Kaná
Kikín metsá!Very beautiful! — Kaná is with you for Module 2.
Shipibo Foundations · Module 2: Describing the World · Lesson 5 of 5

Turning the volume up (and down)

Shipibo tunes adjectives with suffixes. -shaman — of the most excellent quality: jakónshaman. -bires — purely/all: jakónbires. -tani — more or less: jakóntani. -shoko — small and endearing: jakónshoko. -ma — not: jakóma. And one standalone intensifier: kikín — very. They combine: kikín jakónshaman.

Culture note. Kikín is borrowed from Quechua — which may be why it stands alone while everything else attaches as a suffix. Two subtleties worth owning: kikín intensifies anything, good or bad (kikín jakóma — really bad), and with tastes it shades into 'too' (kikin bata — too sweet). -shaman, by contrast, always carries positive excellence — jakónshaman is the best, and jakóma-shaman is impossible. Nobody excels at being bad.
✓ sourced Module 1-2 deck slides 3–8 · nothing invented

Learn the words

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In a sentence

Try translating each line yourself before you tap.

Ja tári ríki kikín áni!
tap to translate
That tunic is very big!
Paránta xói ríki nóeshaman!
tap to translate
Grilled plantain is excellently tasty!
Náto xáwe ríki metsáshoko.
tap to translate
This gentleman is endearingly handsome.
Try it. Take one adjective and run it through all five suffixes aloud.

Build the sentence

Tap the words into order.

Say:

Check yourself

'Excellently good' is…
-tani means…
kikín is special because…
Kaná
✓

Lesson complete

Kaná approves — Jakonshaman!

Module 3: People and Possession → Path