Coyote and Owl, Mescalero Apache Text :: :: University of Virginia Library

Coyote and Owl, Mescalero Apache Text

excerpted from Chiricahua Apache Texts, with Ethnological Notes

2. Coyote and Owl as told by Charles Smith

Ethnological Notes Morris Opler

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Then, as he started to leave Owl, he said to him:

(2.14)[14]
'Ákoo, Niishjaań goch'áͅnádeesdzágo,

"K'adóo'iͅiͅdáͅáͅ'é. 'Iyáak'adóo nndáͅ?"

biłch'indiná'a.

Then, as he started to leave Owl, he said to him:

"It is time that we eat. What will you eat now?"

[_]

(2.14) Linguistic Notes

k'adóo'iͅiͅdáͅáͅ'é 'it is time that we eat'. k'adóo > k'adé 'now, right now' plus -go subord. 'iͅiͅ-dáͅáͅ', a bound form of 'iͅiͅdáͅ, 1st person dual imp. with indef. obj. of -yáͅ 'to eat' [act. tr.]; -é relative.

Note that the verb 'to eat' suffers alternations of the stem initial similar to those of -yá 'one person moves'. See nndáͅ 'you will eat' [2nd person imp.] in this passage and k'adéhisháͅáͅ'é 'that which I would eat now' [1st person imp.] in passage 15. It is characteristic of both Chir. and Mesc. that stems beginning with y- combine with the prefixed consonants immediately preceding. This is also true of other Athapaskan languages. See F.-K. Li, Mattole, An Athabaskan Language [Chicago, 1930], §11, pp. 14-16.