Coyote and Junco

Coyote and Junco is a Zuni tale originally performed by Andre Peynetsa, tape recorded on January 20, 1965 near the town of Zuni. It was recorded in the language of Zuni, and translated by Dennis Tedlock, and published in both William Bright's Coyote Stories and Dennis Tedlock's Finding the Center. In both collections of Native American stories, the performances are transcribed with an ethnopoetic script in the original Zuni. Tedlock's version contains an English ethnopoetic script. Both editions have the same story and nearly identical content, but both use a different way of presenting the ethnopoetic script. The entire stories will not be reproduced in their entirety, but are available in both Tedlock's and Bright's book. A synopsis of the story is provide beneath the scripts.



William Bright's

 * There is no "abovelined" option on this wiki software, so strikethough will be used in its place.

(1) SO NAHCI             SONTI        ?INO' TE // (2) SOP LUWA [now we take it up] [now we begin] long ago         bottle-necked gourds standing YAL ?AN /  (3) SIL        ?OKACCIK  K?A kwappa /    (4) ta·ci  SUS ki /   (5) suski at the top   junco     old lady is housed SUB       and   coyote       coyote lak    ?ala            ?i·mul?an            hol   ca?liye./         (6) ca?lappa/ there  bunch of rocks  where they sit down  then  there is a brood      there is a            (7) ta·ci  sil    ?okaccik  holi-/    (8) kawasey?a,/    (9) tesuk?o/ brood SUB     and    junco  old lady  then          winnows            pigweed seeds (10) ta·p k?usuc?i,         hol   kawasey?a./    (11) ill?anna   wolun  hol  lesna/ and  tumbleweed seeds  then  she winnows         with her   basket then that way (12) kawasnan  ?allacelk?akka./ to winnow she tossed them in the air.

Notes:
 * SUB refers to subordination to a later verb.
 * At the end of the ethnopoetic script, Bright included a "Free Version" of the story that had grammar corrections. It is important to note that this was done by all stories presented in Twbtg2's project, as a linear word-by-word translation would be incredibly difficult to read and not be a true representation of the tradition of which it is an artifact.

Dennis Tedlock
SO'NAHCHI SONTI INOOTE • SHOPLJUWAYAL'AN SILOKYATTSIK KY'Akwappa taachiSUSki suski lak A'l Iimulh'an holh cha'liye Cha'lappa taachi sil okyattski holhi kyawashey'a teshuk'o  taap k'ushuts'i holh kyawashey'a.  Ill'anna wolun holh lesna kyawashnan allachelhky'akkya.

NOWWE TAKE IT UP, THE ROAD BEGINS LONG AGO • WHERE THE BOTTLE GOURD STANDS ON TOP OLD LADY JUN</SUP>CO has her HOME and CoYOte Coyote has his children there at Sitting Rock. He has his children and as for Old Lady Junco she's winnowing, pigweed and tumbleweed seeds, it seems she's winnowing. With her basket, this way ''(holds out his hand palm up, bouncing it up and down) she winnowed by tossing them in the air.
 * }

Synopsis
Coyote, while returning to his children hears a junco bird singing a song. He asks her to sing it for him so he can sing it for his children. He forgets the song four times and returns to Junco to hear it again, but the fourth time she refuses to sing for him. He bites the rock she is hiding in and his molars fall out. He later returns to his children, who have died.

Approach : Ethnopoetics
The two scripts show the true creativity allowed with the ethnopoetic approach to an oral tradition. Bright and Tedlock have taken the same source and same desired goal, and approached at that goal with dissimilar tactics and designs. Bright's script is more of a word-for-word translation, while Tedlock's aims to balance both maintaining the original performative aspects of the story but recreate it in an understandable and entertaining fashion. Both have their own merit, and both serve two different purposes. Tedlock was allowed more creative freedom with his script as his book was published many years after Bright's, but other than the rising and falling letters, there are not many differences in the presentation of the scripts. Both feature dashes for extended vowel noises, and capital letter instruct the reader/reperformer to be louder. Here is a side by side comparison of their ethnopoetic keys:

Reading either script would produce the same story, and desirably the same sounding story. Bright's is more difficult to read not only because he uses question marks for some symbols, but because of the overall line by line layout of his translation. This is one example of how technology benefits the field of Oral Tradition and the Ethnopoetic approach is most useful when an easy to use yet efficient system is able to convey the most meaning to the reader.

The presence of the original Zuni language is also beneficial to the reader on many levels. When reading something that has been translated into English, it is easy to forget about the hard work it takes to translate these words, as well as how much meaning is lost in translation. Each langauge, and more specifically each oral tradition has a functional technology that allows it to mean what the story teller wants it to mean. Ethnopoetics, Immanant Art, and Performance Theory all try to bring these elements to the surface by their unique approach, but it is important to remember that the best way to approach any story or tradition is with all three techniques, never limiting the possibilities of understanding.

Further Analysis
Oral traditions are only useful if they serve a purpose to their culture. Besides entertainment, this story also provides an explanation of why coyote doesn't have molars, and also provides a conduct lesson of the importance of not getting distracted.

It is important to look at both the contextual meanings of an oral tradition, as well as the subtextual inferences. It is easy to pick the easy messages up, but many traditions may have many other meanings to a story or tradition than an outside can pick up on. Being and outside observer has its benefits, but one must truely immerse themselves into a culture before than can truely understand the importance and meaning of a tradition, if they ever can truly understand it.

Further Thought

 * See Talk:Coyote and Junco for questions to think about and discuss.