Horse rig story

[Leanne Riding]

Thanks for that story!

Question about usage;

If "aiak" is used first in the statement, do you get the sense that it 
modifies the whole action expressed by the statement -- whereas "ayu" is 
only describing the action it precedes?

Side note... a bit irrellevant...

The word "aiak" always reminds me of the japanese word hayai/hayaku due 
to coincidence of meaning of "aiak". Hayai (adj.) and hayaku (adv.) are 
two forms of the same base word, which I have been taught can mean early 
or fast respectively...

David Robertson wrote:

>I didn't have time to turn this story into any kind of language lesson 
>yesterday. Here's a note about how to use adverbs in Jargon. You'll also 
>learn how some adverb-like words work differently from this in Jargon.
>
>ADVERBS COME FIRST! In good Jargon, adverbs generally stand before the 
>subject, before the verb, before everything in the sentence.
>
>I'll quote 3 phrases from the "horse rig" story, capitalizing the adverbs:
>
>  
>
>>SAIA naika koli kopa ukuk rig
>>FAR I travel with this rig
>>"I traveled A LONG WAY with this rig."
>>
>>AIAK iaka pul bak pi iaka suk
>>QUICKLY he pull back and he shook
>>"He IMMEDIATELY pulled back and shook."
>>
>>AIAK iaka mimlus
>>QUICKLY he die
>>"He died RIGHT AWAY."
>>    
>>
>
>HELPING WORDS DON'T COME FIRST!
>
>It's important here to point out, the word <ayu> "a lot; much" seems like 
>an adverb too. Like <saia> "far" & <aiak> "immediately" above, it modifies 
>the force of the verb.
>
>But <ayu> works differently...as Zvjezdana Vrzic speculated in her 
>dissertation, it acts more like an auxiliary or helping word. (TMA marker, 
>for you creolists.)
>
><ayu> gives the verb a kind of in-progress feeling, like the "--ing" forms 
>in English. And guess what, <ayu> does NOT come first in the sentence! 
>Have a look, <ayu> comes after the subject <iaka>:
>
>  
>
>>Iaka AYU kik kopa ukuk rig.
>>he MUCH kick at this rig
>>"He KEPT kickING at the rig."
>>
>>Naika ayu kwash kaksit ukuk rig
>>I MUCH fear broken this rig
>>"I WAS feelING afraid that the rig was breaking."
>>    
>>
>
>--Dave R., who adds:
>
>The apparent grammaticalization of <ayu> in pidgin Jargon as well as at 
>Grand Ronde may suggest quite early elaboration of the language...before 
>it left the lower Columbia, in fact. In brief, I'll bet you <tlun tubits> 
>that this happened by 1830, when we start getting reports of Jargon as a 
>family language. An alternative idea is that <ayu> turned into an 
>auxiliary independently in interior BC. The missing link that would 
>disprove that hypothesis would be any text from a geographically or 
>temporally intermediate source that clearly used <ayu> like this. How 
>about St. Onge/Demers/Blanchet? 
>
>To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond privately to the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi!
>
>  
>

To respond to the CHINOOK list, click 'REPLY ALL'.  To respond privately to the sender of a message, click 'REPLY'.  Hayu masi!