Oneida (Onʌyotaʔa:ka)
tsy (before vowels) or tsi (before consonants)= [d̠ʒ] as in "jump".
tshy (before vowels) or tshi (before consonants) = [t̠ʃ] as in "church".
sy = [ʃ] as in "shore".
s between two vowels is always pronounced [z] as in "zone".
ʔ is the glottal stop.
STATEMENTS (
Oneida teaching grammar, by Clifford Abbot, page 22)
lotunháhehle = He is happy.
lo- is the prefix for third-person singular masculine subject.
Amos lotunháhehle or
lotunháhehle Amos = Amos is happy.
hetshlo•lí Amos = Tell Amos!
The prefix
hets- means "you to him".
YES-NO QUESTIONS
kʌ = this particle is an easy way to turn statements into yes-no questions. It occupies the second place in the sentence:
sanúhte = You know?
sanúhte kʌ = Do you know?
"WHO" QUESTIONS (page 23)
úhkaʔ náhteʔ or simply
úhkaʔ means "who?". The verb is in the third-person singular feminine:
úhkaʔ náhteʔ yakonúhte = Who knows?
yako- is the third-person objective singular pronoun prefix (yakonúhte = She knows)
NEGATIVE STATEMENTS (page 23)
yah (before the verb) +
teʔ- (prefixed to the verb; te- before an h or s):
yah teʔyakonúhte = She does not know
yah teʔwakanúhte = I don't know.
yah tehonúhte = He doesn't know.
The letter l- of the prefix
lo- becomes -h- after the negative particle
yah.
Creek (Mvskoke)
r = [ɬ] - voiceless alveolar lateral fricative.
Short vowels | Long vowels | [/tr]v = /a/ | a = /a:/ |
e = /ı/ - /i/ | ē = /i:/ |
o = / o/ | o = /o:/ |
[tr]u = /u/ | i = /e:/ |
The letter "o" represents both a short vowel and a long one.
TONES
Key syllables "governs the tone levels of the syllables around it" (page 19). There are "always key" syllables. Apart from these ones, all the other syllables can be "key syllables". In words without "always key" syllables, we have to determine which syllable is the key syllable. In order to do that, we have to know which syllables are "light" and which syllables are "heavy".
a. Light syllables are composed of: 1. short vowel; 2. consonant + short vowel;3. short vowel + consonant: efv = e-fv (two light syllables); coko = co-ko (two light syllables; "o" can be either light or heavy; in this word, it is light); este= es-te (two light syllables).
b. Heavy syllables are composed of: 1. long vowel; 2. consonant + long vowel; 3. consonant + either long or short vowel + consonant: ayo = a-yo ( heavy syllables + light syllable, because the letter "o" is long in this word); hēyvn = hē-yvn (two heavy syllable); wakkes = wa-kes (two heavy syllables).
A. WORDS WITH ONLY LIGHT SYLLABLES (without "fixed key syllables") (page 19)
In words that are made up only of light syllables, "the last even-numbered light syllable plays the role of the key syllable" (page 19). But we have to distinguish two groups of such words:
1. When the last even-numbered light syllable is the penultimate syllable, then this "key syllable" has a tone which is higher than the tone of the other syllables. Example:
cvpvwv (three light syllables). In this word, the last even-numbered light syllable is the second syllable (-pv-). Since it is the penultimate, it has a higher tone than the first and the last syllable. The tones in cvpvwv are i-2-d (2 is the highest tone, "i" is a slightly lower tone than the following tone, and "d" is a very low tone). I think it is like fa♯-sol-do in music notation (I use the Italian names) or F♯-G-C in English. The book I study doesn't treat tone by resorting to music.
2. "When the last even-numbered light syllable is the last syllable in the word" (page 20), the key syllable is the last syllable in the word. In this case, all the syllable have the same low tone. Examples:
cofe (two light-syllables) - the tones are 3-3 (the tone 3 is lower than the tone 2; fa-fa or F-F in musical notation).
vmefuce (four light syllables) - the tones are i-3-3-3 (maybe like mi-fa-fa-fa or E-F-F-F in music). The initial syllable has a slightly lower tone.
B. WORDS WITH LIGHT AND HEAVY SYLLABLES (page 21)
To determine which is the key syllable in words that contain some heavy syllables and end in a light syllable, we have to check how many light syllables follow the last heavy syllable.
1. If only one light syllable follows the last heavy syllable, "then stress and higher tone will be placed on the penultimate heavy syllable" (the authors tell us here that the key syllable has a higher tone and also a stress). Examples:
honvnwv (ho-nvn-wv; light-heavy-light). The tones are i-2-d (maybe fa♯-sol-do or F♯-G-C). The higher tone is on the penultimate syllable (-nvn-), which is a heavy one. The first syllable has an "i" tone, that is, a tone which is slightly lower than the following tone; the last syllable has a "d" tone - a very low tone.
hoporrenkv (ho-por-ren-kv; light-heavy-heavy-ligh). The tones are: i-3-2-d. (maybe like mi-fa-sol-do, E-F-G-C in music). The "penultimate (and heavy) syllable" is -ren-. It is thus the key syllable, and it carries the highest tone.
2. If more than one syllable follow the last heavy syllable, the final even-numbered light syllable is the key-syllable - counting from the last heavy syllable forward. Examples:
tafvmpuce (light-heavy-light-light). The tones are i-3-3-3. The key syllable is -ce-, because it is the final even-numbered light syllable (counting from the last heavy syllable forward). The situation is similar to A.2.
mvhakv-cuko (light-heavy-light-light-light). The tones are i-3-3-2-d (this is similar to A.1). The key syllable is -cu-.
“ALWAY KEY" SYLLABLES (page 22) (I will treat this topic in a next post).
Blackfoot (Aamsskáápipikani)
PLURALS
Nouns are divided into animate and inanimate. This division is not "logical": humans and animals are animate, but some "things" like stars are animate too. The situation is like the one we find in the notion of "grammatical gender" in the Romance languages.
Plural of animate nouns: -ix. [-iks]. ímita (dog) - ímitaix (dogs).
Plural of inanimate: -isz [ist͡s]. kos (cup) - kosisz (cups).
VERBS:
sumosi (it drops final i) "to get water"
-t- is epenthetic; -ái- is the "progressive" marker.
nitáisumos' (ni-t-ái-sumos') = I am getting water.
kitáisumos' (ki-t-ái-sumos') = you are getting water.
áisumosiw (ái-sumosi-w) = he/she/it is getting water.
áisumosinai (ái-sumosi-nai) = "fourth person" is getting water.
nitáisumosihpinan (ni-t-ái-sumosi-hpinan) = we - exclusive - are getting water ("Inclusive" means "we but not the addresee(s)").
áisumosiop (ái-sumosi-op) = we - inclusive - are getting water (= we and the addressee(s)).
kitáisumosihpuwaw (ki-t-ái-sumosi-hpuwaw) = you all are getting water.
áisumosiaw (ái-sumosi-aw) = they are getting water