tsiri
| Pronunciation | [tsiɾi] |
| Related Ideophones | dzar, dzir, tsiri, tsyun2 |
| Definition | The 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 Modality | Emotion
SOUND |
Paralinguistic
Description | The second syllable is reduplicated and the entire ideophone is pronounced with a high pitch |
| Transcription | tɕuɾuɕi wakaɾa tsiɾiɾiɾiɾi tsiɾiɾiɾiɾi tsiɾiɾiɾiɾi tsiɾiɾi wakaɕaɕi ɾiɾa |
| | View full video |
| Transcription | aj! imata tukuŋgi a nikpi tsiɾiɾiɾiɾi tsiɾiɾiɾiɾi-ɕi niɾa api- |
| | View full video |
| Transcription | tɕi tsiɾiɾiɾi niɕaga pajga niŋ tsiɾiɾiɾi tsi tɕiga indi tsʲuuŋ jajkuɕkaj |
| | View full video |
| Transcription | and he went up crying tsiri tsiri tsiri because he loved his mother |
| | View full video |
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.
