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About Spilyay tymoo. (Warm Springs, Or.) 1976-current | View Entire Issue (April 3, 2003)
Spilyay Tymoo, Warm Springs, Oregon April 5, 2003 Page 9 THE CONFEDERATED TRIBES LANGUAGE LESSON Learner's Corner Over the many past weeks we have examined the action words see, go, sing, and dance. This has given us a good look at what patterns form as we express different subjects (I, you, we, etc.). In this, and the next, issue we will look at two new action words. Practice what you have learned already. By now, you might even be able to do some of these exercises without any English answer translation! Kiksht (Wasq'u) Numu (Paiute) Ichishkiin (Sahaptin) 3 Z go 1edi walk go sogomea mea walk go tkw'anaitisha winasha Sentences 1 L Sentenced Sentences See if you can recognize the action word (remem ber the "sandwich" idea) in the following few sentences. Then try and practice it your knowl edge below: Itgaqwit inuya skulyamt. Alma itgaqwit anuya skulyamt. Itgaqwit nanuya skulyamt. You probably recognized skulyamt ("to school"), but did you pick out the action word? What is it saying? Copy it down and try to pull it apart before you look at the answer here: inuya i n u ya few hours past I near time go went (just recently) anuya a n u ya future I far time go will go nanuya na n u ya several months past I near time go , went (a few months ago) Now, see if you can translate these English sen tencesfragments into Kiksht: You will go Remember that Numu has similar structure to English, but different habits and word order. Sub jects and objects are expressed in a like manner to English (with a single word, rather than a helper phrase glued to another word), but the logical phrasing order is: subject-object-verb. (See past issues for reviews of this.) Nu nasekooodukwitoo sogome'a. I school-to walk. walk to school. Nu nasekoodukwitoo sogomeano'o. I school-to walking. am walking to school. Nu nasekoodukwitoo sogomeokwe. I school-to will walk. will walk to school. Trv and translate these three English sentences: You walk to school. You may have noticed by now that the communi cation of subject and object follow a fairly straight-forward formula. In fact, this formula is even easier than that of English. The first word of an Ichishkiin sentence generally tells you who the subject is. (The special case is when talking about he, she, or they. In that case, this action word tells us if it is he, she, or they.) Now, let's start with a few example sentences using what you already have learned about tenses (past,present, and future): Tkw'anaitmshnash ai sapsikw'atpamayau. Tkw'anait msh nash ai sapsikw'atpama yau walk past 1 to, for school towards, to walked to school. Tkw'aninash sapsikw'atpamayau. Tkw'ani nash sapsikw'atpama yau walk 1 school towards, to I am walking to school. Tt'nash tkw'anaitita sapsikw'atpamayau. 1' I nash tkw'anaiti ta sapsikw'atpama yau emphasis 1 walk future school towards, to I will walk to school. try' and translate these six English sentences: You will walk to school. went to work. '" , '. ft. I 1 r-vi You went (a year or more ago) They walk to school. m lam going ftc ::?rfc Hi You walked (went on foot) to school. They will .walk to school. I will go U JF How do you think you did? Use the past Issues of Spilyay to help you out. When you are done, call the Kiksht team within the Language Program (553-3575) on Fridays end see how you Cif .'IT We are walking to school. VAkw CUaiiM I I m lileht? r (Taken from Wasq'u Itfawacha, a newletter produced bv the ' Kiksht languczi team. ,f sr 3b f , Why should I learn this language? It doesn't help me get a job! It doesn't he!? me get money out b th ba? (or put it in). It Isn't u::d by anyone today' -Thsse ar innocent " questions that tti youth are asking toay. And we feel it's our obligation to shsre the Importance of our; language with the youth. t v , , ' : - Keep In mind tst only a small percentage of children ask these questions. And according to a survey Mrs. Graham shared with us that the majority of parents (over 80) are in favor of their children learning a language. Over 70 of the Hich School students surveyed believe langauge is Important to them. One way we try to answer these questions Is to share the history of our people and their displacement over a century ago. That if it had not been the unique relationship shared between our government and the U.S. government that we would not have a place to call our own as we do today. We gave up our claim to the land inherently ours to the government for the white settlers that were coming to the area. It was because of our uniqueness that urged the government to make a treaty with us. , , We had our own langauge, government, Inherent land base, customs, and religious beliefs. If we should start giving up these characteristics, what would make us different from those around us? We don't claim to answer all the questions the kids ask, but if you have ideas that can add to these, please feel free to jot them down and send them to us, or call 553-3575. . . We will walk to school. Are you goinntiy I will go to the school. , Compare what you w; tp ' and thank you for tz:j t::.z Howcaycuc When you've finished, ask around to compare your answers. Feel free to call the Language Program, especially on Fridays, and ask your Numu language team for the right answers and see how you did! (553-3575) What is more important than getting them right is making the effort. Thank you for taking time for the precious activity of language study. 'Answers: Winaniash kutkutpemcyau. Winashaash kutkutpamayau. , Tt'nash winata kutkutpamayau. Mishnam winana" kutkutpamayau. . , , Mishnam winasha' kutkutpamayau. , Mishnam winata kutkutpamayau. l:
