yít’em

melt away

Yít’em is the Halq’eméylem word for ‘to melt away’. You can use it for talking about snow melting, ice melting, etc….

Pronunciation

• Yít’em sounds like YEE-tum, except that the t is popped.
• To pop the t, you combine it with a catch in the throat (glottal stop).

Audio: Elizabeth Herrling, Elizabeth Phillips

-ing Form

Yít’em has a special –ing  form:: yíyet’em – melting. (Audio here.)

Elders make the equivalent of English X–ing form by doubling the the first two sounds of the word.

Examples

Here are some examples of how you can use yít’em (and yíyet’em):

• Yít’em te máqe. – The snow melts/melted.
• Yíyet’em te máqe. – The snow is/was melting.
• Yít’em te spíw. – The ice melts/melted.
• Yíyet’em te spíw. – The ice is/was melting.

Note that these Halq’eméylem sentences are ambiguous between present and past tense. This is normal in Halq’eméylem—the elders often expect you to just figure out whether it’s past or present tense from the context.

Related Words

Here are some words related to yít’em

• yít’et – to melt (it) (this is the ‘transitive’ version, where you act on another object to melt it)
• Siyét’a – this is the name of a village located near the Agassiz-Rosedale bridge.