polan
| Possible Affixes | -ma |
| Pronunciation | [polaŋ, pulaŋ] |
| Related Ideophones | bhux, suni |
| Definition | 1.Depicts the way something rises from under water and is suddenly evident as it breaks through to the water's surface. It may focus on the duration of the upward thrusting movement, or its momentary, punctual occurrence. May also depict the rising up of a baby inside a watery womb during labor.
2.Depicts the way something floats and moves across the surface of water, either by gliding along smoothly, or by intermittently bobbing. |
| Sensory Modality | MOVEMENT > Configurational
MOVEMENT
VISUAL |
Paralinguistic
Description | It may be intonationally emphasized with lengthening or repetition, and gestured with an upward movement of one or both hands, or by an expansive movement to imitate a gliding across water.. |
| Transcription | baka maɾinata ɾikungimi tɕi kutɕaj; tɕiga wagɾa ɕina polaŋ ismaɾa; ɲa wagɾa isma |
| Translation | (After he said)'Look at the manatee in that water', well then polang it defecated; now it was manatee poop (which rose up to the water's surface)! |
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| Transcription | jakwi tijag ajchawas kusɕijaɕa kasna polaŋ polaŋ wambuɾig maŋ |
| Translation | Even the fish living underwater becoming happy like this (will float up to the water's surface) polang polang |
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| Transcription | balsaga polaŋ |
| Translation | And the balsa raft floated (upward) polang |
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| Transcription | kanoaʎaɕi polaŋ riŋ |
| Translation | And only the canoe, they say,(floated upward) polang (from under the water) |
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| Transcription | kanoaga polaŋ! tɕajbiɕi wakaɕa |
| Translation | (when) the canoe floated upward polang (then) they say, (its passengers were) crying . . . |
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| Transcription | tɕasna liŋ; aktɕaga kajta polaŋ; ɲuka mama ɲawita . . . |
| Translation | Like that (he dove into the water) ling and as for his hair (it was floating on the water's surface) polang; and my mother was facing (toward him) |
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| Transcription | ɲa uɾajta pulaŋ ɾiɾantɕi niɾa kawinaʎaŋ tawnaʎaŋ taŋgaɕa |
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| Transcription | tɕi uɾku uɾku ukuta pajguna kanoanga polang ɾiɕkawna |
| Translation | That hill, around that hill they went polang in the canoe |
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| Transcription | aktɕaga polaŋŋŋ ɲuka ɲaβi kajwan ɾikug ani kaj jaku supajta ri- |
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| Transcription | pajga ʎaɕag aɕaga kaj ɾumiga mana ɾiuŋja tɕiga puskuga pajga paŋgaʎa aɕa polaŋŋŋ pajga ɾiuɾa |
| Translation | As for the rock, being heavy, it's not going anywhere, but the foam, being as light as a leaf, it was going along polannn. |
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| Transcription | tɕiga tɕasna // this is a snake // pulaŋ kutɕataga ɕiuuṵṵ ɾiŋ kuti tɕupa paɾtima ɕiuuṵṵ |
| Translation | And then like that (this is a snake) pulanng and around the lake shyuuuu it goes; then the tail (goes) shyuuuu |
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| Transcription | tɕigaŋ ɕimita aŋ paskakpi wawami polaŋma ɕajaɾiŋga nig ag aɾa tɕasna tukuɕa mana wajɾa ɕina ʎukɕiŋgatɕu wawa nig an. polaŋma ɕajaɾiŋga niɾa tɕi |
| Translation | And so with that, if one opens one's mouth ang (while breathing), the baby will rise up polang, they say, and becoming like that, the baby will not come out quickly, they say; it will rise up polang. |
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Commentary
The use of polan in Video 13 has resulted in a revision of its first sense which used to characterize its meaning as rising within water and breaking through to the surface. However video 13 extends this meaning into a rising within a human body, of a baby within its watery womb. As usages go, this is definitely an outlier, however it illustrates something significant, pointed out by Tsujimura for Japanese, which is that the meanings of ideophones, even the most conventionalized, are underspecified by design, indeterminately flexible, and capable of infinite polysemous extensions. Such flexibility, according to Tsujimura, is what makes ideophones distinctive from the prosaic (i.e., non-ideophonic) lexicon. She also argues that mimetic verbs have a great deal more flexibility in their argument structures, than non-mimetic verbs.
Tsujimura, Natsuko (2016). ‘How Flexible Should the Grammar of Mimetics Be? A View from Japanese Poetry,’ in Noriko Iwasaki, Peter Sells, and Kimi Akita (eds.), The Grammar of Japanese Mimetics: Perspectives from Structure, Acquisition and Translation. Abingdon: Routledge, 103–28. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315646695
Nuckolls, Janis; Tod Swanson; Christina Collicott; Alexander Rice; Sydney Ludlow; Lisa Warren Carne; Austin Howard. 2024. polan. The Quechua Ideophonic Dictionary. Online: https://quechuarealwords.byu.edu/?ideophone=polan.
