Culture lessons: Things Chinuk Wawa doesn’t do (Part 7: what does “is” mean?)
Talking Jargon means you never have to say “is” 😁
Image credit: Tulsa Kids
Well actually, much like the popular phrase “love means never having to say you’re sorry“, that’s not 100% accurate.
So now I’ll explain when you do & when you don’t have to say “is/am/are/was/were/been” in Chinuk Wawa.
Short story:
- Do say “is”, if you mean míɬayt.
- Otherwise, don’t say any words at all to express “is”.
Easy enough, yeah?
So, what does míɬayt mean?
- [intransitive]
- ‘Exist (i.e. “there is/are ___”);
- be located (there), stay (there), live (there), sit (there)’.
- [this same word is used transitively, meaning ‘to have’, which doesn’t concern us today]
Examples:
- (southern dialect) ɬas miɬayt, ixt lamiyay pi ya kʰwiʔim
‘They were (i.e. lived) there, an old lady and her grandchild.’- (northern dialect) sitkum kʰapa ukuk ilihi miɬayt makwst stik
‘In the middle of that place there were two trees’
And what does míɬayt not mean?
‘Be (something or someone); be (a certain way/quality)’.
Examples (*asterisked* to show they can’t mean “is” etc.):
- *nayka miɬayt man* to mean *’I am a man’*
(this phrase would have to mean ‘I have a husband’;
to express ‘I am a man’ you say man nayka)- *ukuk ɬuchmən yaka miɬayt ɬush* to mean ‘that woman is good’
(this phrase would have to mean ‘that woman is living well/getting along okay’;
to express ‘that woman is good’ you say ɬush ukuk ɬuchmən)
I’m going to leave it as simple as that.
This should answer all questions forever.
But I honestly expect I’ll keep running into newer learners who still make some mistakes with this…
Until you stop translating English to Jargon in your head, and start thinking more in Jargon, that will happen!
