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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"Wife, spread [a robe] for those people. They will sit here,"

(2.25)[25]

"Shóͅóͅdé, 'aań nndé góbá'égóͅłtił. 'Áshíͅ ńgodibiͅiͅ."

Shóͅóͅdé bi'isdzáńń yiiłndiná'a.

"Wife, spread [a robe] for those people. They will sit here,"

Coyote said to his wife.

[_]

(2.25) Linguistic Notes

1. shóͅóͅdé 'wife'. This word means literally 'friend, partner' but is restricted in usage to the coyote stories. See Linguistic Note to Chiricahua text 10.3, §1.

2. góbá'égóͅłtił 'spread [a robe] for them'. góbá- 'for them' > góbi- 3rd person dual pronoun plus á- 'for'. This special form for the 3rd person dual [object and poss.; see Grammatical Sketch, §§6 and 11] is more often used in Mesc. than in Chir.

'égóͅłtił, 2nd person imp. of 0é-go-...[si- perf.]-ł-tił 'to spread out a fabric-like object' [act. intr.]. No further analysis is possible.

3. ńgodibiͅiͅ 'they will sit down'. 3rd person imp. of ní-di-...[si- perf. -biͅiͅ- 'several sit down' [act. intr.]. ní- is probably ni- terminative, that prefix taking a high tone when it precedes a prefix beginning with -d-. di- inceptive. The deictic prefix go- functions here as a 3rd person dual [or plural] subject.