The following is an old Ghost Dance Song.

 

heisonoonin houu	Our father the crow,
beehiineenitii[t]	He created everything.
heisonoonin	Our father.

 

Notice that when it talks about "our" father, there is no separate word for "our." Instead, "our father" is all one word. In fact, the beginning prefix he- indicates 'your,' while the final suffix -in changes the meaning to 'yours and mine' – in other words, 'our.' This is called possession, and the details on who the possessor is – whether it's 'my father' or 'your father' or 'her father' – are always indicated by prefixes and suffixes, which we will learn in this section.

 

he-isonoon-in	houu	beehii-neenitii-t	he-isonoon-in
our father	crow	all-create/do-he	our father

 

Arapaho uses a set of prefixes to indicate ownership - "my name," "your cup." The dashes are added simply to help you see the new parts that are added to the word. They are not actually part of written or spoken Arapaho.

 

ne-niisih'íít	my name	neniisih'íít-ono	my names
he-niisih'íít	your name	heniisih'íít-ono	your names
hi-niisih'íít	his/her name	hiniisih'íít-ono	his/her names

neniisih'íít-oonínoo	our name / names
heniisih'íít-oonin	our(incl) name or names
heniisih'íít-oonínoo	your(pl) name or names
hiniisih'íít-oonínoo	their name or names

 

The -oon- after the noun is simply a modified form of the plural -ono. It is required with 1plural, 12, 2plural, and 3plural. When a noun already ends with long vowels or diphthongs, then there is no additional change: touyoo becomes notouyoo, 'my cup,' notouyoono, 'my cups', hitouyooninoo, 'their cups.' Note that Arapaho does not distinguish between "our name" and "our names."

 

 

Go on to Part Three of this Lesson