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13 Negative sentences

  • The suffix -eko attaches to verbs and means ‘not’.
yvhiketv ‘to sing’ yvhik- + -es yvhikes ‘he/she is singing’
yvhik- + -eko + -s yvhikekos ‘he/she is not singing’
vtotketv ‘to work’ vtotk- + -es vtotkes ‘he/she is working’
vtotk- + -eko + -s vtotkekos ‘he/she is not working’
  • The question marker -v is not pronounced after -eko.
yvhiketv ‘to sing’ yvhik- + -v yvhikv? ‘is he/she singing?’
yvhik- + -eko + -v yvhikeko? ‘isn’t he/she singing?’
  • When a verb is used in a positive sentence, the last vowel of the stem may be lengthened. Verbs are not lengthened when they’re negative, however.
hecetv ‘to see, look at’ hēces ‘he/she sees it’
hecekos ‘he/she doesn’t see it’
esketv ‘to drink’ ēskes ‘he/she is drinking it’
eskekos ‘he/she isn’t drinking it’
letketv ‘(one) to run’ lētkes ‘he/she is running’
letkekos ‘he/she is not running’
  • Agent person markers appear before negative -eko. The first person singular agent is -vko.
vtotk- + -i + -eko + -es → vtotk- + -vko + -s ‘I am not working’

Here are the positive and negative forms of esketv ‘to drink’.

ēskis ‘I am drinking it’ eskvkos ‘I am not drinking it’
ēsketskes ‘you are drinking it’ esketskekos ‘you are not drinking it’
ēskes ‘he/she is drinking it’ eskekos ‘he/she is not drinking it’
ēskēs ‘we are drinking it’ eskēkos ‘we are not drinking it’
ēskatskes ‘you all are drinking it’ eskatskekos ‘you all are not drinking it’
  • Negative -eko, -vko, etc. are often shortened in statements.
yvhikekos~yvhikeks ‘he/she is not singing’
vtotkvkos~vtotkvks ‘I am not working’
kerrvkos~kerrvks ‘I don’t know’
  • Adjectives like cvpakkē ‘angry’ also form negatives with -eko.
cvcvpakkēs ‘I am angry’ cvcvpakkekot os ‘I am not angry’
cecvpakkēs ‘you are angry’ cecvpakkekot os ‘you are not angry’
cvpakkēs ‘he/she/it is angry’ cvpakkekot os ‘he/she is not angry’
pucvpakkēs ‘we are angry’ pucvpakkekot os ‘we are not angry’
  • Negative -eko is not used with nouns. A special word toko ‘not being’ is used instead (see 0).
  Heyv pokkot os. ‘This is a ball.’ Heyv pokko tokot os. ‘This is not a ball.’

 

 

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Mvskoke Language Patterns Copyright © by Jack Martin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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