Introduction to the Lessons, 1st Edition
The following lessons have several goals. The first is to help non-linguists understand the grammar of the Konkow language, as spoken by Konkow speakers Leland Scott and Elmer Smith, and described in linguistic terms by Russell Ultan in his 1967 dissertation.
Second, we hope these lessons will help Konkow people to be able to read, listen and pronounce the Konkow language as written by Ultan, and ultimately to hear with some level of understanding the recordings as well.
Third, the lessons will help you learn how to use the website - to search the database and online dictionaries to listen to and study the texts, and explore all the functions of the website.
Fourth and most important, we hope these lessons will help Konkow people learn how to speak the Konkow language. Understanding the grammar helps learners be able to combine vocabulary into new sentences, to say what they want to say. But we also present here a second body of Konkow documentation that will be especially useful for learning how to speak conversationally: the videos of Mary Jones collected by Brian Bibby in the 1980s. Each lesson will direct you to one or more of her tapes, that will show you words and phrases to help you apply the contents of the lesson to conversation.
Our lessons include exercises and games to help you practice and master the materials. We also provide templates of flash cards that you can print out and use for study, exercises and more games. We have worked through and edited these lessons many times, yet every time we find something that needs to be changed. So anything you find that is wrong or confusing, please let us know! Corrections and improvements, along with additional lessons, will be included in the 2nd edition.
Follow the links below to learn more about the individual lessons. Here is a link to all of the vocabulary lists for the lessons vocabulary
This lesson familiarizes learners with the sounds of Konkow.
There are a few sounds we do not have in English and those are the focus of examples, exercises and a game.
Konkow commands are the topic of this lesson. Present, future, singular and plural imperatives are covered.
In this lesson we use examples from the story of Coyote and the Turtle Girls to show how
subjects and objects can be in any order in Konkow.
In this lesson we look at the various parts of a Konkow Noun.
Roots and suffixes, vowel harmony and reduplication are three of the topics discussed in the exercises.
This lesson focuses on an important concept which ties noun phrases together. Motion, Location and other noun endings comprise the content of this lesson.
There is a Placecard activity which can be used with two or more people, depicting a Konkow basket and soaproot brush.
the Konkow Verb
The focus of this lesson is on Konkow demonstratives like the English words for this, that and those.
Color coded charts and graphics are used to learn the most common Konkow pronouns in this lesson.
Color coded flashcard games help reinforce the concepts.
This lesson discusses person and number marking on verbs
The topic of this lesson is questions and how to form them in Konkow.
The topic of this lesson is negatives and how to form them in Konkow.
