'unuldilh

[ʔʌnʌltiɬ]

(s)he is eating berries off the bush

Carrier/Dakelh – 600 speakers – central British Columbia, Canada

Berries, especially blueberries, form a significant part of the traditional diet, and collecting and drying berries is a major summer activity. Carrier people even set forest fires in order to create berry habitat. Of course it is hard to avoid eating while you work, or picking a few berries for a snack while travelling. However, "eating berries off the bush" is not the true meaning of this verb. You can use it to describe someone eating berries as he or she picks them, but you can also use it to describe someone eating berries one by one from a bowl. On the other hand, someone eating berries by the spoonful cannot be described using this word.

What this verb actually describes is eating individual members of a "mess" of berries. Most of the time we do not concern ourselves with individual berries, just as we do not concern ourselves with individual grains of sand, salt, sugar, or rice. There are so many that we think of the collection as an uncountable mass, not as a set of individuals. If we eat members of such a "mess" one by one, so that we individuate them, we are doing what is described by this verb. 

In this word, the n is a "classifier" for round things. We can use the same basic verb, without the n, to describe a bear eating ants, where, unfortunately from the bear's point of view, it is possible only to get hold of one or a few ants at a time. More about Carrier.

Source: personal field notes

Credit: Bill Poser