These are the new vocabulary words we introduce in this lesson.
A word in Konkow may have several parts to it each of which contributes to the meaning of the word. We’ll call these parts “components.” (In Ultan’s work, they are called “morphemes.”)
Many of these suffixes are used with extended or metaphorical meaning as well.
-nak can be used to talk about time, as in
núktinàk 'for a little while' (núkti means 'little'),
or for numbers, as in
máhc'oknak sá:p'y 'thirteen' (literally 'toward 10, 3).
-na: can be used like an instrumental, as in
pétina:sa wó:non
'He died from poison'.
Words can be nouns or verbs, pronouns, demonstratives, adverbs, or what Ultan calls “minor words”. Which kind of word they are will determine what kinds of suffixes they can take. A noun, for example, can have “case” suffixes – suffixes that tell us what the role of the noun is in the sentence.
We will talk about the suffixes that go on verbs in later lessons. In this lesson we will focus on noun suffixes.
The subject suffix -m (-im) and object suffix -i that were discussed in the lesson on simple sentences are case suffixes– the subject case and object case. Below are those and some other case suffixes
And here are some more case suffixes, that go better with inanimate nouns:
this also translates as “with” sometimes, so don’t confuse it with the ‘with’ that means ‘accompanying.’
Many of these suffixes are used with extended or metaphorical meaning as well. -nak can be used to talk about time, as in núktinàk ‘for a little while’ (núkti means ‘little’), or for numbers, as in máhc’oknak sá:p’y ‘thirteen’ (literally ‘toward 10, 3). -na: can be used like an instrumental, as in pétina:sa wó:non ‘He died from poison’.
Besides case suffixes, there are other suffixes that can go on nouns as well, that talk about number (two, many, a group) or special quality (little):
You can put more than one suffix together in a noun. The suffixes about number or quality will always come before the case suffixes.
In the first sentence, the suffix is -be: instead of -beh because the (h) is dropped before some consonants, leaving an elongated vowel. In the second sentence above, the subject marker is -om. Why isn’t it -im? There is a process called vowel harmony that changes i to be like the vowel that precedes it.
This only happens when the consonant between the two vowels is k or k’.
review lesson points
Put the correct suffix on each of the nouns below, using the English sentence to guide you.
The the house.
The two red tail hawks are courting.
The are courting.
Many women have jobs nowadays.
have jobs nowadays.
He cut the wood with an axe.
He cut the wood .
The woman walked with her dog.
The woman walked .
The tree is rather close to the house.
c’a-diky the house.
tree-close.to the house.
The two red tail hawks are courting.
lele-c’ok’o-m are courting.
red.tail.hawks-two-subject are courting.
Many women have jobs nowadays.
jy:py-nono have jobs nowadays.
woman-many have jobs nowadays.
He cut the wood with an axe.
He cut the wood lá:se-ni
He cut the wood axe-with.
The woman walked with her dog.
The woman walked sý:-k'an
The woman walked dog-with.
Translate these words and phrases into Konkow, using noun roots from this and earlier lessons.
Translate the following sentences into Konkow, using the right suffix or suffixes for each noun. Remember that the typical word order is Subject Object Verb. And don’t forget to put the -n on the verbs.
The fish swam toward the woman.
The young man walked with Coyote.
The woman’s daughter grabbed the acorn.
The group of deer watched the river.
The two girls saw many deer.
The little bear clapped his hands.
Using the vocabulary you know so far (including from lessons 1, 2 and 3), see if you can make your own sentences using these suffixes on other nouns.
This one may have been pretty hard. Did you remember to use Subject-Object-Verb order? Did you remember that these suffixes go on the verbs, not the nouns?
The fish swam close to the deer.
máko-m jý:py-nak pípa:-n.
fish-subject woman.toward swim-verb.final
The man walked with a coyote.
májdy-(i)m hénoj-kan ʔýno-n.
man-subject coyote-with move.along-verb.ending
The woman’s daughter grabbed all the acorns.
jý:py-k’i kýla:te-m mé:-n ú:tinono.
woman-possessive daughter-subject grab-verb.final acorn-many (object)
The group of deer watched the river.
sými-kyto-m sewi c’e-n.
deer-group-subject river (object) look-verb.final
The two girls saw many deer.
jý:py-c’ok’ sými-nono c’e-n
girl-dual deer(object)-many see-verb.final
Two girls clapped their hands.
jý:py-c’ok’ máhwo-n
girl-dual clap.hands-verb.final
Using the vocabulary you know so far (including from lessons 1 and 2), see if you can make sentences using these suffixes on other nouns.
You can see a complete set of all noun and verb suffixes in the Noun Endings and Verb Endings charts on the website. If you thought there were a lot of noun endings to learn, wait til we get to verbs!
Identifying words in the Turtle Girls story.
Go through “Coyote and the Turtle Girls”, and find ten individual
nouns that have at least one of the
suffixes described in this chapter.
You can listen to recordings of the story line-by-line and follow along with
the written text. Two examples from “Turtle Girls Analysis” are given in
the chart below. See if you can complete the rest of the chart with different
nouns, underlining the suffix(es) you recognize. How many of the noun endings
you saw today can you find? Always try to say out loud the words and passages
that you read or write.
Identifying roots and suffixes in nouns
Navigate to the CHARTS page on konkow.org.
Click on the link for NOUN SUFFIXES. Scroll through the chart and click on
suffixes that interest you, to see a sample
word or sentence using it. (Try to say those sentences out loud.) In each case,
write the noun that has that suffix below (you don't have to write the whole sentence.)
The first one is completed for you, with suffixes seperated by dashes. In the example, the rule for vowel harmony applies. If you find nouns that exhibit vowel harmony or h- dropping.
Reduplication
Some nouns (and
verbs too) have
reduplicated roots (a
syllable repeated twice).
Go to the Audio dictionary under SEARCHES and scroll through the alphabetic
listings and see if you can locate any examples of
reduplication. Write the examples below.
The first is completed for you. Underline any affixes you recognize.
- 1. In general, the Konkow word consists of a root and one or more suffixes.
- 2. We talked about three types of noun suffixes:
- case suffixes;
- suffixes about number or quality;
- suffixes that change a verb into a noun.
- 3. Some suffixes can be put on verbs to turn them into nouns.
- 4. The case suffixes are:
-(i)m subject-i (or ∅) object-k’i possessive case-k’an comitative case (“with”)-ni instrumental-di in, on, at-dyki rather close to-nak motion toward a goal-na: motion away from
- 5. Suffixes about number or quality
-beh little, young-c’ok’ two-nono many (3 or more)-kyto a group
- 6. Suffixes that change a verb into a noun
-ky one that does the action of the verb
- 7. Order of suffixes: A noun can have more than one suffix. Case suffixes occur last in the word. The other suffixes are close to the root, preceding the case suffix.
- 8. (h)-dropping and
vowel harmony: two rules that can change
the shape of a suffix.
-beh little, young
changes to -be: at the end of a word or before the last consonant in a word, and before certain suffixes. This same rule applies to other suffixes that have an h at the end.
-(i)m subjectthe vowel changes to whatever the previous vowel is
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