Os lheq sus tl’o kw’e le ew í:tet o, kw’áy kw’ses kwíyx̲thets!

Os lheq sus tl’o kw’e le ew í:tet o, kw’áy kw’ses kwíyx̲thets! means ‘It’s always like they’re just sleeping, they can’t move!’

Audio: Elizabeth Herrling

Note: Elizabeth is chuckling while she says this phrase.

Vocabulary and Structure

This phrase has the following structure:

Vocabulary:

• os – a sentence connective, similar to Engish so. Sometimes osu.
• lheq – can mean always or sometimes
• su – so
• –s – here marks that there is a ‘third person’ (someone or something other than you or me) subject.
• tl’o kw’e… – it is that…
• le – this is an untranslatable ‘auxiliary’, often used with third person subjects (here the understood ‘they‘) It my be a reduced form of lam – to go.
• ew … o – just… (Together, these two little words mean ‘just‘. Another example would be ew swíyeqe o – just a man. Both words are used in other ways, but in combination they give the meaning ‘just…’.)
• í:tet – sleeping (see ítet)
• kw’ay – can’t, (it is) impossible
• kw’es – that
• -es – here, marks (‘agrees with’) an (understood) third person subject (someone other than you or me). In this sentence the understood third person subject is ‘they‘
• kwíyx̲thet – to move oneself
• -s – this –s again marks the presence of the (understood) third person subject.