'Iikwich KuhnochHeyaay 'iikwich 'ehin tewaa, 'iipay nyaamatvech uumiirrp. Eyiiwvech wellich apesiiw, 'ehwatt tetpellaatk. " 'Iikwichvech 'eshash apesiiw." Nya'echweyuuwm 'enyaa peyaach wettuw, floorr wetaph, 'iipayvech mushemush yewips.
Kupilly 'ehin 'emat kumeyay 'eyaakvi hemaa tewaas. Nyaapum 'ewily 'ehin tuushup, hellytaa wetoo. Nyaapum 'iikwich henooch apesiiw. 'Iipayvech mechheyay melay rewiim. 'Iipay nyaamat naam, 'emat nyaamat kuseyaay huumaaypch. " 'Iikwich 'uumiirrpvu kaakwayk 'enyekiny! 'Emiiych keyiw!" Kuseyaayvech wiis: "Memiiych 'aah 'emaawh. 'Ewily kwa'stik hellytaa kwetochvu ketuuyiw 'enyekiny!" 'Elymaam 'iikwich 'ehin wenuwch waach 'ewilyvu tuuyiw. Kuseyaayvech 'ewilyvu ewuuw, 'ewily 'iikwich 'elymaam tuuyiwvu, nyaapum 'aawvelly wetom. 'Iikwich kuhnochvech eyiiw uuttaq. 'Iipay nyaamatvech huuchaalyp tenyeway. |
Notes & Translation
Heyaay 'iikwich 'ehin tewaa, 'iipay nyaamatvech uumiirrp.
Long ago there was a man, all the people loved him.
- 'iikwich 'ehin tewaa: "There was a man…" Tewaa can be used without a verb complement to introduce a new character or thing. 'ehin quantifies the preceding noun, it can also be written as " 'iikwich 'ehinch tewaa." A man was one-ch and was there.
- 'iipay nyaamatvech: "All the people". -vech "the" goes on the last word in the noun phrase. Here we see -vech on a noun that has not been previously mentioned, but we understand that " 'iipayvech" means "the people" as opposed to 'iipaych, "people".
Eyiiwvech wellich apesiiw, 'ehwatt tetpellaatk.
His face was very ugly, as if red spots were stuck on it.
- Eyiiw: Means either "his eyes" or "his face".
- wellich: Wellich means "bad", but here means "ugly". We can tell it means ugly from context: we are talking about a person's appearance and there's unlikely to be something "bad" about a person's face, though it could be ugly.
- wellich apesiiw: There is no -ch on "wellich" because it ends in a -ch sound already. In such cases you can still add -ech to the verb, but with the verb "apesiiw", it's unlikely to cause confusion if you leave it out.
- 'ehwatt tetpellaatk: 'ehwatt means "is red" and could also mean "blood". Here it is translated as "red spots", in part because tetpellaatk, "are stuck on" is plural (singular is tepellatk), so there are multiple things stuck on. Since 'ehwatt is used as a noun, it could mean blood or otherwise "red stuff".
- wellich apesiiw, 'ehwatt tetpellaatk: The second part of this sentence is translated as, "as if red spots were stuck on", even though there is nothing explicitly telling us that this is a simile and that red spots were not literally stuck to his face. A clue that this is not meant literally might be in the fact that the statement " 'ehwatt tetpellaatk" was placed directly after the previous clause, sort of describing or qualifying it like an appositional relative clause. We also know that we are describing the permanent state of his face and if he literally had red spots "stuck on" to it, he could probably get them off.
" 'Iikwichvech 'eshash apesiiw."
(But people said), "This man is very handsome."
- There is nothing in the text actually telling us that this is a quote (besides the quotation marks, but those don't count). Perhaps in a live setting, the storyteller would be able to change his/her voice in a way that makes it apparent that "some people" were saying this quote. In our own writing, we can definitely say things like, " 'iipayvech wiis…" "the people said…" to make things like this more clear.
- 'eshash apesiiw: Again, we see the omission of -ch before apesiiw because the verb, 'eshash, ends in a similar-sounding consonant, and adding -ch to it would be somewhat difficult and unnecessary for casual speech.
Nya'echweyuuwm 'enyaa peyaach wettuw, floorr wetaph, 'iipayvech mushemush yewips.
When he sang, the sun would shine, flowers would bloom, and the people would smile hearing him.
- Nya'echweyuuwm: When he sang. -m tells us the next verb will have a different subject.
- 'enyaa peyaach: "this sun". Interesting storytelling style, to refer to the sun as "this sun" and in other places, the world as "this land".
- mushemush yewips: "They smiled hearing it." This appears to be an example of how you can describe one action as happening in sync with another without using affixes such as nya- and -ch. Mushemush describes the main action, and the next verb, yewips, is what people were doing while or as they smiled. There's also a suggestion that the hearing provoked the smiling, though this may be implied more by the meaning and context than the form.
Kupilly 'ehin 'emat kumeyay 'eyaakvi hemaa tewaas.
One day, he was sleeping at the foot of a cliff.
- kupilly 'ehin: "One day". It would make sense to say, "kupilly 'ehinm", but "kupilly 'ehin" seems to be the norm.
- 'emat kumeyay: "a cliff". Literally, "land that is steep", from meyay, is steep. The name "Kumeyaay" in Mesa Grande refers to the "southern Diegueño", and perhaps more specifically the coastal ones, some of whom also called themselves "kumeyaay" in their own tongue.
- 'eyaakvi: 'Eyaak means "at the foot of", or "at the bottom" of say, a mountain. The -vi means that the action took place there, and not one the way to or from there, as -vem and -vek would indicate.
- hemaa tewaas: "He was sleeping" If you think about it, unless he was sleeping in a sitting position, you could say "hemaa tuuyaq". Remember that tewaa can be used as the default auxiliary whenever the position of the subject is unimportant or ambiguous.
Nyaapum 'ewily 'ehin tuushup, hellytaa wetoo.
Then a rock fell and hit his head.
- 'ewily 'ehin: a rock. Since the next verb after 'ehin has the same subject of 'ewily, you could say " 'ewily 'ehinch" if you wanted.
- tuushup, hellytaa wetoo. To clarify that the same rock that fell hit his head, and it wasn't his head hitting something, you could say "tuushupch, hellytaa wetoo." This may actually be the more natural or expected phrasing.
- This sentence is an example of how you can often leave out grammatical suffixes and the sentence will still make sense, usually with the help of context.
Nyaapum 'iikwich henooch apesiiw.
Then the man became very sick.
- henoo: Can mean "is sick" or "got sick". Usually verbs like hemaa "sleeps" and even melay "dies, is dead" can mean both the act of being in that state and the act of getting into that state (falling asleep, etc).
- henooch apesiiw: Back to normal -ch before apesiiw. Note however how -ch/-vech was left off of 'iikwich; we know who we're talking about and we can tell he's the subject, so leaving these out in casual speech won't cause confusion.
'Iipayvech mechheyay melay rewiim.
The people feared he would die.
- melay rewiim: Literally, "He looked dead". The -m is for different-subject, clarifying that the subject of "melay rewii" was the man and not the subject of the other verb, 'iipay. The placement of -m on this verb also serves to subordinate it under the other verb, making it either an object, or a subordinate clause that adds context to the sentence's main verb, which is unmarked. By having the -m marked verb come after the main verb, it shows cause and effect, like English "because". "The people were afraid because he looked dead-m."
- melay rewiim: This sentence is also translated, "The people were afraid because it looked like he would die." There is nothing explicitly telling us that the "dying" is in the future, so it is tempting to read this as, "he looked like he was dead". However, remembering that verbs of being in a state can also serve as verbs of entering a state, this could be taken to mean, "he looked like he was dying." This interpretation is not given in the book, but it seems possible to me.
'Iipay nyaamat naam, 'emat nyaamat kuseyaay huumaaypch.
All the people went to look for the best doctor in the world.
- 'Iipay nyaamat naam: Once again, a lack of suffixes, but not necessarily out of convenience. Knowing that the -ch/-m suffixes can sometimes go on the second verb in a sentence, a verb with no such suffix should be taken as a sign that the following verb could have it.
- naam… huumaaypch: Sure enough, the second verb in this sentence has the same-subject suffix -ch. The -ch indicates context, and being the second verb, most likely cause of the first verb. In this case, we can read it as, "the people went because they were looking," or more naturally, "the people went to look" or "they went for the purpose of looking".
- 'emat nyaamat kuseyaay: The world's best doctor. Here we see no word for "best", although there are probably ways of saying that explicitly. Instead, this is literally, "All the land's doctor", where we imagine that kuseyaay has a "his" before it. Constructions like "Hwaan nyehatt", "Juan's dog", will put the possessor before the possessed, so we can imagine "all the world" as being the figurative possessor of "kuseyaay". People and animals are some things that cannot take the possessive prefixes that contain nye-, though relatives take the basic 'e-/me- possessive prefixes. Either way, kuseyaay remains unmarked here, and is not literally possessed but only figuratively, "all the world's (best) doctor".
" 'Iikwich 'uumiirrpvu kaakwayk 'enyekiny!
"Give us back the man we love!
- 'Iikwich 'uumiirrpvu: The man that we love. This has few things to break down:
- The -vu article at the end makes it clear that this whole phrase is acting as a noun, though it can also do so without the definite article and just be 'iikwich 'uumiirrp, "a man that we love".
- The number and person of 'uumiirrp (first person plural, based on the plural stem and the prefix ') makes it clear that 'iikwich is not the subject of this verb, but (most likely) the object.
- " 'iikwich 'uumiirrp" by itself means "we love a man". You can take this whole phrase and make it the object or subject of another verb, and it suddenly becomes, "the/a man that we love" For example, " 'iikwich 'uumiirrpch waams" would mean, "a man we love went away." Here, the first phrase takes a -ch suffix to mark it as the subject of the sentence's main verb, waam. As a rule, any Kumeyaay verb can mean both that action, and the thing acted upon by that action, depending on the context of the sentence. So " 'emirr" can mean "I love" and it could mean "that which I love".
- " 'iikwich 'uumiirrpvu… 'enyekiny!" The -vu on 'uumiirrp doesn't have to do with the people loving the man, it has to do with the kuseyaay giving the man back. Here, -vu marks the whole phrase " 'iikwich 'uumiirrp" as the object of the main verb 'enyekiny. It also makes the noun definite, i.e. "THE man that we love".
- " 'iikwich 'uumiirrpvu": Nouns like 'iikwich cannot take affixes like -vu when they are in sentences that have been made into nouns like this. So the nouns within the phrase remain unmarked, while the "a/the" distinction is expressed by the article or lack thereof at the end of the entire phrase.
- kaakwayk 'enyekiny: "Give us back!" Aakewayk is a verb meaning "brings back", and it's often (if not usually) combined with verbs that specify the kind of action. For example, aakewayk waayp = talks back, i.e. answers. When aakewayk combines with other verbs like so, it agrees in person and number with that other verb. So here, aakewayk agrees with winy in being singular and imperative: kaakwayk. As with other verbs, the shwa in the penultimate syllable can be dropped, especially when the verb take a prefix.
- 'enyekiny: The 'enyek- prefix means that it's an imperative (command), and that the object is first person, meaning me or us. The same prefix is used for a first person plural object (us) as for a singular one (me).
'Emiiych keyiw!"
Kuseyaayvech wiis: "Memiiych 'aah 'emaawh.
Come with us!"
The medicine man said: "I won't go with you."
- 'emiiych…. memiiych: The verb emiy means "is/goes with", and is used when the subjects are "going" someplace as opposed to staying in one place. When using this verb, you conjugate it, or give it personal prefixes, not based on the subject of the main verb of the sentence, but based on who that subject is going "with". For example, " 'emiy mamp" is "you walk with me," and "memiy 'aahs" is "I'll go with you." When the person the subject is with is plural, the plural form of emiy is used: "Kuuchutt emiiych 'aams" is "I went with the leaders." In this text, 'emiiych is "with us" and memiiych is "with y'all". Notice how the -ch on emiiych is NOT the same-subject suffix, but is the "ch" that is common at the end of plural verbs.
'Ewily kwa'stik hellytaa kwetochvu ketuuyiw 'enyekiny!"
Bring the small rock that hit his head and give it to me!"
- 'Ewily kwa'stik hellytaa kwetoch: The small rock that hit his head: Here we see how you can make rather long noun phrases, with multiple kw- constructions. These kw- nouns, made from verbs, describe what the main noun "is" or what it "does": The rock that is small, and that hit his head. Notice how hellytaa, the object of an action, comes before the nominalized verb, kwetoch. Also note how wetoo doesn't just mean "hits with stick", like the dictionary describes it, but it can be the more general word for things hitting things.
- kwetochvu: Like with any noun, we can place articles on kw- nouns. -vu means it's the object.
- ketuuyiw: This word for "bring" is used for "solid, chunky objects". Other words are used when one is bringing other types of objects.
- ketuuyiw 'enyekiny: Here we see that no suffixes are needed to connect these verbs, just: "Bring and give me". However, notice the specificity: Instead of just saying, "bring me…", bringing is one action, and handing it over (kiny) is another action.
'Elymaam 'iikwich 'ehin wenuwch waach 'ewilyvu tuuyiw.
A small boy went and ran and brought back the rock.
- 'ehin wenuwch: We see no -ch on 'ehin, though numbers often take -ch when the numbered noun is the subject of a verb. In this case, the sentence is clear enough without it, and using -ch in every possible instance could just be too repetitive.
- wenuwch waach: Literally this is "ran and went…" Whereas English usually uses only one verb to describe how someone got someplace, Kumeyaay often uses two, in cases where the speaker wants to be most descriptive: one verb to describe the manner of movement, and another to describe the general movement. Generally, the manner of motion comes first (wenuw), and the more general verb (waa) comes second.
Kuseyaayvech 'ewilyvu ewuuw, 'ewily 'iikwich 'elymaam tuuyiwvu, nyaapum 'aawvelly wetom.
The doctor looked at the rock, the rock that the boy had brought, then he threw it in the fire.
- 'ewily 'iikwich 'elymaam tuuyiwvu: This whole phrase seems unneccessary because we know which rock he's looking at. But here's a good question: How do we know, from this phrase alone, that it's the rock the boy brought and not the boy the rock brought? Usually, the first word in a noun phrase like this is what we want to focus on.
- 'aawvelly wetom: -velly/-lly can be used for both stationary actions "inside" something and motions "into" something.
'Iikwich kuhnochvech eyiiw uuttaq. 'Iipay nyaamatvech huuchaalyp tenyeway.
The sick man opened his eyes. All the people were happy.
- kuhnoch: a sick person, or "one that is sick". From henoo, "is sick", but instead of nominalizing the singular verb, the nominalized plural form (henoch > kuhnoch) is the regular word for "sick person".
- huuchaalyp tenyeway: The auxiliary tewaa (tenyeway) appears to be used like the English word "to be" in sentences like, "He was (adjective)". You could theoretically just say, " 'iipay nyaamatvech huuchaalyp" to mean, "All the people were happy," but this might imply that their happiness was an inherent quality rather than their state at the time of this event.
Vocabulary
aakewayk
'aaw apesiiw 'echweyuuw 'ehin 'ehwatt 'elymaam 'emat 'emat kumeyay emiiych 'enyaa 'eshash 'ewily ewuuw 'eyaak eyiiw floorr hellytaa hemaa henoo heyaay huuchaalyp huumaayp 'iikwich 'iipay kuhnoch kumeyay kupilly kuseyaay kwa'stik mechheyay melay meyay mushemush naam nyaamat nyaapum peyaa rewii tenyeway tetpellaatk tewaa tuushup tuuyiw umaaw uumiirrp uuttaq waa wellich wenuw wetaph wetom wetoo wettuw weyiw wii winy yewip |
brings back, does back
fire is very much sings is one is red little one land, the world cliff, steep land pl. of emiy, is with, goes with the sun is beautiful, handsome rock sees, looks at below, at the bottom of his face, his eyes flowers, from Spanish flor his head sleeps is sick, gets sick long ago pl. of hechalyp, is happy pl. of hemay, looks for man people sick person, from henoo, is sick that is steep, from meyay, is steep day doctor, traditional witch doctor that is small, from 'estik, is small pl. of meheyaay, is afraid, fears is dead, dies is steep smiles pl. of waam, goes away all, every then this looks like, is like pl. of tewaa, auxiliary pl. of tepellatk, is stuck on auxiliary "while sitting" falls, said of round object brings, said of solid object is not pl. of wemirr, loves opens goes is bad, ugly runs blooms throws hits shines comes says gives pl. of yip, hears, listens |