Na'ts'udai

This the first person plural subject with unspecified object, meaning ``three or more of us eat omething''. It is the habitual aspect form, indicating that the eating in question is a typical instance of a habitual action, such as eating a meal. The corresponding non-habitual form would be 'uts'uyi.

Whutso

This is the postposition tso "before, in front of" inflected for an areal object. A clause (sentence) is often treated in Carrier as if it were an areal noun phrase.

Betenazdudlih

This is an instrumental nominalization, made by attaching the prefix be to a verb form. tenazdudlih by itself means "we pray".

boozi

Notice that this is the third person singular possessive form, literally meaning "his name", not the third person plural possessive form huboozi, meaning "their name(s)", even though the possessor is plural, namely "the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit". This is typical in Carrier; there is a tendancy to avoid explicit indicating of plurality on both the possessor and the thing possessed. In this particular case, the use of the singular could also be justified on theological grounds, namely the fact that the three Holy Persons are considered to be manifestations of the one God, but there are many parallel examples where there is no such theological explanation.

neondleh

The optative affirmative (OA) neondleh is used here rather than the imperfective affirmative neindle because it is a more polite command and thus more appropriate when speaking to the Creator.

Yinka Déné Language Institute © 2006