These are the lyrics to of the Northern Arapaho Eagle Song (words only):

 

neisonoo beniineinoo nii’eihii hiniiboot

My father gives me the eagle’s song.

neisonoo	beniin-einoo	nii’eihii	hi-niiboot
my-father	give-he/me	eagle	his-song

 

As you can see, in the first line is the TA verb biin- ‘give someone something.’ The ending is a new one, showing that ‘he’ is doing it to ‘me.’ This is the type of ending you will learn in this chapter. So far, you’ve learned how to use TA verbs when talking about I, we, you, and you plural. At this point, we still need to learn how to talk about the third person (him, her, they, etc). Before we begin learning this, you need to learn about what is often called the “person ranking system” in Arapaho.

You will have already noticed that ‘you’ forms always are on the end of the TA verbs in Arapaho, no matter whether ‘you’ is the one doing the action or the one being acted on:

 

nonoohob-e3e-n	I see you
nonoohow-u-n	You see me.

 

In fact, in Arapaho, there is a ranking, and the person involved who is higher ranked is the one who goes on the end of the verb. This ranking system is:

 

2 (SING and PL)

12

3PL (actor only)

1SING

3SING, 3PL (object acted on only)

1PL

4 (obviative)

0 (inanimate)

 

 

Go on to Part Two of this Lesson