The Languages of Native North America

Some of these structures can be seen in the opening to a narrative by Becky
Pearson recorded and analyzed by Levine (1977a: 223-47).

A^igu kaw gi

way herring.spawn to
*Do you want to know

ialAJj hAlxa-gay /

1PL.AGENT gather-DEFINITE

gAtl

for

^uns^yid-day

knOW-DEFINITE

gi gwa dAn sdaU

to Q 2SG.PATIENT Want

how we pick fish eggs?

Au gu gaw gi iaUrj hydxa-tj lAna-gay xid-gu ?a.

boat there in to 1pl.agent gather-DEF village-DEnNiTE below-there mode
We go out to get it on boats in front of the village.

qada gway-ay qulga gi talAtj

out island-DEFiNiTE around to Ipl. agent

We get it around those islands out there.

hAlxa-jj.
gather-DEFINITE

Sam-s-i gy-u ialAf] hAlxa-ij.

thick-DEPENDENT-DEnNITE tO-FOREGROUND lPL.AGENT gather-DEFINITE

We get the thick ones.

^iigid-si ialAij

SOme-PRONOMINALIZER lPL.AGENT

And then we salt some

tar/'ga-da-s-i

Salt-INCHOATIVE-CAUSATIVE-DEPENDENT-DEnNrrE

mn?asir] ialAtj fca-ga-da iaUrj ga qal-da-ga sirja gAtj ?a

and this 1pl.agent dry-iNCH-CAus 1pl.agt some freeze-iNCH-cs winter for mode
and we dry some and we also freeze some for winter.'

Mithun, Marianne. 1999. The Languages of Native
North America. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.