Lesson #6: Sik bremaŋ, ɨnam ekam ko qibaŋ

Lesson 6: Sik bremaŋ, ɨnam ekam qo qibaŋ

Goal: Students introduced to Ket seasons and nomadizing patterns.  Learn cardinal and ordinal numbers to twenty, as well as months of the year.

Vocab
Time, season: Brema (from Russian vremja)
Month, moon: Qib
Every: Kasna
Day's journey: Itaŋ (i' "day" + taŋ "drag")
Year: Sɨ
Autumn: Qogd(i)
Winter: Kət
Spring: ɨr
Summer: Sil
Cold: Ta'j
Hunting grounds: Kəjbaŋ kə'j "go out" + ba'ŋ "earth"
Together: Qujbaŋ
Now: En

Numbers:
1: Qus, Quk
2: ɨn
3: doŋ
4: Sik
5: Qak
6: As
7: O'n (this word also means "many")
8: ɨnam bənsaŋ qo (lit. two from ten)
9: qusam bənsaŋ qo
10: qo
20: e'k

Months: There are two ways to name the months in Ket: the first is to use the recent Russian loan + qib.  But that's no fun, and it keeps us from learning about what happened at different times throughout the traditional Ket year.

January: Qà holan eqŋ qib "The big short-days month"

February: Qaetaŋ qib "the elk migration month" (qaj "elk" + itaŋ "day of nomadizing" + qib)

March: Diqib "eagle month" (di' "eagle")

April: Qonɨb "chipmunk month" (qo'p "chipmunk)

May: Qudebəlqib "Pike Spawning Month"

June: Danqib "Grass month".  Unfortunately, this was also known as qalas qib "tribute month".

July: The first half was known as Kubənnaqib "dabbling ducks' month".  The second half was Ulbənna qib "diving ducks' month".  Also, su-sil qib "midsummer month" or Sulaŋtaŋ qib "white salmon fishing month"

August: Sujdəqŋ qib "mosquitoes-living month", or Eltij qib "berry-picking month"

September: əŋdeqŋqib "falling leaves month"

October: Ba'ŋtelqib "earth-freezing month"

November: Tabeiŋqib "dogs-hunting month"

December: Həna holan eqŋ qib "the small short-days month"

Grammar: Ket numerals can be suffixed to predicate form with "-am" with the meaning "it is" when standing by themselves (for instance, when counting we can say "qusam, ɨnam, doŋam...".  We can also use this with interrogative Anun "how many", but if we say the name of the thing we're counting, we drop -am suffix.  For example:

A: Tune isan anun? ("How many fish are those?")

B: Doŋam. ("Three of them")

But:

A: Tune isan anun?

B: Tune doŋ isan. ("Those are three fish")

Ordinal numbers add the nominalizer -s to the predicate.  This gives us words like qusamas "first", ekamas "twentieth", etc.  

For constructions between 11 and 17, we can say (number) ekam qo "beyond ten".  18 and 19 are subtracted from twenty the same way 8 and 9 are from ten.  Therefore, sikam ekam qo "fourteen", asam ekam qokamas "sixteenth", qusam bənsaŋ ekam "there are nineteen".

Lesson: Read this piece about the Ket year, and answer the questions.  Keep an eye out for adessive postposition -diŋta, which as we've discussed is often used instead of locative when discussing some non-sentient location.  There's a translation into English after the questions, but don't look at it unless you really need it!

Ostɨkanna Utis Deŋna Sɨ: Qukamas brema ɨr.  Ostɨganna utis de'ŋ qusqa dukadaqan.  ɨnamas brema sil.  Kasna sil de'ŋ aseleneŋqa dukadaqan.  Sil suj baŋdiŋta, haj utis de'ŋ sesdiŋta.  Qogd, kət haj ɨr buŋ hɨssejdiŋnta.  Doŋamas brema qogd.  En utis de'ŋ haj qusqa.  Sikamas brema kət.  Kət qà ta'j!  Am haj dɨlgit baŋŋusqa dukadakan.  Ob haj qà higbiséèbaŋ bən qaseŋ--buŋ kəjbaŋdiŋta.

1. Kasna qogd utis de'ŋ aseleneŋqa dukadaqan?

2. Ostɨkan kasna sil biseŋ?

3. Sil baŋdiŋta akus?

4. Kasna kət baŋŋusqa anetaŋ?

5. Kət ob, qà higbiséèbaŋ biseŋ?

English:

A Ket Family's Year: The first season is spring.  Every spring the Ket family lives in a birchbark teepee.  The second season is summer.  Every summer people live in houseboats.  In summer mosquitoes are on the land, and the family is on the river.  In fall, winter and spring they're in the forest.  Now, also, the family lives in a birchbark teepee.  The fourth season is winter.  Winter is very cold!  The mother and kids stay in the earthen shelter.  Dad and the older brothers aren't there--they're at the hunting grounds.

Homework: Here are some number questions.  I've phrased them as simple math problems, e.g. "how much is three from seven?".  Try to find the proper names for the numbers, even if the true ket name for the number translates to something like "two from ten!"  (Hint: remember that ekam "beyond, plus" is different from ekam "there are twenty".  You can tell which is which by position in the sentence.)

1. Sikam bənsaŋ ekam anun?

2. Onam ekam asam anun?

3. Doŋam ekam qo anun?

4. ɨnam bənsaŋ onam anun?

5. qusam bənsaŋ qo bənsaŋ qakam ekam qo anun?

Lesson 5: B'utis Deŋna Iŋŋus

Lesson 5: B'utis Deŋna Iŋŋus

Goal: Students are exposed to possessive postposition and first verb -daq “to live”. Reading comprehension and recognition of errors therein.

Vocabulary: Here is a list of new words you will encounter in today's reading.

• Habta—it is located
• Eluk—Yelogui River
• Eŋŋuŋ—Village
• Dateŋ(s)—Clean (one)
• Kət—Winter
• Ovɨlde—One way of saying “it was”
• Us(am)—(It is) warm
• Bokkɨt—Heat (bo'k: fire)
• Teŋgat—Oven
• Qak—five
• Usaŋ: sleeping, asleep
• Dejbokoin—I'm still working this one out. It appears to be a transitive verb. Here is my best guess at a gloss: Dej- “3p.SJ”, -b- “3p.dirOBJ”, -oko- “nonpast tense” -in “verb stem”. I've been looking in Werner's dictionary for something like this, but have only found the verb for “to hide” in, which wouldn't really make sense in this context. It must be something that has to do with naming, since it goes between bu “he” and a proper name. I probably just don't know enough Ket.
• Kalavels—guard

Grammar:

The first thing to talk about this lesson is the possessive postposition, which functions similarly to the locative, but has several different forms that we need to remember. Here is a chart of the endings.

Masc. Singular	Masc. Plural	Fem. Singular	Fem. Plural	Inan. Singular	Inan. Plural
-da, as in Siragatsda “teacher's”	-na, as in Siragatsanna “teachers'”	-d(i), as in Qimsiragatsdi “female teacher's”	-na, as in Qimsiragatsanna “female teachers'”	-d(i), as in suuldi “sled's”	-d, as in “suulaŋd” “sleds'”

Next, let's look at our first verb. Unlike any other verb system in the area, Yeniseian (and therefore Ket) verbs use a prefixing, rather than suffixing, system. This is one of the strongest evidences of a possible connection to the Na-Dene languages of North America. There are eight “slots” which we can use to modify verbs, but don't worry—we won't tackle all of them at once. Today we'll look at the verb -daq “to live, stay”. First let's start by looking at a fully conjugated example of the verb.

Buŋ du-ga-daq-an hɨssej-qa

They 3pPl.-NONPAST-live-Pl. forest-LOC

“They live in the forest.”

As you can see, the conjugation occurs in the first part of the verb, followed by tense, followed by the verb stem itself. Many verbs include the de facto stem earlier in the verb (position 7, to be exact, but you needn't remember this now), as a result of being surrounded by suffixing-verb languages for thousands of years, but the important thing is to remember that Yeniseic roots have historically been toward the end of the verb.

Here is a present-tense conjugation chart for -daq. (A reminder: intervocalic /-d-/ surfaces as [-ɾ-], /-k-/ as [-ɣ-], and /-q-/ as [-ʁ-]! Make sure your pronunciation is good.)

At di-ka-daq “I live”	Ətn di-ka-daq-an “we live”
U ku-ka-daq “You live”	Əkŋ ku-ka-daq-an “You all live”
Bu du-ka-daq “he lives”, də-ka-daq “she/it lives”	Buŋ du-ka-daq-an “they live”

So, as you can see, Ket verbs are not that difficult with practice. The first part of the verb marks conjugation, and -ka- marks nonpast tense. Below is the past tense for -daq:

At di-ol-daq “I lived”	Ətn di-ol-daq-an “We lived”
U ku-ol-daq “You lived”	Əkŋ ku-ol-daq-an “You all lived”
Bu du-ol-daq “he lived”,	Buŋ du-ol-daq-an “They lived”

In this case the past is marked by -ol-.

Please note that this is only one form of intransitive verb, but for now try to memorize these conjugations and patterns.

Lesson: This reading assignment was taken from Nikolaeva's 3rd-Grade Ket Reader. See the bottom of the text for full citation. Although this is good basic practice, the Ket in this reading is highly Russianized—we can tell that it's a word-for-word translation from Russian (not to say that my own Ket would be any better! I'm still a beginner.) For example, the title of the piece is Iŋŋus Ovaŋna “my parents' house”, but really would sound more like “house my parents'” to a totally fluent Ket speaker. Compare with this lesson's title, B'utis Deŋna Iŋŋus “My family's house”. The reason for the faulty word order in the title is clear if you're a Russian speaker, as Dom roditelej “parents' house”, lit. “house parent.GEN-pl”. That said, here is the text, with an English translation below. Try not to look at the English until you've made an effort to understand everything on your own!

Iŋŋus Ovaŋna: Ətna iŋŋus--iŋŋus ovaŋna habta ulbanŋtdiŋa Eluk eŋŋuŋ Kellog.  Iŋŋus qà haj dateŋs.  

Kət ovɨlde qà usam.  Bokkɨt, iŋŋus qà təŋŋat.  Kiseŋ dukadaq qak de'ŋ: Op, Am, Qip, Qima haj at.

 Ətna usaŋ tip.  Bu dejbokoin Sobol.  Sobol aqta kalabels.

The House of My Parents: Our house—the house of my parents stands on the shore of the Yelugui, in the village of Kellog. The house is a big, clean one. In winter it was very warm. The house is heated by a big oven. Here live five people: Dad, Mom, Grandpa, Grandma and I. Our dog is asleep. He is named (dejbokoin?) Sable. Sable is a good guard.

Homework: Look at the verb "live" in the text.  Is it conjugated properly?  If not, conjugate it as it should be done.  Whether or not you think it is conjugated properly, explain your reasoning.

Source: Nikolaeva, G., and V. Bondareva. Der' Knigaŋ. St. Petersburg: Publishing Branch "Education", 2002. 4. Print.

Changes in Orthoraphy

From now on, my orthography for tones is as follows:

High Even: vowel without diacritic, e.g. at "I"
Rising/Falling: double vowel, e.g. suul "sled"
Falling: down-tone marker, e.g. sèl "reindeer"
Glottalized: apostrophe, e.g. a't "bone, relative"