Lesson #9

YAY!!!! I have had a Yaqui-English dictionary for the past week now and couldn't be happier to use it! This week's learning has taken a new direction from previous weeks, since I have access to verbs! Not only does this dictionary provide an extensive list of verbs, it also gives detailed descriptions (including examples) of how to use them. I was unaware of the reduplication process in Yaqui in which the beginning of a verb (first syllable) is duplicated to indicate something that "usually" happens. For example, vitchu (see) and vivitchu (usually see).

Some other interesting aspects of Yaqui that I discovered through using the dictionary were the phonological patterns that occur within the language, especially with loan words. For instance, the dictionary sections on "b," "d," and "g" are quite minimal (and, "x" and "z" are not present at all). These letter were not originally part of the Yaqui alphabet, but due to English and Spanish influence, few words do include these sounds (keep in mind that "bw" is a letter in Yaqui, and a common one at that). However, even for many loan words, these three sounds underwent some changes. For example, the "d" is often lateralized into an "l" (e.g. Spanish: dios; Yaqui: lios (god)). Another phenomenon is the velarized "g" (that is, it is a "k"). The Spanish loan guitarra (guitar) is kitara in Yaqui. Personally, I found these processes to be quite fascinating.

Back to verbs, this week's learning involved testing hypotheses related to sentence structure, verb forms, and even noun forms (i.e. cases). One challenge that I faced, and should have expected given my Spanish L2, was that many intransitive verb phrases (like "I am happy" in English) have their own verb in Yaqui. So, to say "I am happy," you do not use the verb aane "to be," rather allete'ae "to get happy."

To give an example of my hypothesis testing, here are my notes on learning to say "My name is Ashley."

*In teakame aane.
my name is
(this is not correct, because the verb is not "to be" it is "to be named")

Inepo Ashley teak.
I named
"My name is Ashley."
(I am still a bit unsure as to where "Ashley" should go, but I know that it is not sentence final)

Apo haisa teak?
He/she what named
"What is his/her name?"
(this was word for word from the dictionary; this phrase, however, did help my see the correct verb to use in the above statement)


I also tested some simple sentences using the verb "to want" waata- both in present and past tense. I found the verb tenses to be simple- the most difficult aspect of forming sentences are the rules for adding cases to nouns and adjectives. Fortunately, the first verb I chose is always plural ("water" vaa'am) and does not require a case marker to indicate that it is the direct object. I have not mastered the cases yet, as they vary depending on the noun ending (I had to constantly check these as I created sentences).

Lesson: Be aware of transfer! I had started forming sentences based on how I would say them in English. For one reason or another, I did not draw from my Spanish knowledge to even consider that some verbs will be different (e.g. an actual verb for "to be sick" and not simply "to be" + "sick"). Again, this shows the importance of hypothesis testing. My first attempts were not correct, but I now know better than to just take a form from one language and transfer it to the target language. I think the incorporation of a dictionary, and one as detailed as mine, has added a new dimension to my resources, learning, and strategies. Hopefully I will be able to expand my practices to learning sentences that I have created and not just vocabulary words!