Tl’eqtámeth’ te sqá:qs.

His little brother is tall.

Tl’eqámeth’ te sqá:qs means ‘His little brother is tall.’

Literally it means ‘Tall is the younger.sibling of …’. The English word ‘his’ is not part of the Hal’eméylem, this is just understood from context.

Vocabulary and Pronunciation

• tl’eqámeth’ – tall
• te – the
• sqá:q – younger sibling

Audio: Elizabeth Herrling
Note: this is a normal sentence in Halq’eméyle, but the audio has been cut from a longer phrase, which slightly affects Elizabeth’s pronunciation here.

Structure

The structure of this phrase is as follows:

Halq’eméylem is different from English, in that pronouns (like ‘he’, ‘him’, ‘his’, and ‘her’) are optional, and can just be understood from context.

In this sentence the possessor (‘his’) is understood from context. In other contexts, the same sentence could mean ‘Her little brother is tall’.