So far, we’ve only been dealing with first and second person, so things have been relatively simple, with second person always at the very end. But now we’re going to start dealing with third person, and as you can see from the ranking above, that makes things a little trickier. Here are some examples:

 

nonoohob-ei-noo	S/he sees me. (1SING outranks 3SING, so 1SING (-noo) goes on the end)
nonoohob-ei-n	S/he sees you. (2 outranks 3SING, so 2 (-n) goes on the end)
nonoohob-i-3i’	They see me. (3PL outranks 1SING, so 3PL (-3i’) goes on the end)
nonoohob-ei’ee-t	S/he sees us. (3SING outranks 1PL, so 3SING (-t) goes on the end)
nonoohow-oo-t	S/he sees the other(obviative) one(s). (3 outranks 4, so 3 (-t) goes on the end)

 

This may look somewhat confusing. We won’t try to learn all of the different possible combinations at once. Instead, we’ll just focus on a few very useful ones. In particular, you should learn these combinations:

 

nonoohow-o’	I see him/her.
nonoohow-ou’u	I see them.
nonoohob-einoo	S/he sees me.
nonoohow-oot	S/he sees the other one(s).
nonoohob-eit	The other one(s) see him/her.

 

The -o- or -oo- indicates the higher ranked one is doing something to the lower ranked one, while the -ei- indicates the lower ranked one is doing something to the higher ranked one. If that’s confusing, just memorize the five forms above, and don’t worry too much about tables and explanations for now.

 

A Short Descriptive Story

(TA verbs are underlined)

 

Ceebisee-noo.	I am walking along.
Heet-yihoo-noo neyei3eino’oowuu’.	I will go to school.
Nonoohow-o’ neyei3einotii.	I see the school bus.
Nonoohow-ou’u neyei3eihiiho’.	I see the students.
Neene’eehek noo’eiyeihii.	There is the bus driver.
Nonoohob-einoo.	He sees me.
Neniiteheib-einoo heetih-teexoku-noo.	He is helping me to get on the bus.
Beniin-o’ wo3onohoe.	I am giving him a note (some paper).
Nenei’oohoot-o’.	He is looking at it.
Neyei3eihiiho’ nenei’oohoot-ou’u.	The students are looking at it.
Noo’eiyeihii nonoohow-oot neyei3eihiiho.	The bus driver is looking at the students.
Woow heet-ce3ei’oo-no’!	Now we’re setting off (he says).

 

As you can see, you can start to tell stories and describe things that are happening with the different TA verb forms you have used.

 

 

Exercises for Lesson Eighteen