tsiri

Pronunciation[tsiɾi]
Related Ideophonesdzar, dzir, tsiri, tsyun2
DefinitionThe sound of a snail crying, or the sound made by a person who has just been tranformed into tree sap, announcing her new form of non-human existence (myth)
Sensory ModalityEmotion
SOUND
Paralinguistic
Description
The second syllable is reduplicated and the entire ideophone is pronounced with a high pitch
Transcriptiontsiɾiɾiɾiɾiɾiɾi
Translationtsiriririririri
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Transcriptiontɕuɾuɕi wakaɾa tsiɾiɾiɾiɾi tsiɾiɾiɾiɾi tsiɾiɾiɾiɾi tsiɾiɾi wakaɕaɕi ɾiɾa
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Transcriptionaj! imata tukuŋgi a nikpi tsiɾiɾiɾiɾi tsiɾiɾiɾiɾi-ɕi niɾa api-
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Transcriptiontɕi tsiɾiɾiɾi niɕaga pajga niŋ tsiɾiɾiɾi tsi tɕiga indi tsʲuuŋ jajkuɕkaj
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Transcription and he went up crying tsiri tsiri tsiri because he loved his mother
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Commentary

This ideophone is relatable to dzir, an ideophone for a frictional sliding movement. In the tihiras anga myth,this ideophone marks the transformation of an old woman into a type of tree sap called shilkillu, which is used to glaze pots that have just been fired. The tree sap is rubbed over the hot, freshly fired pot, causing it to melt instantly and leave its shiny glaze over the pot's surface. As is often the case in Quichua myths, the first utterance of a newly transformed being articulates an important aspect of its new identity. In this case, the transformed shilkillu is 'announcing' its new form of existence as a substance that slides over surfaces to give them its characteristic sheen. The sliding aspect of tsiri is also evident in video 4 where a sunset is depicted as a downward sliding movement into the horizon.

Nuckolls, Janis; Tod Swanson; Auna Nygaard ; Sydney Ludlow. 2024. tsiri. The Quechua Ideophonic Dictionary. Online: https://quechuarealwords.byu.edu/?ideophone=tsidi.

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