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A World of Variety: Ktunaxa
Posted Wed, March 25, 2009 - 9:18 PM
language, nativeamerica
Ktunaxa, better known as Kootenai, is currently spoken by less than a dozen people in the world. Its original range was the far northwestern corner of Montana and the panhandle of Idaho, extending north into interior British Columbia. It is not known to be related to any other languages in the region or anywhere else in the world. Like many languages in west central North America, it's heavy on consonants and consonant clusters.
This is this story of Coyote and the Seven Maidens, from Ktunaxa Community Portal at First Voices. To paraphrase a typically understated line from Fargo, I'd say that well... it's kind of a bad deal for Coyote, then.
Skinqu¢ ¢ Naʔutinin̓tik
qa·naxi skinku¢ ¢. Saq̓yuǂiʔitsi ¢ qanaǂ yunaxi. ʔumis n̓insi wuʔus. Skikq̓nuksi ¢ qanakiǂwi¢kikni.
qus sakiǂ kǂinq̓uyamisni qus ʔintas. taxas ¢̕inaxi. ¢̕in̓aǂ ʔunaxi. taxas wukatiǂni qus paǂ n̓ini.
taxas naqwiǂnamisni. taxas paǂ k̓upsnam. taxas k¢̕inam. taxas ʔat qakyamisni. "mak skaǂuq̓yuǂiʔtit ʔiʔi skinku¢ hi ya ha. Hu ¢ saǂititna·ǂaʔni ¢ ʔiʔi skinku¢ ʔi ya ha"
taxas naǂq̓aǂ haqwiǂni. taxas ¢̕ikaǂ haqwiǂnamisni. taxas naǂq̓aǂ haqwiǂni.
ha taxas n̓ik¢xunaǂkaʔni ¢. naq̓mawi¢kniǂni ¢ nawi¢kinkaʔni. ǂa ʔiǂiqaǂ haqwiǂnamisni. taxas ¢mak̓wi¢kniǂni ¢. ha ¢ taxas ǂa huǂqa¢amisni wuʔus. "maqak ka ʔiǂqa!" "¢ kiʔin qapsin ʔiǂiqaʔnis."
¢ kiʔin qapsin. ha taxas n̓aǂukaxwati ¢ Snaǂ hawasxuʔmik. ha taxas n̓ik¢inuqkniǂni. n̓upni. taxas ǂ qaqasni.
Coyote and the Seven Maidens
One day, Coyote went for a walk up to the top of a mountain. When he reached the top, he looked east down a forest filled slope, when his eyes glimpsed a fresh water lake. This caught his curiosity and so he headed down to the lake.
When he had gotten close enough, he could see that in the lake were seven women wading around in it. They were singing a song. So he listened closer and to his surprise, the women were singing to him! He thought, "I better make sure that they are singing to me."
Cautiously, Coyote made his way along the mountain. He strained his ears to hear better and then he heard very clearly. The women were singing very loud now, "He is walking along the side of the mountain. It is Coyote. He is going to be our husband!"
He then paused to listen a while and thought to himself, "They are pretty cute." So he proceeded down to the seven women who were exciting him with their singing.
When he reached them, a couple of attractive women grabbed hold of Coyote on each arm. They then started to dance, in a rhythmic movement with their future husband. They danced him right into the lake. Coyote begged them to wait so that he could remove his pants, but the women just would not listen to his pleas. They continued to dance and they danced until Coyote drowned.
Little did Coyote know that he was tricked, for these seven women were not really women. They were hungry water monsters in diguise. The end.