Language

 

NOTE:  for the 1st week in February ONLY, class will be held Friday instead of Wednesday; same place and time!

 

Terms for Money

(Vocabulary with audio from the February 2010 newsletter article)

Traditional Money (Dentalia)

  1. goutsewaturr          'one string of dentalia'
  2. rrituwaturr               'two strings of dentalia'
  3. rrikawaturr              'three strings of dentalia'
  4. rramawaturr            'four strings of dentalia'
  5. we'sagh huluwaturr  'five strings of dentalia'

Introduced Money (Coins)

  • goutsetk $1.00     (literally 'one disk', referring to a dollar coin)
  • goutsetk vesetk   $1.50     (literally 'one disk plus half dollar')
  • rridetk $2.00     'two disks'
  • rriketk $3.00     'three disks'
  • rrametk $4.00     'four disks'
  • we'sagh huletk $5.00     'five disks'
  • rranajuplhughurrechk nickel (literally 'big thick disk')
  • gashuvetsk                      dime (literally 'small disk')
  • hushgurr                          quarter
  • setk half dollar
  • doughulhetk gold coin (literally 'yellow disk')

Useful phrases

  • Shouwa gasvu'qi? How much does it cost?
  • Goutsetk (rridetk, etc.)sawuqh.     It costs $1.00 ($2.00, etc.).
  • Rraduqh!                                   It's expensive ('costs big').
  • Gabiwurra'du'qh.                         It's not so expensive.

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Terms for People

(Vocabulary with audio from the December '09 newsletter article)

  1. hija 'baby'
  2. burratun 'baby (in basket)'
  3. burratunwe' 'baby basket'
  4. tsek 'child'
  5. vatsuk, guvoutsuqilh 'little girl'
  6. rratsutsk 'little boy'
  7. vachur 'girl'
  8. rrachuchk 'boy'
  9. tsurarilhwach 'pre-teen girl'
  10. tsurarilh 'teenaged girl/young woman'
  11. tighurrilh 'teenaged boy/young man'
  12. guvouch, humoutwilh, kagurrawiwilh 'woman'
  13. gouwi' 'man'
  14. bikanuqiwilh 'man about 40 years old'
  15. wisilh 'married woman'
  16. wisipeley 'married man'
  17. shirouki 'old woman'
  18. gaqilh 'old man'
  19. diqa' 'white man'
  20. diqamoutwilh, wagiswal 'white woman'

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Under the Weather

(Vocabulary with audio from the November '09 newsletter article)

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Yirrugou'wi (My Family)

(Vocabulary with audio from the October '09 newsletter article)

  1. Yil (I)
  2. Yidouk (my brother/sister)
  3. Yil rrilibe'l (my first cousin)
  4. Yirraga (my mother)
  5. Yida'sh / Yidarr (my father)
  6. Yijoul (my maternal aunt)
  7. Yijak (my maternal uncle)
  8. Yibaqh (my paternal aunt)
  9. Yigachk (my paternal uncle)
  10. Yirrugouchk (my paternal grandfather)
  11. Yibijouchk (my paternal grandmother)
  12. Yirrouwayits (my dog)
  13. Hija (baby)
  14. Tsek (child)

EMAIL ME if you'd like me to send you an interactive activity using some of these words!

lynnika@wiyot.us

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Eel & Sucker

(Sentences with audio from the August '09 newsletter article)

1.    Gou’daw, gitga gawu lúghurru’l, houdóupshiqu’r.
I'm going to tell you about Eel’s gambling.

2.    Bijilí’, bashíri’.
His fondness for gambling.

3.    Hililh, gitga, gapshí’r gitga.
He said, “I’m going to gamble.”

4.    Hi gitga daqoun chdághajk, gitga daqoun, bashíwou’wilh daqoun.
Then they’re going to, (with) Sucker, they’re going to gamble with each other.

5.    Juwa da gapshi’r, lhegawu gé’luvou’, gawu gé’luvou’, gougawu doulh, wourr vulh húlu’n.
They start to gamble then; finally he starts to lose, he starts to lose, he puts up everything.

6.    Houwútvoukurru’l, gawudou doulh.
He puts up his ribs.

7.    Wourr vulh hulumé’luvilh, dadóu daq.
Everything that he has in his body.

8.    Ji vulh huroudoulh.
He puts it all up.

9.    Ji vulh huluvege’luvóu’, wourr vulh hiruwadóulh vulh, halúnuvilh.
He loses everything, all he put up, his valuables.

10.    Ji vulh wanouq gulak dánimuqu’l, wupdú’l.
All that is not taken from him are his teeth.

11.    Juwá walh vulh, gitga wupdú’l, gitga hi yílilh, gitga juwa walh vulh gou dóu, gitga.
Those too, his teeth, he says, “I’m going to put those up too.”

12.    Wupdú’l, higou doulh.
He puts up his teeth.

13.     Ji walh vulh higou ge’luvóu’.
He loses those too.

14.    Yak sisvóunaga’lhilh, galu wulou’ wupdú’l.
His gums are bare, he has no teeth.

15.    Juwa daqoun hi yílilh, gitga gou lútsuvou’, wupdú’l, gá rruqhawilh gitga vulh, shvi yalilh gitga galu wulou’ wupdú’l.
Then they say, “He should be given back his teeth”; he feels bad about it, he goes around for nothing, his teeth are nowhere to be seen.

16.    Juwa wupdú’l yagou lútsuvou’, juwa vulh hou danúghurruk, wupdú’l, da vulh dálaqlh.
Then his teeth are given back; that’s why after that he has his teeth.

17.    Galu wulóu’ yulh, houwútvoukurru’l, gouts gudughúnu rruq, hou míwi’, bou’m gourá’w.
But he has no ribs; it makes for very nice eating. That's the end!

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Wiyot Very Short Sentences

(Sentences with audio from the July '09 newsletter article)

  1. Da'nitwilh.    (S/he is sleeping.)
  2. Da'bishwilh.  (S/he is counting.)
  3. Darukilh.        (S/he is laughing.)
  4. Da'bourukilh.  (S/he is smiling.)
  5. Daboutsurilh.  (S/he is whistling.)
  6. Daliqlhilh.        (S/he is crying.)
  7. Da'tsuwesilh.  (S/he is shouting.)
  8. Da'soulatlilh.  (S/he is speaking Wiyot.)
  9. Daliwuqhilh.  (S/he is weaving baskets.)

 

Answer Key

(for sentences 1-5 on p. 8 of the July '09 newsletter)

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Wiyot Seasons & Time Words

(Words with audio from the June '09 newsletter article)

 

Days of the Week

  1. dagoushipga'w (Monday)
  2. darritvéwi'gurr (Tuesday)
  3. darrikvéwi'gurr (Wednesday)
  4. dána'véwi'gurr / dárra'méwi'gurr (Thursday)
  5. we'sagh dáhulu véwi'gurr (Friday)
  6. duklhulouk dáhulu véwi'gurr (Saturday)
  7. ha'luw dáhulu véwi'gurr (Sunday)

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Grizzly Bears & Harmonicas

(Words with audio from the May '09 newsletter article)

  1. goutsrróu'l (sugar = 'good-tasting')
  2. hiwa'gurrughutsk (pea = 'little round thing')
  3. wúladítk (peach = 'round fuzzy thing')
  4. bou'chóulhilh (pig = 'he has a pointy nose')
  5. gachwáyichanuwelh (handkerchief = 'it wipes the chin')
  6. tvedgulóu'wul (nail = 'small thing that goes through with an instrument (?)')
  7. tvuplhayóu'wulh (scythe = 'what one uses to go through hairlike objects [grass]')
  8. tvutsguróuwulh (fork = 'instrument that goes through really small things (?)')
  9. tsouwuliyu'n (violin = 'one bows it')
  10. gougóutsurouy (whistle = 'the one that whistles')
  11. wouda'lhabdoununi' (guitar = ???)

 

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Historical & Linguistic Background of Wiyot

The Wiyot language (called Soulátluk' — literally ‘your jaw’ — by some speakers) was the native language of the Wiyot people until the death of Della Prince, the last fluent Wiyot speaker to collaborate with linguists, in 1962. Wiyot is linguistically interesting for several reasons. First, along with Yurok, it is one of only two Algic (also called Algonguian) languages in the Pacific Northwest. Other Algic languages are found in Canada, the Great Lakes region, and the northern Atlantic coast, and include languages like Chippewa, Cree, Cheyenne and Arapaho. (see map below)

Another interesting characteristic of Wiyot is that it is a polysynthetic language, which means that complex ideas — sometimes the equivalent of an entire English sentence — can be expressed using a single verb with multiple prefixes and suffixes. Here are a couple of examples:

a.  gidutiguliswiwilh

gi     dutigulis     wiw     ilh

finish bathe       self     he/she

'S/he finishes bathing himself/herself.'

b.  dagudugunugulhu’n

da               gudugunu     gulh      u’n

for a while      very           hurt        its

'There is a lot of hurting.'

 

Language Materials

There are no remaining fluent speakers of Wiyot (no one alive today grew up speaking Wiyot as their first language). However, there is a great deal of documentation of the Wiyot language that was compiled when the language was still spoken natively. These materials include written word lists, texts, and grammatical descriptions dating from the late 1800’s to the 1960’s, as well as audio recordings of songs, words and phrases, and narrative texts from the 1950’s-1960’s. Here is a sample of what some of the written materials look like:

1. J. Curtin (1889):

2.  G. Reichard (1925):

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. G. Reichard (1922):

4.  Teeter & Nicholls (1993):

Because these documents were created by many different researchers, each of whom had a different system for writing the language, and contain information given by Wiyot speakers from different dialects and time periods, it is a challenge to form a complete picture of the language.

(To fully understand this, imagine that the last English speaker had died several decades ago. Then imagine that the only information we had today about the English language was a dozen or so texts and word lists collected by, say, Swahili-speaking researchers who did not know anything about English spelling. THEN imagine that the English speakers who provided the researchers with their information lived between about 1885 and 1960, and some of them were from Minnesota while others were from South Carolina or New York!

Revitalization

'Language revitalization' refers to efforts to bring endangered languages (languages with very few native speakers) back into broader use in a community by teaching the language to non-fluent or semi-fluent speakers. But can a language with no fluent speakers be brought back into use? It may be more difficult, but Wiyot would not be the first community to try it: revitalization of ‘extinct’ or ‘dormant’ languages (also called ‘language revival’) is underway in the Miami (Oklahoma — also an Algic language) and Mutsun California tribes; and modern Hebrew was revived from religious and traditional texts after centuries during which it was used only ceremonially.

Projects

Current activities

  • Children’s language classes
  • Adult language classes
  • Language committee
  • Multimedia dictionary creation
  • Language articles in the Wiyot newsletter

Plans for the near future

  • Online language-learning resources
  • Digital texts with audio and word-level translation

Long-term goals

  • Creation of a digital database containing ALL known Wiyot words, phrases and texts from manuscript, print, and audio sources
  • Publication of a comprehensive Wiyot-English/English-Wiyot dictionary
  • Training of language teachers within the Wiyot Tribe

Ideas?

If you are a Wiyot tribal member and have ideas or suggestions for learning or using Wiyot, I would love to hear from you at lynnika@wiyot.us or you can call the Reservation office or stop by the Cultural Center.

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Cultural Department -

Elder's Ceremony

The Elders Ceremony was held July 25th, 2009 at Betmet, was attended by a nice crowd. Great food, sharing, and the childrens brush dance...

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