Write, mark, draw, brand, sign. áwna átimayišana sɨ́nwit ku k̓ʷapɨ́n paˀititámata ‘now we were writing their language and that they will read’; itímayišanam imanáy ‘he is marking yours’; patímaša k̓úsina ‘they are branding the horse’; áwnam tímata ƛ̓áax̣ʷ k̓úsi kunam čáw ánč̓a mún šínɨm ipáx̣ʷita ‘you should brand all your horses and no one will ever steal (them) again’; ku pawítimana k̓úsi ‘and they branded each of their horses’; pšwápa patímax̣ana míimi ‘they used to write on rocks long ago’; tímatak ‘go sign (the document)!’; tímatašaaš ‘I’m going in order to sign’; čalútima ‘design a basket, make a pattern’; twátima ‘mark, etch’; tímaš ‘paper, book’; tímat ‘marking, design’. [NP /tím̓en/.]
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).
