Sahaptin affixes in Upper Chinook

Summary

Affix function number of borrowed affixes

Description

Information and examples are from Sapir (1907:541–542). He characterizes these forms as “loosely tagged on postposi­tions, in some cases optionally prepositions”, but also calls them “suffixed or prefixed”. Silverstein (1974:S98) calls these forms “enclitics on noun phrases for adverbial “case” relations” and notes that “from the Chinookan structural perspective, these are superfluous to the system, which incorporates dativoid relations into the verb prefix”. Campbell (1997) calls these forms “case endings” and “derivational suffix”. See also Kinkade et al. (1998).

4 peripheral case suffixes

  • -ba ‘in, at’, e.g. wimałba ‘in the river’, dáuyaba wílX ‘in this country’ (lit. this-in country’), gatcig̣ ÉkElba ‘where he saw him’ (from gatcig̣ ÉkEl ‘he saw him’)
  • -iamt ‘towards, from’, e.g. wimaꞁiámt ‘to or from the river’, imig̣áł naikáyamt ‘you are bigger than I’ (lit. your bigness ［is］ me-from, compared with me’); átpXiamd agáłax ‘to where she goes out towards ［us］ (atpX ‘she goes out towards’), the sun’, i.e. ‘east’
  • -báma ‘for’, e.g. cán bama ‘for whom?’, Múlmul bama ‘from, belonging to Fort Simcoe’. This form can be suffixed or prefixed
  • -ÉnEgi ‘with’, e.g. aq!ē’wiqxi ngi with a knife’. This element is described as “post-or pre-position”.

1 adjectivizers

  • ámEni ‘made out of’, e.g. igábEnac amEni ‘made out of young oak’. This element is described as “post-or pre-position”.

1 verb subordination suffix

  • -bÉt, ‘when’, e.g. gayúyabEt ‘when he went ‘; nk!áckacbEt ‘when I was a child.’ In lengthened form, bä’t means ‘as soon as’, e.g. gayuyabä’t ‘as soon as he went.’