[bintcbil uut'aa' = Red-shafted Flicker's feather] The Diving Contest 1
Cahto Language

from Bill Ray (via Goddard 1909)


California Athabaskan Languages & Cultures homepage Index of Stories Goddard's translation

Cahto 2English Translation 3

---- Naakee'eetc, Siis kwonyeehtc'ghileeh too-bii' yaa'nii. ---- Mallard and Otter swam underwater in the lake, they say.
-------na.ke#.e#tc---s"Üs---kwu^n.ye.tc'.gu^l.le#---to#.b"ÜE---yaE.n"Ü
---- Blue duck / otter / swam under water / lake in / they say.
Toonai naa'ch'teelgheel yaa'nii. They were catching fish, they say.
to#.nai---na.tc'.tel.gel---yaE.n"Ü
Fish / they were catching / they say.
Kaayaatc'kwl'iing' yaa'nii. They watched him, they say.
kai.ya.tc'.kw.l"Ün)---yaE.n"Ü
They watched them / they say.
Naakee'eetc kaanaaghileeh yaa'nii. Duck surfaced, they say.
na.ke#.e#ts---ka.na.gu^l.le---yaE.n"Ü
Duck / came up / they say.
Naakaa' ch'ghintcook'-kwan yaa'nii, toonai. He had strung two strings with fish, they say.
na.kaE---tc'.gu^n.tco#k.kwa7n---yaE.n"Ü---to#.nai
Two / he had filled / they say / fish.
Kaayaatc'kwl'iing' yaa'nii. They watched him, they say.
kai.ya.tc'.kw.l"Ün)---yaE.n"Ü
They watched him / they say.
Siis kaanaaghileeh yaa'nii. Otter surfaced, they say.
s"Üs---ka.na.gu^l.le---yaE.n"Ü
Otter / came up / they say.
Taak' tc'ghintcook'-kwaang toonai yaa'nii. He had strung three strings with fish, they say.
tak'---tc'.gu^n.tco#k.kwan)---to#.nai---yaE.n"Ü
Three / he had filled / fish / they say.
Naaheelhkat yaa'nii. They all went back home, they say.
na.he;.ku^t---yaE.n"Ü
They went back / they say.
Yeeh-bii'ing' tc'teeloos yaa'nii, toonai. They dragged the fish into the house, they say.
ye.b"ÜE.u^n)E---tc'.te.lo#s---yaE.n"Ü---to#.nai
House in / they dragged them / they say / fish.
---- Kwanlhang. ---- That is all.
-------kwu^n.;a7n)
---- All.


1. Goddard footnote 235: "Supposed to have happened at Sak'enunsanduN, a former village close to the right bank of Long Valley creek [= Ten-mile Creek] just south of White's house."
2. Click on highlighted words to search for them in the Dictionary/Lexical database. The top line is in the practical orthography. The middle line is in Goddard's transcription except that "underhook"/"Polish hook" is represented by "subscript left half-ring" ("underhook" is not present in the SIL IPA fonts). The bottom line is Goddard's word-by-word translation, with [occasional additions or emendations by me in square brackets].
3. Line-by-line translation by me, largely informed by Goddard's translation, but attempting to translate every sentence, and to do so more literally (within the limits of English readability).

Goddard's Translation

Duck and Otter, rivals in love, engaged in a diving contest to see which could secure the more fish. The watching people saw Duck come up with two strings which he had filled. Otter dived and the people waited. After a long time he came up with three strings he had filled. They went home dragging the fish into the house.

8/30/99
Sally Anderson using perl version 5.030000