SSBMI Language Department

Language Day Camp 2023

Wóllok Nature Walk

At Language Day Camp 2023, we will participate in a nature walk at Wóllok where we walk around looking for birds and other animals while learning and using their Nisenan and Miwok names. On this webpage, you can learn the Nisenan and Miwok names of some of the local animals that you may see, learn some useful Nisenan and Miwok phrases for talking about the things that you see, and listen to audio recordings.

During the nature walk, we will search for 12 birds! You can listen to audio recordings of the Nisenan and Miwok names for these birds below.

If you would like to learn more about the birds themselves, including to view photos of the birds and listen to audio recordings of their calls, then you can click on the names of the birds in the table below. This will direct you to All About Birds, which is a free website that the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has created for sharing educational information about birds:

We will also keep our eyes out for several local mammals! Again, you can listen to audio recordings of their Nisenan and Miwok names below:

Some useful Nisenan phrases

As we explore Wóllok and see new birds and other animals, we should try to talk about the things that we see in Nisenan! In this section, you can learn some useful phrases for talking about and asking about the animals that you see in Nisenan.

You can tell someone to look at something using one of the following phrases. Note that, when speaking Nisenan, you use different language depending on whether you are telling 1 person or a group of people to look at something:

And you can ask what something you see is called too:

And in response, you can tell someone what something is called in Nisenan using the following phrase. All you need to do is fill in the blank with a name, and you have a way of sharing what anything you see is called!

You can ask someone what they are looking at or for using one of the following phrases. Note that, while they are translated as "you", both questions address exactly 1 person: This is because the pronoun "mi" means 'you' referring to exactly 1 person. In Nisenan, you use different pronouns for 'you' depending on whether you are addressing 1 person, 2 people, or 3 or more people. If you want to address these questions to 2 people, then you can replace the pronoun "mi" with "maam". If you want to address 3 or more people, then you can use "meem".

And in response, you can tell someone what you are looking at or for using one of the following phrases. However, to use these phrases, you must understand more Nisenan grammar: In Nisenan, you need to attach a suffix to the end of the animal's name in order to indicate that it is the thing that you see or that you are looking for. The suffix has different forms depending on what sound the name ends with:

Some useful Miwok phrases

As we explore Wóllok and see new birds and other animals, we should try to talk about the things that we see in Miwok! In this section, you can learn some useful phrases for talking about and asking about the animals that you see in Miwok.

You can tell someone to look at something using one of the following phrases. Note that, when speaking Miwok, you use different language depending on whether you are telling 1 person or a group of people to look at something:

And you can ask what something you see is called too:

And in response, you can tell someone what something is called in Miwok using the following phrase. All you need to do is fill in the blank with a name, and you have a way of sharing what anything you see is called!

You can ask someone what they are looking at or for using one of the following phrases. Note that, while they all are translated as addressing "you", these questions differ in whether they address 1 person or 2 or more people:

In response, you can tell someone what you are looking at or for using one of the following phrases. However, to use these phrases, you must understand more Miwok grammar: In Miwok, you need to attach a suffix "-y" to the end of the animal's name in order to indicate that it is the thing that you see or that you are looking for.