[_]
(1.6) Linguistic Notes
1. chaałnaagháná'a 'she went about weeping'.
chaał is a form of the theme -cha 'to weep' [act. intr.] plus a suffix -ł 'while--ing'. naaghá is the third person imperfective mode of naa-...[si-
perf.]-yá 'one person moves about' [act.
intr.]. naa- 'about'. The imperfective stem of
this verb varies with the person [naashá 'I go
about ', nann
dá
'you go about', naajighá 'he goes about']
presumably because the pronoun has combined in various ways with the initial
stem consonant.
2. ha'yágonáhé 'how, in what way'. ha' the
interrogative pronoun stem [see Grammatical sketch §4] plus -yá, postposition, and -go subordinating enclitic give the interrogative or
indefinite pronoun ha'yágo 'how, somehow'.
-ná is an enclitic denoting emphasis and
-hé [also heard -hee], is an interrogative enclitic.
3. gózhóͅgo 'it, being good'. Third person with
place pronoun of ni-...-zhóͅ 'to be good' [imp. neut. intr.]. ni- disappears in the third person leaving a high tone on
go-. In this context, gózhóͅgo loses its literal meaning and simply adds emphasis
to the preceding interrogative pronoun.
4. niigosdzání 'the earth'. A compound of ndii- 'earth' [compounded form nii-] and gosdzáń
meaning unknown. This compound refers to the earth or to the universe in
general whereas ndii is used when the reference
is merely to the surrounding country.
5. bikázhiͅ 'on its surface'. -ká 'surface, top' [indep. pp.]; -zhiͅ 'to' [pp.]; bi-
third person possessive; referent, earth.
6. gólaaná 'would they be created!' góla third person optative mode of go-...[si-
perf.]-laa 'to be born, created' (act.
intr.). -ná emphatic enclitic.
7. n
díná'a 'she
said, it is said'. Third person imperfective mode of di-...[hi- perf.]-n
dí 'to say' [act.
intr.]. di- is a prefix employed with verbs of
saying, speaking, making a noise, etc. The third person form is irregular,
the prefix having been lost.
8. The part of this sentence within the quotation marks is meant to be an
intensified exclamatory interrogative. The use of the enclitics -ná and -hé, the use
of gózhóͅgo, and the selection of the optative
mode for the principal verb all serve to give this meaning. White Painted
Woman is in despair; her children are all being destroyed by the giant; she
is seeking to circumvent him and populate the earth.
