'Iipay Aa

About

'Iipay Aa Living Dictionary This is an audio dictionary of 'Iipay Aa (Kumeyaay, also known as Diegueño) with recordings from: Carlos Cuevas (Santa Ysabel) Ted Couro (Mesa Grande) Ramon Ames (Barona) Steve Ponchetti (Santa Ysabel) Nelda Rios (Campo) Rosalie Robertson Pinto (Campo) Christina Hutcheson (Mesa Grande) Jane Thing Dumas (Jamul) Patrick (Pat) Curo (Barona) Samuel (Sam) Brown (Viejas) The main purpose of this dictionary is to be an aid to pronunciation and a quick reference for language learners. Audio found here is from publicly available sources and community contributions. Words we do not have audio for are not included. Lexical descriptions may be incomplete; please consult print resources or master speakers for clarification on the precise meanings of words. This dictionary focuses on the 'Iipay or northern dialects of Kumeyaay. Some words are valid in multiple dialects, sometimes with different meanings, and some words are exclusive to the speaker's dialect. We will try to label words we believe to be specific to a certain dialect. If a word's dialect is not labeled, it is probably acceptable across multiple varieties of 'Iipay. Always look to the speaker to see which dialect a word is from. Support for this project is provided in part by the Sycuan Institute on Tribal Gaming. Our special thanks to Pat Curo and Mandy Curo for contributing to this dictionary. If you are interested in volunteering for this dictionary or would like to submit any questions, comments, or suggestions, you may contact us using this form. Please tell us about your experience using the dictionary so we can work on ways to improve it! Don't forget to share this with everyone you know who wants to learn Kumeyaay. Check back as we continuously update this dictionary with new words. How to Use If you know the exact spelling of the English or Kumeyaay word you want to search for, set the Typo Tolerance to "0" to minimize unwanted results. When searching from English, it is best to…

Grammar

On this page: Part of Speech Singular and Plural Body Parts and Kinship Terms More Information Useful terms 1. Part of Speech Although most entries are labeled for Part of Speech (noun, verb, etc.), it is still important that you are able to determine it on your own, which you can do by the word's English translation. Keep in mind that most Kumeyaay words are verbs, and almost all Kumeyaay verbs can become nouns, even without modification, in the right context. Kumeyaay verbs do not have an infinitive form (e.g. to do, to be, to make), so the standard dictionary entry is the third-person singular and is translated as such (does, is, makes). Kumeyaay also does not have adjectives as a word class, but uses verbs to fill the role served by adjectives in English. Use the following examples to help determine part of speech: Kumeyaay word and translation: 'aashaa kwilaaw, "mockingbird" Part of speech: Since "mockingbird" cannot be a verb in English, this word is a noun. Kumeyaay word and translation: chemaa, "tastes" Part of speech: The English word "tastes" does not make sense as a noun, except in certain contexts, and the entry does not have notes stating that the word is a plural. Rather, it looks like the third-person singular form (he/she/it) of the verb "to taste", which is how Kumeyaay verb translations are usually written. Thus, this word is a verb. (Note that the true translation of "chemaa" is "he/she/it tastes (it)" or "he/she/it tasted (it)") Kumeyaay word and translation: 'all, "wide" Part of speech: The English word "wide" does not make sense as a noun or a verb, but appears to be an adjective. We know that Kumeyaay does not have adjectives, but that all adjectives in Kumeyaay are verbs. Therefore, the word 'all is a verb meaning "is wide" (we leave off the "is" in the translation section). 2. Singular and Plural Verbs and nouns in this dictionary are in the singular form unless otherwise specified. Plural verbs will be translated as "they ___", and plurals…