25 Expressing ‘and’
Combining sentences with -et and -en
Sentences in English are often joined by words like and. In Mvskoke, suffixes on verbs have a similar function.
- To join two sentences with the same subject, use -et at the end of the first sentence. If the first action happens before the second, put the first sentence in the aspirating grade (h-grade).
| Tvlako okkosvs! + Noricvs! | ‘Wash the beans!’ + ‘Cook them!’ | |
| → | Tvlako okkohset, ohwen noricvs! | ‘Wash the beans, and then cook them!’ |
The example above is two commands being joined. The subject of each sentence is the same (‘you’), so -et is used. We can call -et a SAME-SUBJECT MARKER. The washing takes place before the cooking, so the verb of the first sentence is put in the h-grade.
Here’s another example.
| Este hvmket vlakvtēs. + | ‘A man came up (long ago).’ | |
| Mv erkenvkvn raohhvlatvtēs. | ‘He (went and) took hold of the preacher (long ago).’ | |
| → | Este hvmket vlahket, | ‘A man came up |
| mv erkenvkvn raohhvlatvtēs. | and took hold of the preacher (long ago).’ |
The example above involves two statements. Both sentences share the same subject, so -et is used to connect them. The first action is completed first, so the h-grade is used.
- To join two sentences with different subjects, use -en at the end of the first sentence. The first sentence is put in the aspirating grade for a sequence.
| Mv honvnwvt acehyes. + | ‘The man came in (today/last night).’ | |
| Ę̄ lihkis. | ‘I just sat down (today/last night).’ | |
| → | Mv honvnwvt acehyen, ę̄ lihkis. | ‘The man came in, and I just sat down (today/last night).’ |
The example above involves two sentences with different subjects. The different-subject marker -en is used to join them. The first sentence is completed before the second sentence, so the aspirating grade is used in the first sentence.
- Note that the aspirating grade (or h-grade) has two uses. On a main verb, it indicates Past 1 (an action completed earlier today or last night). On a verb with -et or -en, the aspirating grade means that that action is completed before another action (not necessarily earlier that day).
