Family Songs

Wentín Tuyím Mi

Wentín Tuyím Mi (You Are Sleeping Well) is a Nisenan-language lullaby sung to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

You can listen to the song in Nisenan using the controls below.

    Wentín Tuyím Mi (You Are Sleeping Well)

    Nisenan
    Wentín tuyín, tuyím mi,
    honkitín min tuyyudí.
    Sitapayhaháas ni min
    tuk’usán min, pɨyɨtɨ́.
    Wentín tuyín, tuyím mi,
    honkitín min tuyyudí.
    English
    Sleeping well, you are sleeping,
    resting in your bed.
    I will always protect you
    because I love you, little one.
    Sleeping well, you are sleeping,
    resting in your bed.

About the lyrics

You might be wondering why we did not translate the actual lyrics of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" into Nisenan for this lullaby. This is because the direct translation would be very hard to sing to the original tune! Many of the relevant Nisenan words are much longer than their English equivalents. For example, the word "star" (which is one syllable in English) is pokec’ɨ́k in Nisenan (three syllables).

To make this lullaby pleasant and easy to sing, we composed new lyrics that fit the original tune.

Language for everyday life

There are many parts of this song that you can expand on and use in everyday life!

For example, notice that tuy- is said several times in this song (it is part of the words tuyín, tuyím, and tuyyudí). This is a Nisenan word root that is related to 'sleep'. Here are some Nisenan words and phrases with this root:

Bed

Túyyu

Your bed

Min Túyyu

In your bed

Min Tuyyudí

Sleep!

(You're telling someone to go to sleep)

Tuy!

We can put these pieces together to say longer phrases in Nisenan, such as:

Sleep in your bed!

(You're telling someone to do this)

Tuy min tuyyudí!

The word wentín works a lot like the word 'well' in English, and we can build it into our Nisenan phrases too:

Sleep well.

(You're telling someone to sleep well)

Wentín tuy.

You can use the word root honkit- (to rest, take a break) in a similar way:

Rest!

(You're telling someone to rest)

Honkít!

Rest well.

(You're telling someone to rest well)

Wentín honkít.

Finally, you may recognize the word root sitapay- (to take care of, care for, protect), which we use when saying 'goodbye' in Nisenan:

Take care of yourself.

(Also used for 'Goodbye')

Sitapáy’omís.

We can expand on this by saying:

Take good care of yourself.

(i.e. Care for yourself well)

Wentín sitapáy’omís.

Hesíbe hedém solím? (What is this song?)

This song was written by SSBMI Language Department staff member Skye Anderson to be sung to the tune of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star". The audio recording that you can listen to here is of SSBMI Language Department staff member Richenda Ervin singing this song.

You can download a copy of the song lyrics and supplemental information by clicking here. If you have questions about these lyrics or would like to know more, please reach out to the SSBMI Language Department at Language@ssband.org.

Webpage last updated: 2024-05-07