A Funerary StoryThis story, told by Ted Couro in multiple variations, has been referred to as "The Creation Story" as well as a "Fragment of Traditional Diegueño Funerary Oration". While this short episode is not the full Kumeyaay creation story, which takes several days to recite, it does refer to the time of creation, using some of the Creator's first words to humans to remind the audience of their mortality and instruct them to leave the dead behind.
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In the video to the right, you can hear Ted Couro tell one version of this story. Below, you will find a slightly different version, also by Couro, featured in the "Memorial to Ted Couro" (1975) written by Florence C. Shipek. The eulogy describes this text as being, "From the early memories of Ted Couro, based on the style of Cinon Matawir, of Mesa Grande, as recorded and transcribed by Margaret Langdon."
'Emat Wechuw 'UkenaapHeyaay 'emat 'ekur
'Emaay 'Ehaa, 'emat kwechuw, nyaapum 'iikwich siny wechuw, 'animaal nyaamat wechuw. Puuch wechuwm 'iis, 'lipay nyaamat. Peyaa wiiches, 'Emaay 'Ehaavech: "Mewuuw temeyuuw, 'emat peyaach aavu uuttaq, pu'yuuk menyallyqh wiich." "Pily kaam menyehatt kewuuw! Peyaa kumlayvech nyuk nesoom. Nyuk mewuuws, nyuk memiis, nyuk mewiich mennewatt nyaamat. Metenyaally, maach pemeyuyeh, nyaapum 'emich ta'nyewayh. 'Enyaawapch 'emich ta'nyewayh. " Peyaa 'Emaay 'Ehaavech nyuk wiich. Kumna, 'enaamh! |
The Story of Making the EarthLong ago, in a distant land,
High Waters (God), the maker of the earth, then made man and woman, and made all the animals. I say he made them, all the Indian people. This he said, High Waters: "You are seeing, how this earth opens it mouth, in order to swallow you like so." "Now go and look after your livestock! This dead man is already gone. You've already seen it, you've already cried, you've already finished doing everything. Tomorrow, you will be like this, and then we'll be crying. We'll be the ones crying." This, High Waters has already said. Come on, let's go! |
Notes
Labeled by paragraph number
1.
2.
3.
4.
1.
- 'Ukenaap: This form is not found in the dictionary or anywhere else except Couro's recording, embedded above. It is based on the verb ukenaa, "tells", but due to the way it was said and used here, I am 90% sure it is a noun which is another word for "story". In any case, the verb ukenaa can also double as a noun meaning "the thing that was told", when put in the right context. The dictionary's word for story is 'aaknach.
- Heyaay 'emat 'ekur: Sometimes, especially in Tiipay (e.g. Nya'kurlly from Rabbit vs. Rattlesnake), stories begin with 'emat 'ekur alone to mean "long ago", though it literally means "in a distant land". 'Ekur "is far" thus means distant in time as well as space. There is no locative suffix on 'ekur; this is normal for this phrase.
- nyaapum: It might seem odd that there is no verb before this nyaapum, an action which the Creator did before the actions after nyaapum. In this instance and a few others, nyaapum seems to mean "then" as in, "at that time". The alternative is that the preceding " 'emat kwechuw" was erroneous, and that Couro really said " 'emat wechuw, nyaapum..." However, we will assume that this transcription is correct.
- 'iikwich siny wechuw: In the recording, Couro says, " 'iikwich wechuw, siny wechuw," but you are also able to state, " 'iikwich siny wechuw," with no conjunction between the two nouns, to mean, "he made man and woman". Of course, you will need to specify the subject somewhere so that it's not read as, "a man made a woman".
- 'animaal: The use of this loanword, which is not seen elsewhere in the literature, may be a sign that Mesa Grande has no clear native word for "wild" animals. The word 'ehatt is for domestic animals, so it is not used in this sentence, though it is used later on in the text. Other dialects use "chillich" to refer to undomesticated animals, and we could assimilate this into our speech as the Mesa Grande cognate 'echillich. It's uncertain, however, if Mesa Grande native speakers would understand this usage, or if they would be confused due to 'echillich meaning "devil, ghost, spirit" (Lit. "bad heart").
- Puuch wechuwm 'iis: "He made them, I say!" This is an interesting use of -m, the different-subject suffix, to subordinate a clause. I would have expected the English sentence, "I say that he made them" to be translated with -vu, becoming, "Puuch wechuwvu 'iis," but instead it is with -m, literally constructed as: "He made them-m and I say it." Maybe sentences that are the object of wii take -m instead of -vu, or maybe the uses of these two subordination mechanisms overlap.
- 'Iipay nyaamat: Based on the sentence this is in, it appears that the speaker is addressing the audience as " 'Iipay nyaamat". While the translation in Shipek's eulogy says, "All the Indian people", I find it more likely that 'iipay nyaamat here means "everyone", as in everyone listening, and not the 'Iipay people specifically. The "vocative" sense of this phrase would be more clear if the speaker had used the (somewhat rare) second-person form of 'iipay and even of nyaamat, and said "may'pay menyaamat", "all you people". There is also the possibility that 'iipay nyaamat is the object of the verb in this sentence, meaning: "I say he made all the people," but this is unlikely.
2.
- Peyaa wiiches, 'Emaay 'Ehaavech: The non-standard word order of this sentence affects how we should translate it in English. The emphasis is clearly on "this" and "he said", while the subject of the verb, 'Emaay 'Ehaavech, is there just for clarity. Sentences like, "Peyaa wiiches..." are often translated either as, "This he said," or, "That's what he said." One could interpret the -ches on "wiiches" to simply be an extra emphasis on the verb, or you could see how it resembles "x is y" constructions, called predicate nominatives or subject complements by fancy grammarians. For example: 'Ihpaa 'aashaaches. The eagle is a bird. Peyaa wiiches. This is what he said. However, verbs like "wiiches" are not always to be interpreted this way, as we can still get sentences like, " 'Emat peyaa wechuwches", translating to, "he made this land (indeed)", and not necessarily, "this land is what he made".
- Mewuuw temeyuuw: The person being addressed by the Creator is evidently standing, looking at something. This helps create the setting for the scene. Though we might expect this story to be told to a group of people at once, the Creator is speaking as if to only one person.
- 'emat peyaach: Literally, "this land", but is also used to mean "the earth" and at other times, "the world".
- aavu uuttaq: In English we would consider it redundant to put a definite article "the" before a possessed body part like "its mouth", resulting in, "the its mouth". However, in Kumeyaay it is permissible to put the article -vu and its variants on just about any noun, even ones like aa which are automatically possessed, meaning "his/her/its mouth". The effect of adding the article here, where it is not really necessary, may be an added focus on the object and a reinforcement of its case: A bare aa could be nominative, accusative, or something else, but aavu is almost certainly accusative, the object of some verb.
- pu'yuuk menyallyqh wiich: "In order to swallow you like so." The m(e)- prefix on a verb means either "you act on it" or "it acts on you". We know to interpret menyallyqh as "it will swallow you" and not "you will swallow (something)" for a couple reasons: First, the preceding verb pu'yuuk, which it is in parallel with (as we know due to the -k, future same-subject suffix) is conjugated for the third person. Next, we know from the context of the sentence that we are talking about "the earth" and how it "opens its mouth", so it follows that it will be swallowing something. By itself, "Pu'yuuk menyallyqh" would mean, "Like so it will swallow you."
- menyallyqh wiich: "In order to swallow you". The construction "-h wiich" indicates the purpose of some other action (here, the earth opening), and can often be translated to "in order to". The literal meaning sounds something like, "he said he would..." but this phrase is not meant to be translated literally. In other dialects, -h wiich is reduced to a suffix -hiich or -ich.
- menyallyq: "swallows" is spelled wenyallq in the dictionary.
- pu'yuuk...: The verb pu'yuu (pu'yup) means "is that way, is/does like that, like so". When you wish to combine it with another verb, you put pu'yuu before it, conjugate it for the correct person and number, and add the right same-subject suffix (-ch or -k) depending on whether the sentence is in the past/present or future: Pu'yuuch ewii. He did it like that. You can also say: Pu'yuuh umaaw. It's not like that. Pu'yuukuh. That must be how it is, it must be like that. When pu'yuu is the only verb in the sentence, and when it takes a suffix like -h (future) or -s (emphasis), a modified version is used where the last vowel is reduced and a y is added: Pa'yuyes. I am like that. Puuyuyes. He is like that; that's the way he is.
- wiich: Here the -ch is not the syntactic suffix for same subject, but is there for finality and emphasis, like -s or -ches. This -ch may in fact be a reduced form of -ches. It seems to be rare in Mesa Grande but much more common in other dialects. I suspect that "wiich" feels more natural to say than "wiis", hence the choice.
3.
- menyehatt kewuuw! Literally this is, "look at your animal(s)", but ewuuw seems to have broader possible meanings than physically looking at something, in this case meaning, "look after" or "tend to". Another figurative use of ewuuw is seen in Pat's Story: " 'uuch ma'wiih ewuuw tuuyuuw", "He was seeing (i.e. figuring out, investigating) what he would do."
- Peyaa kumlayvech...: Note the word order: "Peyaa" is like the main noun meaning "this one", modified by kumlay "that is dead". So the phrase literally reads, "this man that is dead" as opposed to, kumlay peyaach "this (particular) dead man..."
- nyuk nesoom: "It's already finished/over/all gone." Nesoom covers a number of specific meanings in English, so it's best to understand it as the general concept of something being gone or done with as a result of being used up or coming to an end. Nyuk, "already", seems closer to Spanish ya, where it can also mean "now" in some cases.
- mewiich mennewatt nyaamat: "You've finished doing everything." Newatt means "finishes" or sometimes, "does completely", and here we see that it combines with other verbs like ewii, "does" by following them, agreeing in number and person. Newatt can follow a verb without any connecting suffixes: Nyaamat serrkarr newatt. "They completely fenced off everything." Or, as in this case, the verb before newatt takes the -ch same-subject suffix.
- mennewatt: Unclear if the double nn in mennewatt is necessary to reflect a pronunciation change from newatt, or if it just happened to be spelled that way in this document.
4.
- maach pemeyuyeh: "You will be like that" or, "That is the way you will be." From the verb pu'yuu, is/does like that, like so. When the suffix -s is added, pu'yuu becomes puuyuyes, and the same happens with -h. Uncertain if puuyuyes, defined as "that is the way it is", is different in meaning from pu'yuu, or if they are alternate forms depending on how they are used.
- The -h here is ostensibly for future, but we should not take it too literally: He is not saying, "You will die tomorrow." Instead, -h indicates a possible or probable future event, like the word "could". In the official translation, the line is, "tomorrow, it may be you (you could be like so)."
- Spelling of pemeyuyeh modified from original pemeyuyh to reflect Couro's pronunciation of an additional syllable as often happens when a suffix is added to a word ending in y.
- In case it's unclear, the Creator is saying you will "be like" the dead person, i.e. dead.
- 'Enyaawapch 'emich ta'nyewayh: While this line seems to just repeat the previous line, the insertion of the pronoun, done on a selective basis in Kumeyaay, serves to emphasize the distinction of "us" vs. "you", who, as mentioned in the previous sentence, will be dead. Thus the translation of this line, "We'll be the ones crying." One could also use intonation on the "we" to the same effect in speech without changing the word order, just as the Kumeyaay " 'Enyaawapch 'emich..." is in standard word order. Strictly speaking, there is no inclusive/exclusive "we" distinction in Kumeyaay, but since you will be dead, you know you won't be a part of this "we".
- ta'nyewayh: Based on the recording, the spelling of this could probably be changed to ta'nyewayeh.
- Peyaa 'Emaay 'Ehaavech nyuk wiich: Once again we see nonstandard word order which emphasizes the first word: "this". The case marking, where peyaa is bare and 'Emaay 'Ehaa gets -vech, is more than sufficient to tell us who is the subject and object despite the shuffling of word order. This order, as in previous examples, lends itself to different translations: Whereas the standard interpretation would be, "God already said this," we can read this sentence as, "This, God has already said," or, as Langdon prefers, "This is what God has already said."
- wiich: Again, this -ch is not the same-subject suffix. Is it shortened from -ches, and if so, why?
- Kumna: Literally, "Look at that!" from the verb um "looks at something in distance" with suffix -na, gentle insistence. Here translated as, "Come on," it is similar in form to the word kuma, which in other dialects is placed before verbs in phrases like "Let's go!". While this use of "kumna" appears in a couple transcriptions from Langdon, it is not in the dictionary or in Let's Talk 'Iipay Aa, and I have not heard Ted Couro use it in speech.
Vocabulary
aa
'animaal 'ehaa 'ehatt 'ekur 'emaay 'Emaay 'Ehaa 'emat ewii ewuuw heyaay 'iikwich 'iipay kumlay kumna kwechuw maach metenyaally naam nesoom newatt nyaamat nyaapum nyuk pemeyuu peyaa pily puuch pu'yuu siny ta'nyeway tuuyuuw uuttaq waam wechuw wemich wemii wenyallyq wii |
his mouth
wild animals (Spanish loan) water animals (domesticated) is far is high God (Lit. High Waters) land, the earth does sees long ago man people that is dead, from melay, is dead Look! From um, looks at something that made it, from wechuw, makes you tomorrow pl. of waam, goes away is over, finished, gone finishes, completes all, every then already you are like that, from pu'yuu, is like that this now he is like that, like so woman we are, from tewaa, auxiliary auxiliary "while standing" opens goes away makes pl. of wemii, cries cries swallows (typically spelled wenyallq) says |