Lesson Fourteen - Part One TA Questions and Negatives
The following is the text of a Wolf Song (also called Comanche Song) recorded by Willard Rhodes in the early 1950's. Notice that it has a TA verb in the second line, which occurs as a question form:
| honóh'oe | Young man, |
| koohonóóhow | do you see me? |
| nenééninoo | It is I, |
| henéécee níhoonéíh | Yellow Bull. |
| honoh'oe | koo-ho-nóóhow | neneeni-noo | heneecee | nihooneih |
| young man/boy | INTERR-2-see | it is-I | buffalo bull | yellow |
When using TA verbs, questions and negations work just like with AI verbs. The final suffix is replaced by a prefix, and there is no initial change:
| beetéee-n | you are dancing |
| heihoowu-betéee | you are not dancing |
| koohé-betéee | are you dancing? |
| nonoohob-é3e-n | I see you |
| heihoowu-noohob-é3 | I don't see you (some say neihoownoohobé3) |
| kooho-noohob-é3 | Do I see you? (some say koononoohobé3) |
You see that the system is just like before - it's just a matter of practice making all the changes at one time. The first part of the suffix (the -e3e- and the -ee-) acts like it's part of the verb, and it stays the same place all the time, so you only have to worry about the ending. Here's an example with 'we':
| nonoohób-ee-n | we see you |
| heihoowu-noohób-eé | we don't see you |
| kooho-noohób-eé | do we see you? |