Chapter 8 how the alphabet is made

how the alphabet is made Tafimai Metlumai (we still call her Taffy, oh dear) goes hunting with his daddy again after she makes little mistakes with her daddy's spears, strangers, pictographs, etc. carp.His mother wanted her to stay at home and help her hang the animal skins on the big drying pole outside the cave to dry, but Taffy slipped away early in the morning to go fishing with Daddy.Soon she was giggling, and Daddy said, "Don't be stupid, kid." "Not exciting!" said Taffey. "Don't you remember how the Chief's cheeks were puffed out, and how ridiculous that kind stranger was with mud all over his hair?"

"Oh yes," said Tegumai, "I'll have to give him two buckskins for what we did to him—soft buckskin with trim." "We didn't do anything," Taffy said, "it was Mommy and other New Time women—and mud." "Let's not talk about that," Daddy said, "Go to lunch." Taffy held the bone and didn't make a sound for ten minutes, while Daddy used a shark tooth Scrape pieces of birch bark.Then he said, "Daddy, I remembered an amazing secret. You made a sound—a certain sound." "Ah," said Tegumai, "is that how it started?"

"Yes," said Taffy, "you looked like a carp with its mouth open just now. Tell me more, please." "Ah! ah! ah!" said Daddy, "don't be rude, daughter." "I'm not being rude, I'm not," Taffy said, "It's just part of the idea of ​​the amazing secret, Daddy said——, open your mouth as wide as possible, give me that tooth, I'm going to draw an open one." Big-mouthed carp." "Why?" Daddy said. "Don't you understand?" said Taffy, scratching the bark, "that would be the reward for our little secret, when I drew a carp with its mouth wide open smoking behind the hole—if Mommy didn't If you mind—it reminds me of the ah—sound. Then we can play, and I'll jump out of the shadows and scare you out of that sound—like it was at Beaver Bog last winter."

"Really?" Daddy said, and when they did talk, they talked in grown-up tones. "Go on, Taffy." "Oh brother!" she said, "I can't draw all the carp, but I can draw something that represents the mouth of a carp. Don't you know how they stand on their heads buried in the mud? Well , there is an imaginary carp (we can represent the rest of it drawn). Its mouth represents that." He drew it. "Too bad," said Tegumai, scratching his own piece of bark, "but you forgot the tentacles on the edge of its mouth." "But I can't draw, Daddy."

"You don't have to draw everything but the mouth and the tentacles around it. Then we'll know it's a carp because perch and salmon don't have tentacles, look here, Taffy." He drew that too. "Now I'll imitate it," said Taffy, "will you understand it when you see it?" "No problem at all," Daddy said. She drew it, "I would be surprised to see it anywhere, as if you jumped out from behind a tree and said 'Ah!'" "Now, make another voice," Taffy said triumphantly. "Yeah!" Daddy yelled. "Well," Taffy said, "it's a mixed sound. The ending part is ah-carp-fish-mouth, but how to pronounce the first part? Yeh-yeah-yeah! Yah!"

"It's really like the sound of a carp-fish-mouth, let's draw another part of the carp and connect it," Daddy said.He is also very excited. "No, if they're connected, I'll forget and draw them separately. Draw the tail, and if it's upside down, the tail goes first, and I think I can draw the tail easily," said Taffey. "Good idea," Tegumai said, "to have a carp-fish tail to represent the ya-sound." He drew it. "I'll try," Taffy said, "Remember I can't draw like you, Daddy, I'll just draw the part of the tail that separates and the part that joins down, okay?" And she drew it that way.

Dad nodded, his eyes sparkling with excitement. "It's so beautiful," she said, "Daddy, make another sound." "Oh!" Daddy said loudly. "It's so easy," Taffy said, "you open your mouth as round as an egg or a rock. Then the egg or the rock will do." "You can't always find an egg or a rock, so we have to draw something round." He drew it. "My God!" said Taffy, "we've taken pictures of many sounds,--carp-mouth, carp-tail, and eggs! Now, another sound, Daddy." "Hiss!" Daddy said, frowning, but Taffy noticed excitedly.

"It's so easy," she said, scratching the bark. "Oh, what?" Daddy said, "I mean I'm thinking and don't want to be disturbed." "Same sound, like a snake, Daddy, thinking and don't want to be disturbed. Let's use a snake to mean that, okay?" She drew it. "There," she said, "is another prize-worthy secret. You draw a hissing snake by the little rear door where you repair your spear, and I'll know you're brooding. I stalk like a mouse. If When you were fishing, draw it on the tree by the river, and I knew you wanted me to sneak like a mouse and not disturb the shore."

"That's right," said Tegumai, "this game is more complicated than you think, dear Taffy, I have an idea your daddy's daughter has a brilliant idea since Tegumai's tribe likes to use sharks the teeth of the spears instead of flint. I believe we have discovered the great secret of the world." "Why?" Taffey said, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "I'll explain," Daddy said, "what water means in the language of Tegumai." "Yeah, of course, and rivers too—like the Wagga—yeah—the Wagga." "What kind of dirty water do you drink—black water—swamp water that gives you a fever?"

"Yo, of course." "Now look," Daddy said, "suppose you saw this by the puddle in Beaver Bog?" He drew it. "Carp tail and round egg, two voices mixed together! Yo, dirty water," Taffy said, "Of course I wouldn't drink that water because I know you said it was dirty." "But I don't have to be near the water, I'm a few kilometers away, hunting, and—" "It's like you're standing there and saying, 'Go away, Taffy, or you're going to have a fever.' All that in carp tails and round eggs! Oh, Daddy, we gotta tell Mommy, come on!" Taffy danced around him.

"Not yet," Tegumai said, "before we move forward and see, yo means dirty water, and whoo means food on fire. Right?" He drew it. "Yeah, snake and egg," Taffey said. "Whoosh means the meal is ready. If you see it scratching the tree you'll know it's time to go back to the hole. I'll be back too." "My God!" Tegumai said, "That's true, wait a minute, I have a question, 'whoosh' means to go back to eat, but 'hey' means a drying rod for hanging animal skins." "Horrible old drying pole!" said Taffey. "I hate helping to hang heavy, hot, fuzzy hides. If you draw snakes and eggs, I think it's dinner. I went in and found out that I was indeed asked to help Mommy hang the two animal skins on the drying rod, so what should I do?" "You're going to be pissed, and Mummy is going to be pissed, and we'll have to do a new drawing for whoosh. We'll have to draw a striped snake that hisses, and I'm assuming normal snakes only hiss." "I'm not sure how to put it," said Taffy, and if you're so quick to ignore that much, I'd think it was like that when it swished, and Mommy would grab me.No!I think we'd better paint a dreaded drying pole, pretty sure. "I'll put them behind the hissing snake, look!" she drew. "Maybe that's the most reliable, anyway, it's like a drying pole," Daddy said with a smile. "I'll make a sound with the sound of snakes and poles, and I'll say hiss, Spear of Tegumai, Taffy." He laughed. "Don't make fun of me," Taffey said, thinking of graphic letters and mud in strangers' hair. "Draw it, Daddy." "We don't have beavers and mountains now, eh?" Daddy said, "I'll just draw a straight line for my spear." He drew it. "Even Mommy wouldn't mistake me for being killed." "Please don't, Daddy, this will make me feel uncomfortable, make more noise, how good we get along." "Oh—hmm!" Tegumai said, looking up, "We say 'crown', which means sky." Taffy drew snakes and drying poles, then stopped. "We're going to have to draw a new picture to represent the ending, shall we?" "Crop-crow-wu-wu-wu!" Daddy said, "Why, it's like the pronunciation of round-egg has become thinner." "Then suppose we draw a thin, round egg to represent a frog, as if it hasn't eaten in years." "No no," Daddy said, "if we draw too fast, we'll mistake it for a round egg, Crop-Crop-Crop! I'll show you how, we'll make a small hole in the bottom of the egg to show The 'vomit' came out and got thinner, like this ooo-oo-oo," he drew. "Oh, that's so cute! Better than a skinny frog, go on," said Taffy, using the shark's teeth, and Daddy went on drawing, hands shaking with excitement, until he finished it. "Don't look up, Taffy," he said, "see if you can make sense in Tegumai. If you can, we've discovered the secret." "Snake-rod-broken-egg-carp-tail and carp-mouth," Taffey said, "Crop-ah. Sky-water (rain)." Then a drop of water fell on her hand, and the sky Department of Dark Clouds. "Why, Daddy, it's raining, is that what you want to tell me?" "Of course," Daddy said, "I told you without saying a word, did I?" "Yeah, I thought I could have figured it out in a minute, but that drop of rain convinced me a lot. I'll never forget that cro—yeah means rain, or 'it's going to rain,' I What, Daddy!" She stood up and walked around him. "Suppose you go out before I wake up and draw a crop on the wall with soot—yeah, I know it's going to rain, and I'll wear a beaver hood. Won't Mummy be surprised?" Tegumai got up and danced, (Daddy doesn't mind doing those things these days.) "Far from! Far from it!" he said, "If I want to tell you it won't rain, you have to come By the river, what do we want to draw? Let’s talk in Tegumai first.” "Crow-ya-lasi, yamaru. (Sky-water ends. River comes.) So many new vocalizations! I don't know how we can draw them." "But I'll do it—I'll do it!" said Tegumai. "Wait a second, Taffy, we're not making any more today, we've got a crop—yeah, haven't we? But 'Lars' means a tease Or, la-la-la." He flicked the shark tooth. "There's a hissing snake behind and a carp's mouth in front of the snake-hiss-hiss-hiss," Taffy said. "I know it, but we have to do la-la. We're the first in the world to do that, Tafimai!" "Oh," Taffy said, yawning from sleepiness, "Lars meant break or finish or end, didn't you?" "Probably so," Tegumai said. "T-Las means there's no water in the sink for Mommy to cook--I'm going hunting too." "Ss-ras means your spear is broken. If only I'd thought of that instead of drawing silly beaver pictures for strangers." "La! La! La!" said Tegumai, waving his cane and frowning. "Oh annoying!" "I could have drawn hiss easily enough," Taffy went on, "then I've drawn Broken Spear—that's it!" She drew it. "Here it is," Tegumai said, "the 'pull' object is nothing like the other symbols." He drew it. "Now for 'ya' sound, oh, we've actually done it before, now for 'mairu'. Mamu-mamu-mamu. 'mamu' shut up, eh? I Draw a picture of shutting up like this." He drew it. "Then the carp's mouth is open, and that's the sound of the--?--! But what about the rrrr-thing, Taffy?" "It sounds round and sharp, like a shark tooth saw, when you're building a boat and sawing off the wood," Taffy said. "You mean the edge of the blade is like this?" Tegumai said, and he drew it. "Yes," said Taffy, "but we don't need all the teeth, just two." "I'll just draw one," Tegumai said. "If our game is going to be what I think it is, the easier it is for us to make a phonetic map, the better for everyone." He drew it. "Now that we've got it," Tegumai said, standing on one foot, "I'll draw a string like a fish." "Shouldn't I better separate each word with a stick or something, so that they don't touch each other and crowd together as if they were carps?" "Oh, I'll leave some room," said Daddy, so excited he kept drawing on a large piece of new birch bark. "Cran-ya-la-si-maru," said Taffey, reading each sound aloud. "That's enough for today," Tegumai said, "and you're tired too, Taffy. That's all right, honey, we'll finish tomorrow, and then after the biggest tree we've seen has been cut down for firewood, we'll It will be remembered from generation to generation." So they went home, and that night Tegumai sat on one side of the fire and Taffy sat on the other, drawing on the wall, yo, crop, laughing together, until Mommy said, "Really, Tegumai, you are worse than Taffy." "Don't worry about it," Taffy said. "It's just our secret reward, dear Mummy. When it's done, we'll tell you about it. Now please don't ask what it is, or I'll have to say it." Her mommy was very careful not to ask again.At dawn the next day, Tegumai came to the river, thinking about the new pronunciation map.When Taffy got up, he saw Ya-lasi (water flowing away, disappearing) painted on the edge of the big stone sink outside the cave. "Well," Taffey said, "these phonetic maps are annoying! Daddy better come over and get more water for Mommy to cook." He walked to the spring behind the house and poured water from a bark bucket in the sink, and then she ran to the river and grabbed Daddy's left ear—an ear she could grab if she wanted to. "Come here now, and we'll map the rest of the sounds," Daddy said, and they were all excited all day, with a big lunch in between and a game between the two naughty ones.When they talked about the T sound, Taffy said that her name, Dad's name, and Mommy's name all started with that sound, and they should draw a handshake family.It's okay to draw once or twice, but when you draw six or seven times, Taffy and Tegumai become more and more sloppy, until in the end there is only a slender Tegumai holding Taffy and Tesu in his arms step.You can see how it happened in part from the three paintings. At first many of the drawings were beautiful, especially before lunch, but as they went back and forth on the birch bark, they became more and more simple, and finally even Tegumai said he couldn't find anything wrong with it.They turned the hissing snake to the other side to represent the Z sound, to show the snake softly and gently hissing backwards.They happen to draw a curlicue for the E sound, because it is often shown in paintings.They also drew the sacred beaver of the Tegumai family to represent the B sound.Because the N sound is too annoying, they drew a nose instead, and kept drawing it until they were sleepy.They drew the mouth of a barracuda in the lake to represent the gluttonous Ga Yin.Then I drew the mouth of the barracuda in the lake, with a spear inserted behind it to represent Kayin who was stabbed and injured.A short stretch of their meandering Wagai River to represent the wonderful meandering Wa sound, and so on.Until all the pronunciation maps they want are complete, the alphabet is done. Thousands of years have passed through hieroglyphics, Demotic alphabet, Nile alphabet, Critics alphabet, ancient Arabic alphabet, ancient Nordic alphabet, Doric alphabet, Ionic sub-alphabet, and various other alphabets (since Woones, Nigs, and Akhuns, and TK don't see the good stuff anyway), The beautiful old, easy-to-use, easy-to-decipher and read alphabet—A, B, C, D, E, and the rest—is once again in proper form for easy learning. But I still remember Tegumai Bopsulai, Tafimai Metlumai and Tesumaitwindlaw, and her dear Mammy, and all the days are fading away.Just—just—not so long ago—on the banks of the great Vague! All tribes in Tegumai There is nothing left of the engraved figure—— Cuckoo singing in Malou town There is nothing but emptiness and sunshine. May come back with the age of honesty The unwounded heart sings again, Taffy comes dancing, through the ferns Leading Surrey's spring again. Her eyebrows dance with fern leaves Golden pixies fly above locks; Her eyes are bright as diamonds Bluer than the sky above. Wearing moccasins and buckskin cloaks, Fearless she flies, free and beautiful, set fire to her smoking wet wood In order to let daddy know where she is flying. For far—oh, far, far away, too far away to call him, Tegumai came alone and found His daughter is everything to him.