The Chumash languages often pack a lot more information into a single word than English does — or other languages you might be more familiar with.
A Chumash verb may be very short, such as kip “I say,” but it also be the equivalent of an entire sentence in English. A typical example is piexpenitwa “the two of you sang to me” — or “sang for me.” Broken down into its component parts, the verb p-i-expen-it-wa includes:
p–“you”
i– dual — “two”
expen “sing”
–it (to/for) me’
–wa past tense
A Chumash word may include layers of meaning built around a core concept, such as apuqwni “basket or scoop for bailing,” which literally means something like “tool for making water go down and out fast.” Broken down into its components, the word is:
su–“causing to happen”
api– “quickly”
u–“out”
qwn(water) “go down”
–i“instrument, tool for”
Even an apparently simple phrase may include complex elements that a colloquial English translation doesn’t capture. For example, English simply sticks an adjective in front of a noun in a phrase such as “a tall tree.” The Inezeño equivalent is more complex: malhy ha pon “tall tree” literally means “one that is tall, a tree.”
ma–noun marker, the article with nouns that come first in the phrase
l–marks the following verb as relative: “that which [is tall]”
hy“to be long, tall”
hanoun marker, the article for nouns that aren’t first in the phrase
pon“tree, wood”
The bottom line here is that words in any of the Chumash languages — including Inezeño — may be considerably more complex than their English translations imply.
ip “I say,” but it also be the equivalent of an entire sentence in English. A typical example is pi
expenitwa
i