Tl’o hó:kwexes kw’es héyeqws… is a partial phrase, meaning ‘It’s what (they) used to burn…’. There is no explicit word for ‘they’, this is just understood from context.
Audio: Elizabeth Herrling
Vocabulary and Structure
This partial phrase has the following structure:
Vocabulary:
- tl’o – it is (what) (this is a ‘focus’ marker, used for a certain kind of emphasis, and does not translate directly into English)
- hó:kwex – ‘to use‘ (you can also use this for ‘to wear‘)
- -es – must be added to the verb, because this type of verb requires an –es ending whenever its subject is ‘third person’ (neither me nor you). In this case, the third person subject is just understood (but not expressed) to be ‘they‘ (i.e. the ones who use it). Even when not explicitly stated, third person subjects still trigger the –es ending on this type of verb.
- kw’es – usually translates as that, but here means to.
- héyeqw – burning (see yéqw – to burn). Note that ‘burning’ and ‘fire’ are the same word, so you could also translate this as ‘fire’ (see héyeqw – fire).
- -s – here the –s ending is another third person subject agreement marker. This –s is required with all verbs when the subject is third person, when you have an ’embedded’ structure (here introduced by kw’es).
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