SSBMI Language Department

Education Center Staff Nisenan Class - September 25, 2023

In this class, we learned language for giving basic commands to groups of people and to individuals. We also reviewed the names for some common school items and practiced using them in commands. You can download a copy of the review sheet from this class by clicking here.

First, we learned to command a group of people to do various things (e.g. "Stand up!"). Notice that each of these commands contains "-wa":

In Nisenan, you usually add a suffix to the end of a verb stem to form a command. You use the suffix "-wa" when you are commanding a group of people to do something (e.g. "hati-" (to stop) -> "Hatiwá!" (All of you, stop!), "iskit-" (to sit down) -> "Iskitwá!" (All of you, sit down!)).

Here are the same commands as above, but directed at a single person. Notice that some of them now have "-p" where the others had "-wa":

In Nisenan, you often use the suffix "-p" when you are commanding a single person to do something. Unlike using "-wa", however, whether you use "-p" or not when commanding a single person depends on whether the verb stem ends in a vowel or a consonant:

If the verb stem ends in a vowel, you add the suffix "-p", e.g. "hati-" (to stop) -> "Hatíp!" (Stop!)

If the verb stem ends in a consonant, you add nothing, e.g. "iskit-" (to sit down) -> "Iskít!" (Sit down!)

Esak’ábe mi? (Do you know?) Nisenan words never end in a sequence of two consonant sounds. This is why you do not add "-p" to the ends of verb stems that already end in a consonant - because otherwise the word would end in two consonants!

Makbeepé! (Let's try it out!) If you know the verb stem "uk’oy-" (to go), then how do you think you would tell a single person to "Go!" (highlight to see the answer: "Uk’óy!") versus a group of people "All of you, go!" ("Uk’oywá!")? If you know the verb stem "wii-" (to pick something up), how do you think you would tell a single person to "Pick up!" ("Wiip!") versus a group of people "All of you, pick up!" ("Wiiwá!")

How to give commands involving objects

In today's class, we learned how to tell someone to "Take it!" using the phrase "Meep mɨyé!", but what if you want to tell someone to take a specific object rather than "it"? To be able to do so, you need to know the names of some objects and a bit more Nisenan grammar.

First, we reviewed Nisenan names of a few common objects, including school items like "paper" and "pencil":

Then, we learned how to tell an individual person to take each of these objects. Notice that the names of some of these objects now end in "-i":

In Nisenan sentences, the object of the verb (i.e. the thing that something is being done to, e.g. the thing that you "take") is often indicated by the suffix "-i". Similarly, whether you use this suffix or not depends on whether the noun you would attach it to ends in a consonant or a vowel:

If the noun ends in a consonant*, you add the suffix "-i", e.g. "mom-" (water) -> "Meep momí!" (Take water!)

If the noun ends in a vowel, you add nothing, e.g. "boonóyu-" (pencil/pen) -> "Meep boonóyu!" (Take pen/pencil!)

*This is true of most consonants, but not "k" or "k’". We will talk about how you add this suffix to words that end in "k"/"k’" in a future class.