atokapai

atokapai

Wauja

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aˈtɨ.ka.paɪ/

Verb

atokapai

1. (transitive) he/she/it digs (a hole or digs up something)

   Awapotene yiu, aunukawi, umakonapai ipitsi. Awapoteneu. Hoona! Piya patoka topoho. Natu napotebeni! ipiSUN wi.

   "Well, let's bury her, let's kill her," they all said about her. "We'll bury her. Yes, we will!" "[You, there,] go dig her grave," [one of them said]. "I will bury her!" [answered one man]. [But this man was, in fact, secretly] her lover. [He was just pretending to go along with the others.]

   Nakamapai yiu. Patokene natu wi!

   I'm dying in here. You [must] dig me out now!

   Atokene tiu, tiu, iseepiyatene ipenuwaitsa kehoto yiu.

   So he dug her out, tiu, tiu [sound of digging], a little at a time, removing the earth that was covering her.

Antonyms

• apotapai (“buries”)

References

• "Awapotene yiu" uttered by Itsautaku, storyteller and elder, recounting the traditional Wauja tale of the "Man Who Drowned in Honey," in the presence of his adolescent son Mayuri, adult daughter Mukura, and others. Recorded in Piyulaga village by E. Ireland, December 1989, transcript p. 6.
• "Nakamapai yiu" and "Atokene tiu, tiu," uttered by Itsautaku, ibid., transcript p. 13.