SSBMI Language Department

Nisenan-Miwok Bingo - March 30, 2024

In March 2024, the SSBMI Language Department hosted its first Nisenan-Miwok Bingo where we played Bingo in Nisenan and Miwok while learning the two languages together.

Instead of using standard Bingo cards that use letters ("B", "I", "N", "G", "O") and numbers, we designed our own Bingo cards that feature numbers ("1", "2", "3", "4", "5") and animals. At Nisenan-Miwok Bingo, we called out a number followed by the name of an animal, first in Nisenan and then in Miwok, to let players know how to cover their Bingo cards.

For example, if we called out...

Sapwíy, Wistakták (Nisenan)

Tolóokosu, Wíṭṭapɨ (Miwok)

...then players would cover Robin (Wistakták/Wíṭṭapɨ) in the "3" (Sapwíy/Tolóokosu) column on their card. Players could listen for the calls in Nisenan or Miwok, or in both languages.

Here, you can listen to audio recordings of the Nisenan and Northern Sierra Miwok numbers and animal names that we used in order to practice the language at home. You can also download a copy of the "cheat sheet" that we shared at Bingo by clicking here.

Numbers

Animal names

More gameplay language

Esak’ábe mi? (Do you know?)

While playing Nisenan-Miwok Bingo, we called out a number followed by an animal name (first in Nisenan, and then in Miwok) to indicate which animal players should cover. For example, to tell players to cover any Robin in the "3" column on their cards, we would say "Sapwíy, Wistakták" (in Nisenan) and then "Tolóokosu, Wíṭṭapɨ" (in Miwok). In both languages, we are literally saying "three, Robin".

Crucially, this is NOT how you would say "three robins" in either language. This is because, when speaking Nisenan or Miwok, you need to add a suffix to the end of the number word to indicate that it modifies the word that follows it.

In Nisenan, you most often add -m or -im, which are different forms of the same suffix which you use depending on whether the word ends in a vowel (-m) or consonant (-im). For example, you would say sapwiyím wistakták (three robins) in Nisenan.

In Miwok, you add the same suffix to the end of the number word and the noun that it modifies. Which suffix you add depends on the role that the noun plays in the overall sentence, such as if it is the subject (-’) or object of the verb (-y). For example, assuming that they are the subject of the verb (i.e. they are the ones doing something), you would say tolóokosu’ wíṭṭapɨ’ (three robins) in Miwok.

Nisenan and Miwok both use a lot of suffixes to indicate grammatical roles and other relationships that hold between words in larger structures like sentences. This is in contrast to English, where the order of words is used to indicate the same grammatical relationships.

Esak’ahá daak’ábe mi c’aykɨ́? (Do you want to know more?)

All animal images were drawn by Skye Anderson or adapted from clipart provided by Creazilla by SSBMI Language Department staff.

If you would like to learn more about how we adapted Bingo as a language game, such as how we chose which animals to use, how we designed our Bingo cards, and who the language comes from, please reach out to us at Language@ssband.org.

Webpage last updated: 2024-05-03