We will begin this section by learning a few more common Arapaho verbs:

 

nííhonéíhinoo	I am yellow
bee'éíhinoo	I am red
henííyootéíhinoo	I am clean
tenéi'éíhinoo	I am strong

 

These verbs are all intransitive - that means that they have a subject but no object. For right now, let's concentrate on animate (living) subjects. (Arapaho makes an important distinction between animate and inanimate things, in both its nouns and its verbs, but we will save this discussion for later). Arapaho indicates the subject of the verb by adding suffixes to the end of the verb. The suffixes are as follows:

 

1st person	singular	(1)	-noo	"I"
2nd person	singular	(2)	-n	"you"
3rd person	singular	(3)	-t	"he"/"she"
1st person	plural	(1p)	-'	"we"
1st person	plural	(1p)	-ni'	"we"
1st person	2nd person	(12)	-no'	"we" (you & me)
2nd person	plural	(2p)	-nee	"You all"
3rd person	plural	(3p)	-3i'	They are strong

 

From now on, we will use the abbreviations 1, 2, 3, 1p, 12, 2p, and 3p to save space when talking about the verbs.

 

Here are each of the these suffixes applied the verb tenei'eihi- ("strong"):

 

tenéi'éíhinoo	I am strong
tenéi'éíhin	You are strong
tenéi'éíhit	He/she is strong
tenéí'eihí'	We are strong
tenéí'eihíno'	We/you and I are strong
tenéí'eihínee	You two are strong
tenéí'eihí3i'	They are strong

 

In many cases, the final -i of tenei'eihi- is dropped before the endings -noo, -n, and -t. This is virtually always true before -t. So Arapaho speakers normally say tenei'éíht.

In the plural forms, the stress typically shifts "forward" towards the end of the word, as in the above examples. The final -eihí3i' may be pronounced -ehí3i' or -ehéí3i' on some occasions.

 

Go on to Part Two of this Lesson