Whiteman, Caucasian. čáwna wá šuyápu ‘we are not white’; šuyápuyin páykɨn ‘a whiteman has heard him’; ana kʷaaná šuyápuwin páwix̣nɨmaytša ‘that which the whiteman is digging up’; kuna čáw mún iwɨ́npayita šuyápunɨm ‘and the whiteman will never get ours’; ana kú pawɨ́npša šuyápuma tiičám ‘when the whitepeople buy their land’; šuyapunmí tamánwit ‘whiteman’s law, whiteman’s technology’; šuyapunmí sɨ́nwit ~ šuyápu sɨ́nwit ‘English’. [NP /sooyápoo/.]
As spoken by a group of elders in the early 1980s when thinking about putting their language to writing.
The words and sentences in this dictionary are mostly the contribution of Twáway, otherwise known of as Inez Spino Reves. Twáway has never flinched from working with linguists, and her command of the “old language” with all its intricacies of grammar and vocabulary is second to none. Other Umatilla contributors are Charley McKay, Donald Joe, Emily Littlefish, Fred Hill, Joan Watlamet, Mildred Quaempts, and Thomas Morning Owl. Animal and plant identifications were much aided by botanist Dave Corliss (personal communication) and by Eugene Hunn (1979, 1990).
