kuná

Saying and Quoting

Level 3

Quoted words + kuna or kinuna + speaker.

How It Works

A direct quotation can precede kuna and its actor. A personal name names the speaker; an attached actor pronoun identifies the speaker by person. Kunak identifies a first-person speaker, while kunana uses gender-neutral third-person -na.

Completed reporting has the attested form kinuna, with -in- inside the kuna base. A named actor can follow it. Learn this form without mechanically extending the pattern to every speech verb.

Quoted agawidak refers to the quoted speaker, even when the narrator identifies that speaker through kunana. A narrative English translation “said” does not make every unmodified kuna occurrence a universal past-tense form. Indirect reporting uses a content complement instead. The catalog key retains optional stress marking; ordinary examples omit it. Quotation marks delimit the speaker's actual words.

Examples (3)

  1. “Agawidak inton bigat,” kunana.

    “I will go home tomorrow,” she said.

    She is a contextual interpretation of gender-neutral na.

  2. “Agadalka inton bigat,” kinuna ni Mario.

    “Study tomorrow,” Mario said.

    Kinuna presents completed reporting; the quotation addresses another participant.

  3. “Adda ti danum ditoy,” kunak.

    “There is water here,” I say.

    Kunak identifies the first-person reporter.