okaintsixu

Wauja

Etymology

From o- (possessive, 3rd person) +‎ ka- (relative, attributive) +‎ intsixu (“gut, belly”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɨ.kaĩˈt͡si.tju/

Noun

okaintsixu

1. [his/her/its] thought(s), plan(s), idea(s) (what is in one's gut, lit., his/her/its + belly + has)

   Ehen, amamitsatai. Minyulitai. Amamitsapai. Maka onuko. Maka akiyuntuapa. Tika tika tik ... itsenu yamukunaun. Yamukunaun, aitsa uutapai. Aitsa uutapai okaintsixu han.

   [Itsautaku, elder, telling traditional story:] "Yes, she was just tricking him. It was just a lie. She was deceiving him. So that she could kill him. So that she could get her revenge. Tika tika tika [went the patter of the children's feet]. [The] children [who had] accompanied them. [The] children did not know. [They] did not know what [the woman] was planning.

   Katsa itsapai okaintsixu? Aitsa autapai. Aitsa asatapai.

   Q: What is [he] thinking (lit., What is it like in his gut)? A: We don't know. [He] doesn't reveal [his thoughts].

Derived terms

• kakaintsixupai (“thinks”)

Related terms

• intsixu (“gut, belly”)
• intsixupai (“is/are in the belly, gut, intestines”)
• intsixutsapai (“remembers; carries or bears a child”)
• wasixatapai intsixuwaitsa (“forgets”)
• wintsixupai (“suffers soul loss”)

References

• "Yamukunaun aya" uttered by Itsautaku, storyteller and elder, recounting the traditional Wauja tale of the "Man Who Drowned in Honey," (Paisixawalu) in the presence of his adolescent son Mayuri, adult daughter Mukura, and others. Recorded in Piyulaga village by E. Ireland, December 1989, transcript pp. 24-25. In this excerpt, a woman is secretly plotting to take revenge on her cruel husband, causing him to drown in honey, and be transformed into a frog. This species of frog (Leptodactylus latrans), is described by the Wauja as particularly large and ugly. The narrator comments that the children accompanying the woman and her husband into the forest have no knowledge of 'what is in the woman's gut', e.g., what she is planning to do.