mysemsa they
jamanmantona: from all the mountains around
wi:tammoton came together

Hover over the words above to reveal the meaning of each word.
In the following sentence each morpheme (segment or component) is identified.

-pronoun root-
3rd person
se-suffix-
plural
m-subject-
sa-subject extender-
jàman-noun root-
mountain
mán-redupCVC-
(many mountains)
to-plural subject-
nà:-noun end-
locational/
directional
away.from
wí:-verb root-
several.go
taauxilary
mmoto-verb end-
locational/
directional
move.together
n-verb.final-

They came together from all the mountains around.

Konkow is a poly-synthetic language.

This means it has many different parts that when put together form a new meaning.

The dispersed community that shares interest in this language has many parts with differing connections to it.

A coming together of these many parts would create new meaning for the language.

using this website
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understanding the documentation
understanding Ultan's writing system
An example of the text of Ultan's Orthograpy

California Language Archive is an online catalog of indigenous language materials housed in archives at the University of California, Berkeley. It includes physical and digital materials held by the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, and the Bancroft Library. KMCPA has been working with the CLA for years with training and exchange of information and materials.

sounds of konkow
sounds not in english
b (imploded)
salt
d (imploded)
man or person
májdy
p' (glottalized)
feather
p’ó:t’i
t' (glottalized)
bring something
t’óje
c' (glottalized)
rib
c’íc’i
k' (glottalized)
roundhouse
k’úmi
consonants
p 'pet'
food, anything you eat
péky
t 'tent'
child or son
tútu
k 'kept'
garden, meadow
kójo:
s 'said'
sing
solim
h 'help'
above, up above
hípindi
m 'make'
water
mómi
n 'need'
all by myself
nímwete
l 'lay'
boy
kóleh
w 'when'
It’s medicine.
wénnem
j 'yay'
young man
jémpo:
vowels
i 'key'
all by yourself
mínwete
y ' '
and
ʔàkym
u 'bamboo'
acorn
ʔú:ti
e 'hay'
black
ʔémuli
ǝ 'alone'
pine burr, pine cone
kə́lkəli
o 'snow'
coyote
héno
a 'rah'
fire
sound modifiers
: 'slope'
snow
kó:
ʔ 'uh-oh'
rale, lung TB sound
hoʔoli
é 'primary'
river
séwi
è 'secondary'
cricket
c’ýk’è:ti
glossary of terms
component
: any part of a word - the root or a suffix
deletion
: object case -i object - suffix disappears when it follows a vowel.
imperative
: commands; telling someone to do something
noun
: a word referring to a “person, place, or thing” - the person or item that is doing the action of the verb or has the action of the verb done to them.
object
: sentence part that identifies who/what the action is effecting
reduplication
: repeating part of a root or suffix twice in a row, usually to show that an action is occurring over and over.
postfix
: a word component that comes after other suffixes
prefix
: a word component that comes before the root or stem
preposition
: a class of words forming a phrase that modifies verbs, nouns or adjectives, which expresses a spatial, temporal or other relationship to the term it modifies.
root
: the part of the word containing the main meaning - like ‘person,’ ‘help,’, ‘big’.
subject
: the actor in a sentence
suffix
: endings that get put on the end of a word. Also called verb endings, noun endings, etc.
verb
: a word referring to an action or behavior