Runulodu Yere 1

This next text is a translation of Dirk Elzinga’s version of the Eye-Juggler, with words borrowed from his language.

Text: Runulodu Yere

Text and Translation

Peya runus Tabuninda indanda yereno. Nakemeya nataronda nadurondara, udures elo, eta aŋaka, narunukavas rusurusu eka. Peyas koyo yeredo kuŋino. Zeye luvunen sadurunuse. Sakemeya sataronda sadurunora, udures halo. Sekotas hatato. Saya ranarana sekoteŋe, sadurunu atada hape baŋibaŋi. Tabuninda indaya rinive, samas rinirinive. Nurunen Peyaŋina, naŋakadu sama dimidimi sarana. Nadu sapenda pezes sara. Saya ŋuyanda sama talile duruno hame. Alas ŋuyago Peya durunuseye kodu.

Coyote saw Cottontail’s children’s game. They took their two eyes from their faces with their fingers and tossed them up into the air, and then they (the eyes) came down, and they caught them again and again in their eye sockets. Coyote desired to play this game. His eyes were dark and shiny. He took his two eyes from his face with his fingers and tossed them up into the air. They stopped on a sekota tree. He shook the sekota tree, but his eyes did not come down. Cottontail’s children laughed, they mocked him. Coyote started to move with anger, he started to chase after them. Since he failed to get them, he left. He made new eyes out of sap. And so Coyote’s eyes are like sap (yellowish) now.

Interlinear and Explanation

Peya runus Tabuninda indanda yereno.

Coyote saw Cottontail’s children’s game.

Here is the inalienable possession construction for the possessor::body part, and the alienable possession construction to convey kinship, and the standard way to convey experiencing by seeing using COME with an eye as the attained destination.

The names Peya and Tabuni are borrowed from Dirk.

Nakemeya nataronda nadurondara, udures elo, eta aŋaka, narunukavas rusurusu eka.

They took their two eyes from their faces with their fingers and tossed them up into the air, and then they (the eyes) came down, and they caught them again and again in their eye sockets.

I mentioned in the short grammar sketch that “number is obligatory only in pronouns and rational animate nouns. All other nouns are neutral in regards to number and can be read as either singular or plural.” There are four exceptions: inanimate nouns that can show number. They are all body parts. They are: runu ‘eye’, sara ‘ear’, kasa ‘hand’, and bana ‘foot’. They have dual forms: duruno (actually durunu with vowel decay), sazara, kagasa, bavana, formed by partial reduplication. They also have plural of the dual forms: duronda, sazanda, kaganda, bavanda. The dual is used when needing to reference the parts as pairs and the plural of the dual is used to reference multiple pairs. The singular is used as the attained destination of an experience, even when the possessor is plural. All three forms appear in this story.