UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Basic Sentence Structure

Tłı̨chǫ sentences are structured quite differently from sentences in English. The simplest sentences in Tłı̨chǫ may consist of a single verb, on its own. Consider the following dialogue, in which a full question may be asked and answered with a single conjugated verb:

Dàgǫ̀ht’e?

What is happening?

Dagowo.

There is a dance.

Most sentences, however, contain more elements. Two of the most important are the subject and the object. The subject is the doer of the verb, the one who either performs the action or is the experiencer of the state being described.

Tłı̨ k’ego.

The dog is walking.

Sàgı̨ą wı̨nàà.

My friend is happy.

The subject always goes before the verb.

Neɂǫhchı̀ nedà.

Your bag is heavy.

Ts’èko naɂeelı.

The woman is sewing.

Verbs almost always have a subject, although this subject is sometimes shown with only verb conjugation. The only major exception to this are some impersonal verbs, such as those used for describing weather conditions; these impersonal verbs do not require a separate subject or verb conjugation for a subject:

Edza.

It is cold.

Edı̀.

It is hot.

The object of a verb is the person or thing to which the verb is being done.

Dǫ dedı̀ı whehk’e.

The man shot a moose.

Chekoa tso tàekwı̨̀.

The child is chopping wood.

Not all verbs have an object. For instance, in the sentence Tłı̨ k’ego (‘The dog is walking’), the verb k’ego has a subject (tłı̨) who is doing the walking, but no object, as the action is not being done ‘to’ anyone. Verbs with no object are called intransitive verbs. Verbs which do have an object are called transitive verbs. In sentences with transitive verbs, the object is placed between the subject and the verb:

Dǫ bò tàgeet'à.

The people are cutting up meat.

Sı̨ łıwe whıhjı̀.

I caught a fish.

As mentioned before, because of verb conjugation, it is not always necessary to specify the subject or object of a verb directly. In fact, fluent speakers most often leave out the subject, the object, or both. Consider the following example:

Sı̨ ededı̨ weghàehda.

I am looking at him.

To the average fluent speaker, the above sentence is clunky and awkward, even though it makes literal sense. Since the verb is already conjugated for the first person singular, it is not necessary to specify sı̨ (‘I’) as the subject. The verb is also already conjugated for a third person singular object; as such, one can also leave out ededı̨ (‘him’), as this too is communicated by the verb itself. Therefore, the more typical way of saying this sentence would be using only the verb:

Weghàehda.

I am looking at him.

Generally, leaving the subject or object in the sentence is done for the sake of emphasis, or to introduce new information. For example:

Sı̨ gohde.

I’m the one talking.

In this first sentence, the subject sı̨ is included to place extra emphasis on the identity of who is speaking.

Dzęghàà dǫ k’eda, eyıts’ǫ xèhts’ǫ̀ agodaade hò, tłı̨ yahɂı̨.

The man was walking around all day, and when evening came, he saw a dog.

In this second sentence, the noun dǫ is the subject of both k’eda (‘walk’) and yahɂı̨ (‘he saw it/him/her’). However, the subject for yahɂı̨ is left blank; this is because dǫ has already been mentioned earlier in the sentence, and therefore need to be repeated. In contrast, the object of the verb yahɂı̨, tłı̨ (‘dog’) is included in the second sentence, because it is new information, and therefore must be overtly established.