Yeléwel éy te sqá:qs

His little brother is better.

Yeléwel éy te sqá:qs means ‘His littler brother is better’ .

Literally:   ‘More good (is) the younger.sibling of (him)’).

Vocabulary and Pronunciation

• yeláwel – more (see yelá:w)
• éy – big
• sqá:q – younger sibling (can be brother or sister, in this case ‘brother’ is understood from the context)
• -s – of (him/her) (marks that he/she is the possessor)

Audio: Elizabeth Herrling

Phrase structure

Here is a word-for-word translation of the phrase:

Note that:

•  There is no explicit word for ‘is‘ or ‘his‘, both of these are understood from the context.
• The –s ending marks that the sqá:q has a third person possessor, but does not indicate exactly who.