Híkw te lá:léms tl’ John.

John’s house is big.

Híkw te lá:léms tl’ John means ‘John’s house is big.’ A literal translation would be ‘Big (is) the house of John.’

Vocabulary and Pronunciation

• híkw – big – sounds like heek, but with rounded lips on the final k.
• te –the – sounds like tuh.
• lá:lém – house – sounds like LA-lum.
• tl’ – the (before names) – sounds like tl, except that the t is ‘popped’, by combining it with a catch in the throat (‘glottal stop’).

In this phrase, Elizabeth Herrling uses the English pronunciation for ‘John’, which is common for bilingual speakers. Some speakers would also say Chól for John.

Audio: Elizabeth Herrling

Structure

The structure of this phrase is as follows:

• Híkw te lá:lém-s tl’ John
• big the house-of the John

Note that:

• In Halq’eméylem there is no word for ‘is’ or other forms of ‘to be’.  This is just understood.
• The word-order for this type of phrase is quite different from English. Literally you say Big (is) the house-of the John.
• See here for notes on the structure of te lá:lém-s tl’ John

Related Examples

Here are some examples of similar phrases:

• Híkw te sqwemá:ys tl’ Mary – Mary’s dog is big.
• Iyómex te méles tl’ Sue – Sue’s child is good looking.
• Tl’eqtameth’ te sqáqs tl’ John – John’s little brother is tall.