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kiyaga. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
kiyaga, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
kiyaga in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
kiyaga you have here. The definition of the word
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Wauja
Pronunciation
Noun
kiyaga
- a color or pigment that is pale, pastel, light-colored, cloudy, watery, milky, or misty.
- circumlocution or euphemism for water or rain
Nejota. Itsa weke eu, itsa weke, itsa weke, itsa weke ... Kiyaga takeneu. Tururueneu.- So that's exactly how it was. It was like that, like that, like that ... Rain fell, thunder came again
Usage notes
- Wauja have described kiyaga as the color of the silt that rises in the water when you step through a clear stream. Note that this word ends with the –ga suffix, found in many nouns that refer to liquids.
- Blue eyes are described as kiyaga.
- In the story excerpt above, the storyteller Aruta could not simply say Uno takeneu ("Rain fell"), because his daughter-in-law's name is Uno ("Water"). As a matter of respect, a Wauja refrains from uttering the name of his or her daughter-in-law. (The polite way to refer to the spouse of one's son or daughter is "wife/husband of so-and-so" or "mother/father of so-and-so.") That's why, in the example above, the storyteller used the circumlocution Kiyaga takeneu ("pale/watery stuff fell"). Ulawalu and her sister Uhekualu kindly pointed out this substitution in Aruta's telling of the story in 1989.
- kiyagapai (“is a pale, cloudy, watery, milky color or pigment”)
References
- "Nejota. Itsa weke" (transcript p. 40) uttered by Aruta, elder and storyteller, while recounting story of "The Caiman Spirit and the Origin of Piqui," (Yakaojokuma), November 1989. Recorded in BBC film, "The Storyteller."