Tl’átl’el te th’ístels te smúsmes

Tl’átl’el te th’ístels te smúsmes means “(They) attach a cow’s horn”, or “A cow’s horn is attached”

Audio: [speaker]

Structure and Vocabulary

This phrase has the following structure:

• (s)tl’átlel – (be) attached
• te – a, the (Halq’eméylem does not distinguish as in English a vs. the)
• th’ístel – horn (of an animal), antler
• -s here, translates roughly as of. Literally it makrs that a ‘third person’ (neither you nor me, in this case the cow) possesses the object (here, the horn).
• músmes – cow (Note that Elizabeth adds an s-. The s– prefix, used in this way, is a noun marker, and speakers are quite variable in whether they use it or not with certain nouns.)