sitting" Mesa Grande "Sheltered Place" Yesterday It does not He makes He eats |