#ya arantan

[okinawanonline]

Past State-of-Being — Conjugating Yan in Okinawan

We’ve covered the copula yan as well as the polite and negative forms of yan. But let’s go back in time and figure out the past versions of these terms.

Since we’ve recently introduced adjectives, I’d like to remind you that sa adjectives do not use the copula so keep that in mind when making sentences.

Plain Past — Yatan The plain, past tense of yan is yatan, expressing that something was.

 牛やたん。 うしやたん。 Ushi yatan. It was a cow.

 冬やたん。 ふゆやたん。 Fuyu yatan. It was winter.

Polite Past — Yaibitan The polite past tense of yan is yaibitan.

牛やいびたん。 うしやいびたん。 Ushi yaibitan. It was a cow.

冬やいびたん。 ふゆやいびたん。 Fuyu yaibitan. It was winter.

Plain Past Negative — Ya arantan The plain, negative past tense of yan is ya arantan. This expresses that something wasn’t. Keep in mind that the ya here is the particle ya and requires ya assimilation when applicable.

今日やあらんたん。 ちゅーやあらんたん。 Chuu ya arantan. It wasn’t today.

我んねーあらんたん。 わんねーあらんたん。 Wannee arantan. It wasn’t me.

Polite Past Negative — Ya aibirantan The polite, negative past tense of yan is ya aibirantan.

今日やあいびらんたん。 ちゅーやあいびらんたん。 Chuu ya aibirantan. It wasn’t today.

我んねーあいびらんたん。 わんねーあいびらんたん。 Wannee aibirantan. It wasn’t me.

Tips for Japanese Speakers: It may help for you to think of these words in terms of similar Japanese words. Yatan - だった, yaibitan = でした, ya arantan = じゃなかった, ya aibirantan = ではありませんでした though there are some grammatical differences like the use of the ya particle in Okinawan while Japanese does not use は here.

In review

Plain Past — Yatan

Polite Past — Yaibitan

Plain Past Negative — Ya arantan

Polite Past Negative — Ya aibirantan