ch’oLts’it hay tin ch’inchwe’n
ch’iwinchwiw
she knew that she was ugly.
she cried.
in hupa, “she cried” is “ch’iwinchwiw”
pronounced kinda like this: “ch’ oo wen chwoo”
the ‘ is a glottal stop (?), like where your vocal cords start pressed together and then you make a sound
“she uuugly” is “ch’inchwe’n”
i can’t pronounce the “ch’oLts’it hay tin” part reliably yet. the L is
this is from a song about love medicine. there’s this girl, and she’s ugly, and frog is like “hell no i’m not gonna marry you,” so she goes to a doctor and the doctor gives her some medicine to take that will make people fall in love with her. ramon is memorizing it. it spills sometimes and gets on me, and i do what i can to rub it off on other people. we need to learn how to say “fail” in hupa.
the way to say “i love you” in hupa sounds kinda like “noofding” except you make the “f” sound not like you normally do, but with your mouth in a little tight circle, like you’re blowing cold air on something. i don’t know how to spell it correctly.