La hó:kwexes kw’ses la lex̲éywa means ‘They used it to go torchlighting’.
Audio: Elizabeth Herrling
Vocabulary and Structure
This phrase has the following structure:
Vocabulary:
- Note that Elizabeth does not use words for ‘they‘ or ‘it‘ in this sentence. As is common in the language, you have to understand these from the context.
- la is an auxiliary of helper verb, often untranslatable, but related to the meaning ‘go‘ (probably a reduced version of lám -‘to go‘.
- kw’es means ‘that’. Because the understood subject is ‘they‘, which counts as ‘3rd person’ (neither you nor me), you have to add an ending –es, which makes kw’ses. Linguists call this ‘3rd person agreement’ (similar to the –s ending in English He walks).
- hó:kwex – ‘using, wearing’ (see hókwex). This type of verb also requires an –es ‘agreement’ ending when the subject is third person, so that the understood subject ‘they‘ again triggers the –es ending, to make hó:kwexes
- lex̲éywa – ‘to torchlight’
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