'Emaay Kwa'taakwasThis short story is from a recording by linguist Margaret Langdon and 'Iipay Aa native speaker Ted Couro, which you can listen to in the video to the right. It talks about a man named Yellow Sky ('Emaay Kwa'taakwas), although he is called "Red Sky" in the recording. The following text contains minor adaptations.
'Akenaah ta'waas. 'Iikwich 'ehin 'Emaay Kwa'taakwas chuuhiim tewam. 'Iikwich peyaach 'iitaayvi nyewaayps. 'Emallk wenyaych wesaaw. 'Iikwich peyaa nyewaavech 'ewilym wechuw, 'ematem aayay. 'Iikwich peyaach 'ehin tewam. Siny tenarrh umaaw. Tehiilly tenarrh umaaw. 'Emtann tewam. 'Iikwich peyaach rakch apesiiw, nyaapum melay. 'Elymash tenarrh umaaw. Nyipaches.
|
|
Notes
'Akenaah ta'waas.
I'm about to tell a story.
'Iikwich 'ehin 'Emaay Kwa'taakwas chuuhiim tewam. There was a man named Yellow Sky.
|
Above: 'Emaay Kwa'taakwas (Yellow Sky), the man this story probably refers to. Yellow Sky was a Quechan/Kwaaymii (Kumeyaay) Indian who traveled between Yuma and the Lagunas. Read more.
|
'Iikwich peyaach 'iitaayvi nyewaayps.
This man lived in the woods.
'Emallk wenyaych wesaaw.
He hunted and ate rats.
'Iikwich peyaa nyewaavech 'ewilym wechuw, 'ematem aayay.
This man's house was made of rock, mixed together with earth.
'Iikwich peyaach 'ehin tewam.
This man was alone.
Siny tenarrh umaaw.
He didn't have a wife.
Tehiilly tenarrh umaaw.
He didn't have any clothes.
'Emtann tewam.
He went around naked.
'Iikwich peyaach rakch apesiiw, nyaapum melay.
This man became very old, then he died.
'Elymash tenarrh umaaw.
He did not have children.
Nyipaches.
That is all.
This man lived in the woods.
- 'Iikwich peyaach: This man. -ch means this noun phrase is the subject of the sentence. The -ch is not really audible in the recording and may have been left out altogether; it's correct either way.
- 'iitayvi: In the forest. -vi means "in (the)". Whether you use -i or -vi does not matter much, though -vi seems to be more common.
- nyewaayps: Lived. Again, -s may or may not be present in the recording but it can be used optionally, here to give a slight emphasis or air of positivity to the sentence.
'Emallk wenyaych wesaaw.
He hunted and ate rats.
- 'Emallk: Woodrats. This is the direct object of "wenyay" and "wesaaw", and comes before the verb. It is also unmarked (has no suffixes), meaning it is indefinite and most likely the direct object in the sentence, so long as context does not indicate otherwise. There is no plural form of this word, so the number (singular or plural) is left for the listener to determine based on context. Unlike English, Kumeyaay does not always find it necessary to specify singular vs. plural.
- wenyaych wesaaw: He hunted and ate. The -ch on the first verb means that the verb after it has the same subject, both being the man, 'Emaay Kwa'kwas. -ch can also sometimes be thought of as a conjunction like "and", linking these verbs together.
- wenyaych: The -ch ending often sounds more like English "j" than "ch", depending on what comes before it. You can also think of it as a "soft ch" that can either sound like "j" or "ch". For the sake of simplicity, I always write it as -ch, as it is in most documentation.
'Iikwich peyaa nyewaavech 'ewilym wechuw, 'ematem aayay.
This man's house was made of rock, mixed together with earth.
- 'Iikwich peyaa nyewaavech: This man's house. The -vech is like the definite article "the", marking the noun as a specific one, and as the subject of the sentence, due to the -ch ending. The ny- before 'ewaavech makes it "his" house, and the unmarked nouns before it, "'iikwich peyaa" identify whose house it is. So the phrase literally is, Man This His-House-The(Subj).
- nyewaavech 'ewilym wechuw: His house was made of stone. -m on 'ewily is like an instrumental case marker, "with" stone. Interesting how "nyewaavech" is the subject, though the house didn't literally "make" (wechuw) itself. This may be an example of how passive voice works: "Nyewaavech wechuw" = "The house, 'they' made it" or, "The house, it was made".
- 'ematem aayay: They added/mixed in earth. Notice the -m again, becoming -em to make it pronouncable after the -t in 'emat. 'Ematem aayay can either mean "they mixed it with earth" or "they mixed earth in" or "they added earth to it". It's probably better to get a "sense" or the Kumeyaay rather than trying to find an exact translation into English.
'Iikwich peyaach 'ehin tewam.
This man was alone.
- 'ehin: verb meaning "is one", here, "is alone".
- tewam: Auxiliary verb like "tewaa" meaning "is (being or doing something) while around". Used for when a person is moving about, not in a specific direction or position.
Siny tenarrh umaaw.
He didn't have a wife.
- Siny: Literally means "woman" or "female", but here means "wife".
- tenarrh umaaw: The -h is hard to hear in the recording, but in correct speech it is supposed to be there, indicating that the negated verb (e.g. tenarr) before the umaaw (not) did not happen.
- tenarr: Loanword from Spanish "tener", to have. Couro pronounces it almost exactly like the Spanish, except with a Kumeyaay "r", that to me sounds closer to the single r than a double (rolled) rr. So although it sounds like "tener", the "standard" spelling we're going with is tenarr. In a few other examples, native words contain an "a" that sounds more like an "e" to English ears.
Tehiilly tenarrh umaaw.
He didn't have any clothes.
- tenarr: Other speakers, who perhaps want to avoid loanwords, may say "nyewich" instead of "tenarr", including for family members like one's wife. However, in Ted Couro's speech, tenarr is quite common and seems to correlate with English "to have", while "nyewich" matches with English "to own".
- It is said that Yellow Sky usually wore only a breechcloth, making him one of the last traditional Indians in this area to do so.
'Emtann tewam.
He went around naked.
- 'Emtann by itself can mean, "was naked", but "tewam" indicates that this went on for a certain period of time, and also that he "was around", or went from place to place as such.
'Iikwich peyaach rakch apesiiw, nyaapum melay.
This man became very old, then he died.
- rak: Is old, gets old. This verb is used only to describe men. 'Erak = "I am old" (man speaking). When women get old, the verb used is "nyekuuy". From these words come kurak "old man" and kunykuuy "old woman".
- rakch apesiiw: He was/became very old. -ch on rak means that the following verb will have the same subject. Apesiiw means "very", and the verb it acts on, i.e. the verb before it, will always take a -ch ending (unless it's too hard to pronounce, then it may be left off).
- In the recording, Couro initially says, "rakch, nyaapum melay." (He got old, then he died.) This is also correct, where the -ch on rak acts like an "and", showing that rak and melay have the same subject.
'Elymash tenarrh umaaw.
He did not have children.
- 'Elymash: Children. One of the few plural nouns, which mostly refer to people. 'Elymash is the plural of 'elymaam, and is similar to 'elyemis, "are small" (plural of 'estik, is small). This shows how 'elymaam doesn't simply mean "child", it literally means "little one".
Nyipaches.
That is all.
- Not said in the recording, but this is a common way to say, "the end".
Vocabulary
aayay
akenaa apesiiw chuuhii 'ehin 'elymash 'emaay 'emallk 'emat 'emtann ewaa 'ewily 'iikwich 'iitaay kwa'kwas melay nyaapum nyewaayp nyipaches peyaa rak siny ta'waa tehiilly tenarr tewam umaaw wenyay wesaaw |
adds in, mixes with
tells a story is very much, does a lot calls someone a name is one children high, above, the sky wild rats land, earth, mud naked house rock, stone man forest, woods, brush that is yellow is dead, dies then lives that is all this is old (man) woman, wife I am… -ing clothes has is/does while being around is not hunts eats |