Honing in on /zingu/ KWS-2
Title: Honing a Blade
Date: 06/13/2019
Observer: Kurt W. Smith
Setting: 10:30 in the morning. Metal Island. At the forge house of Dokon, the owner/operator.
Description of Activity
Rikon turns a crank connected through a gear shaft to Dokon's grind stone. Dokon sits in front of the spinning stone honing an ax blade that he had forged and hammered the day before. Pakum and Laton watch.
"See the angle," Dokon instructs. He held the blade at about a 30 degree acute angle to the grind stone's surface.
"Too slight and the blade is too thin and brittle." He demonstrated a slight angle, with the blade nearly parallel to the grind stone's surface.
"Too severe and the blade is dull." He demonstrated a severe angle, with the blade nearly perpendicular to the grind stone's surface.
"/oman, oman/ (Moving, moving)," he said demonstrating, passing the blade smoothly left and right across the stone's surface.
"Never hold still in one position." He inspected the blade and held out a hand toward Laton.
"Hand file." Laton looked at Pakum.
"Did you leave it at the slag table?" Pakum asked.
Dokon looked impatient. "/selwenefná/ (run)!" he shouted. Laton ran out of the room to the slag table outside near the smelter.
"/zingu/" Dokon whispered to himself in a slow, drawn out sigh.
Laton returned a few seconds later with the hand file.
Dokon demonstrated the removal of burs and smoothing the sharp tips at each end of the blade. "Tomorrow when we light the smelter, before we purify the iron we will heat the handle and blade head and forge them together into one tool," he said.
They broke for lunch. Rikon, Pakum, and Laton left the work shop.
Discussion of Activity
My previous guess for the word /zingu/ was that it had one meaning when used in conjunction with a gesture with the index finger to point at a recipient. The resulting linguistic and extra-linguistic sign having a meaning akin to “(you) come quickly."
I then thought that, without the extra-linguistic communication, /zingu/ meant simple “(you; recipient) hurry” or "(you; recipient) make haste" without a direction indicator.
Alone in the workshop, I asked Dokon why he said "/zingu/" in the activity above, as it was said in a third and new (to me) context, with body language seeming to suggest exasperation or frustration rather than urgency.
Dokon first seemed puzzled by my questioning, as it was difficult to form in order for me to express what features of the word I had difficulty understanding. Then, when he seemed to understand my confusion, he seemed additionally vexed by the task of putting the essence of that one word /zingu/ into other words of his own language, as he did not know how to speak mine.
He explained that /zingu/ in the context he had used it at the grind stone carried the meaning "I wish things would go faster," as well as "I wish that others would listen/ learn," and even "things go faster when one stays alert." It was the last word that finally cued me to the meaning of /zingu/: alert (or /akada/ in Chongja). /akada/ carries a meaning of alert or alarm in English, and it seemed to fit all three of the situations in which Dokon had used /zingu/.
In my working lexicon of the Chonja language, I decided to record the meaning of /zingu/ thusly:
/zingu/ - an untranslatable exclamation that can be used in scenarios to draw attention to the need for, or to a cause of, alarm or urgency in a present situation. When paired with directional body language it carries the meaning "urgency in (indicated) direction!" When uttered directly at a recipient it carries the meaning "there is an urgency for you to act!" When uttered without an indicated recipient, it carries the meaning "others (people in general) are not as alert expected/ others require more urgency."
Further study with other participants is called for to compare my understanding of the word to ensure that it is, indeed, a lexical feature of the language that shares common meaning across the culture. I've heard it uttered by other speakers, but not during close situational observations, so I cannot independently confirm mutual comprehensibility of /zingu/ among the Oktip at this time.
Date: 06/13/2019
Observer: Kurt W. Smith
Setting: 10:30 in the morning. Metal Island. At the forge house of Dokon, the owner/operator.
Description of Activity
Rikon turns a crank connected through a gear shaft to Dokon's grind stone. Dokon sits in front of the spinning stone honing an ax blade that he had forged and hammered the day before. Pakum and Laton watch.
"See the angle," Dokon instructs. He held the blade at about a 30 degree acute angle to the grind stone's surface.
"Too slight and the blade is too thin and brittle." He demonstrated a slight angle, with the blade nearly parallel to the grind stone's surface.
"Too severe and the blade is dull." He demonstrated a severe angle, with the blade nearly perpendicular to the grind stone's surface.
"/oman, oman/ (Moving, moving)," he said demonstrating, passing the blade smoothly left and right across the stone's surface.
"Never hold still in one position." He inspected the blade and held out a hand toward Laton.
"Hand file." Laton looked at Pakum.
"Did you leave it at the slag table?" Pakum asked.
Dokon looked impatient. "/selwenefná/ (run)!" he shouted. Laton ran out of the room to the slag table outside near the smelter.
"/zingu/" Dokon whispered to himself in a slow, drawn out sigh.
Laton returned a few seconds later with the hand file.
Dokon demonstrated the removal of burs and smoothing the sharp tips at each end of the blade. "Tomorrow when we light the smelter, before we purify the iron we will heat the handle and blade head and forge them together into one tool," he said.
They broke for lunch. Rikon, Pakum, and Laton left the work shop.
Discussion of Activity
My previous guess for the word /zingu/ was that it had one meaning when used in conjunction with a gesture with the index finger to point at a recipient. The resulting linguistic and extra-linguistic sign having a meaning akin to “(you) come quickly."
I then thought that, without the extra-linguistic communication, /zingu/ meant simple “(you; recipient) hurry” or "(you; recipient) make haste" without a direction indicator.
Alone in the workshop, I asked Dokon why he said "/zingu/" in the activity above, as it was said in a third and new (to me) context, with body language seeming to suggest exasperation or frustration rather than urgency.
Dokon first seemed puzzled by my questioning, as it was difficult to form in order for me to express what features of the word I had difficulty understanding. Then, when he seemed to understand my confusion, he seemed additionally vexed by the task of putting the essence of that one word /zingu/ into other words of his own language, as he did not know how to speak mine.
He explained that /zingu/ in the context he had used it at the grind stone carried the meaning "I wish things would go faster," as well as "I wish that others would listen/ learn," and even "things go faster when one stays alert." It was the last word that finally cued me to the meaning of /zingu/: alert (or /akada/ in Chongja). /akada/ carries a meaning of alert or alarm in English, and it seemed to fit all three of the situations in which Dokon had used /zingu/.
In my working lexicon of the Chonja language, I decided to record the meaning of /zingu/ thusly:
/zingu/ - an untranslatable exclamation that can be used in scenarios to draw attention to the need for, or to a cause of, alarm or urgency in a present situation. When paired with directional body language it carries the meaning "urgency in (indicated) direction!" When uttered directly at a recipient it carries the meaning "there is an urgency for you to act!" When uttered without an indicated recipient, it carries the meaning "others (people in general) are not as alert expected/ others require more urgency."
Further study with other participants is called for to compare my understanding of the word to ensure that it is, indeed, a lexical feature of the language that shares common meaning across the culture. I've heard it uttered by other speakers, but not during close situational observations, so I cannot independently confirm mutual comprehensibility of /zingu/ among the Oktip at this time.
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