The Cheyenne Language

finals Abstract finals convey less specific information than do concrete finals:


Introduction
This book is an introduction to the Cheyenne language. It will not teach you to speak Cheyenne. But it can be a resource tool to help you understand how the Cheyenne language works.
The best way to learn a language is by listening carefully to a good speaker of that language. You must imitate the way they speak. And you must be willing to converse in the language even if you do not know all the words or all of the grammar.
To teach Cheyenne successfully you must try to think of what you yourself like to talk about in Cheyenne. Teach your students how to talk about those things. Teach your students to carry on a conversation in Cheyenne. Think of the things you like to tell people about. These kinds of things are what you should teach to others in your Cheyenne classes.
This book describes the structure (grammar) of Cheyenne. This structure is like the main bones of someone's body. Now, to teach the language, you must put "muscles, organs, meat, skin, hair, and clothes," in other words, natural conversational language, on the grammar "bones." Teach Cheyenne to others the way that you yourself learned to speak Cheyenne. You didn't memorize lists of animals or colors or numbers, did you? So don't teach lists of words. Instead, teach others how to talk in Cheyenne, how to carry on a conversation. Use natural Cheyenne sentences and repeat them often. It is necessary to say words and sentences many times for someone so they can hear them and begin to lear them. And be sure to correct them in a nice way when they don't say the words right. Keep repeating the words for them until they say them right.
Please don't try to teach Cheyenne using this book. Don't try to learn to understand or speak Cheyenne from using this book. This book only describes the Cheyenne language. It does not teach you how to understand or speak Cheyenne. You cannot learn a language from reading a book. A language is taught and learned orally, the way babies learn a language.
In some places in this book there will be technical things which will be useful to some people, but not everyone. If you come across technical language in this book that doesn't mean anything to you, don't be concerned about it. Keep going. Hopefully it won't be too long before the book starts making sense again. If you already speak Cheyenne, try to focus on the Cheyenne examples instead of the technical language.
The descriptions of Cheyenne in this book are based on information given by many Cheyenne people. I have tried my best to write down accurately what people have said. But sometimes something you read in this book might not look right. Be patient! Study the book some more. Maybe there is a mistake in the book. Or maybe the book is right but something about the way it is written is confusing. Please keep a list of mistakes you find in this book and tell me them to me so they can be fixed.
You might be able to think of other ways of saying something, different from what is in the book. That is good. Cheyenne people have different ways of saying things.   ' 197 -mane 'drink' 197 /-háóéná/ 'pray' 197 -mésehe 'eat' 197 /-sévanó/ 'ski, skate' 198 /-oveše(ná)/ 'go to bed' 198 /-néé/ 'be standing ' 198 -hoo'e /-hoe/ 'be at' 198 -éestse 'speak' 198 /-émá/ 'take a sweat' 199 -néehove 'be the one ' 199 néh-prefix conjunct verbs 199 'the one alone ' 199 'both of' 199 'all of' 199  There is no standard agreed upon list of Cheyenne names for the months. Instead, English names for months have been regularly used for many decades. However, some knowledge does remain of months or periods of time close to months. It is very possible that there never was a list of exactly twelve month names. Some information seems to suggest that some of the original month names did not correspond exactly to month divisions found on calendars in use today. More common month (or "moon") names may have originally been names for some of the major seasons and weather changes. It has been said that, traditionally, there were only six Cheyenne names for divisions of the years. There is often interest, however, in trying to construct a list of twelve month names. Cheyenne speakers have suggested various alternatives for month names. Somtimes there is disagreement as to which month is referred to by a term.

Abbreviations and symbols
Person abbreviations 1 First person (I, we) 2 Second person (you) 3 Third person singular (he, she, or, animate-it) 1PL First person plural (exclusive) (we: us but not you) 12 First person plural (inclusive) (we: you and me and maybe others) 2PL Second person plural (you) 3PL Third person plural (they) 3' Obviative (he, she, animate-it, they; 4 was used in previous editions of this book) I Inanimate singular ("it") II Inanimate plural ("they") Pitch symbols ´ high pitch ¯ mid pitch 1 ˆ raised high pitch 2 (not marked in this book) ˇ, ` lowered high pitch 3 (not marked in this book and no longer believed to exist) low pitch is unmarked Old man speech An older style of speech among some men has been characterized by palatalization, specifically, the pronunciation of "tš" instead of "k" before the vowel "e". A few men today still have some of this old man speech. Some examples of old man speech words are: meaning k pronunciation old man pronunciation hat hóhkėha'e hóhtšėha'e mouse hóhkeehe hóhtšeehe female twin hestȧhkėhá'e hestȧhkėhá'e regularly ohke-ohtše- The Suhtai dialect Many years ago Cheyennes were about to fight a band of people called the Suhtaio 7 . But they stopped when they could understand what the Suhtaio were saying. 8 So the Suhtaio and Cheyennes became friends and began to camp together. "When this took place the old Suhtai dialect began to be lost. Though it was still spoken by the old people, the children who were born and reared in the Cheyenne camp naturally spoke the dialect of their fellows, and today few old men or women remain who can recall any of the old Suhtai who spoke that dialect." (Grinnell 1928:9) There are Cheyennes today who claim descent from the Suhtaio.
Cheyennes continue to hope that remnants of the Suhtai language can still be discovered. Some believe that Suhtai words may be retained in the Sacred Hat (Esevone) 9 ceremony which the Suhtaio people brought with them when they united with the Cheyennes.

Cheyenne sounds
There are 14 letters in the Cheyenne alphabet 10 : letter pronunciation example English meaning a as in English "father" mahpe water e as in English "pit" ehane our father h as in English "happy" hese fly k as in English "skip" kosa goat ' as in English "Uh-oh!" he'eo'o women m as in English "man" me'ko head n as in English "never" nahkohe bear o as in English "note" okohke crow p as in English "spoon") poeso cat s as in English "say" semo boat š as in English "shirt" še'še duck t as in English "stop" tosa'e Where? v as in English "van" vee'e dwelling x as in German "Achtung!" xao'o skunk

Cheyenne vowels
The Cheyenne vowels a, e, and o sound much as they do in the English words in the preceding chart. Each of the Cheyenne vowels is phonetically lax. ashes, powder paa'e kitten pohkeso on top taxeto in the middle setove ka'ėškone child bread kohkonȯheo'o

Cheyenne š
The š symbol has the same sound as the two English letters "sh". The š symbol has been used to write Cheyenne for more than 100 years, since the late 1800s when Rodolphe Petter developed an alphabet for Cheyenne. The š symbol 12 has also been used by many linguists to transcribe this sound, called an alveopalatal fricative. It's fine to write this Cheyenne sound with the letters "sh" if you prefer. Do not be confused by the symbol "š" and write the letter "s". The letters "s" and "š" represent different sounds in Cheyenne. It's better to use the letters "sh" if those who are reading your writing do not know how to pronounce the symbol "š".
Authors who write books about Cheyennes often like to include some Cheyenne words. You may be asked to help them spell some Cheyenne words for their book. If their book is for a popular (non-technical) audience, spell the Cheyenne words with "sh" instead of "š". For instance, if an author asks you to spell the word for 'snake' for a novel, consider spelling it as shi'shinofots instead of the official spelling še'šenovȯtse.
Do not give a Cheyenne name with the letter š to a newspaper for an obituary if the newspaper will substitute the letter "s". Here are some Cheyenne names which have the š sound, with suggestions for simplified newspaper spellings. The "/" symbol indicates another option. And you may be able to think of other spellings when it is necessary to avoid the symbol "š". Some other Cheyenne words with the "š" sound are: amėške 'grease' (simpler spelling amshk), eše'he 'sun' (simpler spelling ishi'), meškeso 'bug' (simpler spelling mishkis), neše 'two' (simpler spelling nish), náéšemésehe 'I already ate' (simpler spelling naishimisih), and éovēše 'he went to bed' (simpler spelling iowish).

Glottal stop
The glottal stop occurs frequently in Cheyenne words. It is the quick stopping "sound" between the two syllables of the English exclamation, "Uh-oh!" The phonetic symbol for the glottal stop is [ʔ]. The glottal stop is written in this book with the apostrophe ('). The apostrophe is also used to represent the glottal stop in other languages.

Cheyenne v
Cheyenne "v" is typically pronounced like an English "v" when it comes before or after an "e" vowel. It often sounds like English "w when it comes before or after an "a" or "o" vowel. Sometimes it sounds more like a labiodental fricative [β], halfway between English "v" and "w". It is still the same sound unit (phoneme), however, whether it is pronounced as [v], [w], or [β]. Some Cheyenne words with "v", along with a phonetic transcription of how the "v" of each word is typically pronounced, are:

Voicelessness
Our vocal cords normally vibrate for many sounds. These sounds are called voiced. If you place your fingers on the front of your throat (specifically, on your Adam's apple), you can feel these vibrations. Try to feel the vibrations while pronouncing the English letters b, d, g, m, n, and v and all the vowels in words such as "bear", "dot, "mother", and "never". Now try to feel the same vibrations when pronouncing m, n, and v in the Cheyenne words maahe 'arrow', naa 'and', and vetšėške 'fat'.
When we pronounce sounds but our vocal cords are not vibrating, these sounds are called voiceless. We can make any sounds, or even entire words, voiceless by whispering them. Place you fingers on your Adam's apple and pronounce the word mȧhpēva 'in the water'. Notice that you feel no vibration until you get to the "e" in this word. When a sound that is normally voiced is whispered we say that it has been devoiced. There is widespread devoicing in Cheyenne.
Devoicing is predictable in Cheyenne. There are rules which Cheyenne speakers automatically follow that cause them to whisper sounds in certain contexts. For instance, one of the rules is that the last syllable of any word will be voiceless if the word is pronounced by itself. You can read more about these Cheyenne devoicing rules in the phonological rules section at the back of this book. Because voicelessness is predictable in Cheyenne, it is not phonemic.

Voiceless vowels
Cheyenne is famous for its many whispered (voiceless) ) vowels. The preferred symbol to indicate that a vowel is whispered is a dot over the vowel: ȧ, ė, ȯ. In some earlier publications, when a dot was not available, whispered vowels were marked with the circumflex symbol: â, ê, ô. It's best not to copy the circumflex symbol from the earlier publications.
Cheyennes often write a word without putting a mark over whispered vowels and can still read it fine. This shows that whisper marks may not be needed by them. We have already mentioned that a dot is put over a Cheyenne vowel if it is whispered. But we don't mark every whispered vowel with a dot. For instance, if you say only one Cheyenne word the last vowel of that word will be whispered. If you say several words before taking a breath, the last vowel before you take a breath will be whispered. These vowels that are whispered, at the end of a word or before you take a breath, are not marked with a dot because it is something that happens automatically.
But whispered vowels in the middle of words are marked with a dot so those who read the words will know which vowels to whisper. Here are some words with whispered vowels: mȧhpeva in the water ka'ėškone child semonȯtse boats tȧhpeno flute

Voiceless consonants
Cheyenne consonants m, n, and v, which are normally voiced, are whispered (voiceless) preceding a voiceless vowel. For instance, the first two letters, a consonant and a vowel, of the word mahpe 'water' are both voiced. However, when the locative suffix -va is added to this word, both the "m" and "a" are devoiced (whispered), mȧhpēva 'in the water', phonetic [m å p¯ ɪ f ˚ a ]. Notice that the word-final final syllable is also whispered, making the "v" sound like English "f". The "n" is whispered in the first syllable of the word for 'diaper', nėhpe'ėhestȯtse, because the "e" that If there is more than one high pitch in a row before a low pitch, the high pitch of the last vowel in this series is raised slightly higher than the preceding high pitches.
Notice the pitches in these words: In Cheyenne reading and writing classes I have noticed that Cheyenne speakers do not need to use pitch marks. However, in this book I usually will indicate the pitches so that anyone using this book, whether or not they are a speaker of Cheyenne, can pronounce the pitches correctly. Remember, if you are already a Cheyenne speaker, you probably will not need to use pitch marks.

Double vowels
Two identical vowels in a row are pronounced as one long sound, without any interruption between them. Such so-called double vowels are pronounced twice as long as a single vowel is pronounced. However, in Cheyenne, unlike in some other languages (including some Algonquian languages), there are no actual (phonemic) double-length vowels. Compare Cheyenne ho'e 'land' which has just one metrical beat for its one "o" vowel with éhoo'e 'he's (here)' which has two metrical beats for its two "o" vowels. The two "o" vowels of éhoo'e sound like an "o" pronounced twice as long, but phonologically they are two separate vowels.
Do not confuse Cheyenne double vowel sequences "aa", "ee", and "oo" with English double vowel sequences. For instance, do not pronounce the "oo" sound of Cheyenne éhoo'e 'he is (here)' the same as you pronounce the letters "oo" in the English word "good". And do not pronounce "ee" of énéé'e 'he is standing' the same as the letters "ee" in the English word "meet". Cheyenne double vowel sequences are pronounced twice as long as a single vowel. English double vowel sequences are not. And the English double vowels do not have the same sound as the Cheyenne double vowels. Cheyenne "oo" is phonetically [o:] while English "oo" is phonetically [ʊ]. Cheyenne "ee" is phonetically [ɪ:] while English "ee" is phonetically [i].

Complex syllables
A Cheyenne consonant is aspirated when it occurs before a voiceless vowel, followed by "h", followed by a vowel, which is followed by another syllable. This is one of the most difficult things to learn about Cheyenne pronunciation. Two syllables get squeezed together and pronounced as a single syllable. We call this phenomenon a complex syllable. The second syllable of the two syllables must begin with an "h". This "h" becomes aspiration on the consonant of the first syllable. Linguist Danny Alford wrote an article (1976) about Cheyenne complex syllables.
The required parts of a complex syllable can be written in a formula like this: C Ṿ h V > C h V / _ $ This formula means that a consonant (C) followed by a voiceless vowel (Ṿ), then h, then another vowel (V) becomes an aspirated consonant followed by a vowel when preceding a syllable ($). The vowel that follows the newly aspirated consonant is pronounced as a single vowel, that is, a combination of the two initial vowels.
Here are some Cheyenne words with their complex syllables underlined, along with phonetic transcriptions of what the words sound like:

Aspirated consonants
We said earlier that (regular) Cheyenne p, t, and k are unaspirated. Because they lack the "h" aspiration sound, they are perceived by Cheyennes as sounding like English b, d, and g. In contrast, when Cheyenne p, t, and k are the consonants of a complex syllable, they are aspirated. So Cheyennes perceive p, t, and k of complex syllables as sounding like English p, t, and k, because English p, t, and k at the beginnings of words are aspirated. p, t, k, and ' are called stops by linguists. We see from the preceding list of words with complex syllables that each of these stops can be aspirated in Cheyenne. So Cheyenne stops can be either unaspirated or aspirated. Notice the difference in the sounds of the stops (underlined) in these Cheyenne words, a difference based only on whether or not they are aspirated: aspirated unaspirated éta'pȧheo'o 'they are weak' éta'pahe 'he is weak' éno'kȧhehe 'Is he single?' éno'kahe 'he is single' ésáanétȧhéhe 'he is not a different one' énétahe 'he is a different one' Even though the stops in these words can be either aspirated or unaspirated, the part of the word (morpheme) in which they appear does not change its meaning. Cheyenne -ta'pahe means 'weak' whether or not we add the plural suffix -o'o to it, as we did here. Cheyenne -no'kahe means 'be single' whether or not we add the question suffix -he to it, as we did for the list. And Cheyenne -nétahe means 'be other' whether or it we turn it into a negative verb as we did in the list.
It is a positive thing that by keeping the spelling of the meaning parts (morphemes) the same, we can more easily see that these word parts keep their meaning whenever they are spoken. It is a negative thing that when the stops change from being aspirated to unaspirated, it is more difficult to spell them, when we think of spelling as we have learned the sounds of English letters.
Cheyenne stops are not the only consonants that become aspirated in complex syllables. We see in the list on page 8 ($$CHANGE TO NUMBERED OUTLINE??) that the nasal sounds m and n become aspirated in complex syllables: Aspirated nasals sound unusual to anyone who has never heard them before. They are pronounced more through your nose. Notice the difference in the letter "m", the first letter of these two words: Ma'heo'o 15 'God' mȧhēō'o 'house' In the first word the "m" sounds like an English "m". But in the second word more of the "m" sound goes through your nose when you say it.
Cheyenne "v" undergoes a similar sound change when it is aspirated in a complex syllable: énóvahe 'he is slow' énóvȧheo'o 'they are slow' In the first word, énóvahe, the letter "v" sounds like an English "w". In énóvȧheo'o the letter "v" has a different sound, halfway between English "v" and "f". Again, it is the aspiration in the complex syllable that causes the change in sound. And, again, the meaning of the part of the word in which sound changes stays the same. The Cheyenne letters -nóvahe mean 'be slow' regardless of whether the letter "v" sounds unaspirated or aspirated.

Phonemes
Although there are 14 letters in the Cheyenne alphabet, there are only 13 phonemes. The letter "x" is not a phoneme in Cheyenne. Instead, it is derived from other phonemes in the language.
The phoneme /š/ becomes [x] when it precedes /a/ or /o/ 16 : néše 'Grandchild! (vocative)', néxahe 'my grandchild' énėše'šévóéne 'he washed his (own) face', énėše'xāhtse 'he gargled' énéšeo'o 'there are two of them (an.), énéxánėstse 'there are two of them (inan.) šé'še 'duck', še'xo 'duck' (obviative) The phoneme /h-/ becomes [x] when it precedes /h/ 17 : Éhnéméne 'he sang', Éxho'soo'e 'he danced' Néhmetsėstse! 'Give it to me!, Néxhėstánȯhtse! 'Bring it to me!' 15 Ma'heo'o (simplified spelling Maheo) does not literally mean All Father, as claimed by Petter (1915) and repeated by Powell (1969). This meaning is not possible because Ma'heo'o begins with a regular "m" sound. The morpheme meaning 'all' is found in the complex syllable mȧhe-in which the "m" is aspirated, sounding quite different from the "m" of Ma'heo'o. Furthermore, the Cheyenne noun stem meaning 'father' is -héh. The "he" sequence of Maheo superficially looks like -héh, but lacks the high pitch of 'father' as well as the morpheme-final /h/ of -héh. It appears that Petter erred in his analysis of the meaning of Maheo because of lack of phonetic accuracy in his writing to differentiate the first syllable "ma" of Maheo and the complex syllable of mȧhe-'all'. Petter's analysis led to interesting, but false, theological speculations. 16 This phonological rule is called š-Backing. 17 This phonological rule is called h-Dissimilation.
Petter used several diacritics to indicate modifications to sounds. He used the acute accent mark ´ over a vowel to indicate that a glottal stop followed that vowel. He used the grave accent mark ` over a vowel to indicate that the sound "h" occurred between that vowel and a following consonant. He used the ring symbol ˚ above a vowel to indicate that it is voiceless (whispered). He indicated that a vowel sound was longer than one vowel length with the macron symbol ¯ above the vowel. But Petter was inconsistent in his use of these diacritical marks over vowels; he often omitted them. Here are some words from Petter's massive dictionary (1126 pages), along with how they are spelled in the official orthography used in this book:

Phonetic spelling
Some Cheyennes like what they call "phonetic spelling" 18 . This is spelling words as they hear the sounds, based on English letter sounds. Phonetic spelling is often easier to read than the official Cheyenne spelling, at least when we are beginning to read. Sometimes I refer to these phonetic spellings as simplified spellings. The two terms mean the same thing.
But phonetic spelling can miss important patterns of how a language works. If we wrote English plural endings with both phonetic "s" and "z", we would miss the important pattern that many English words are made plural with the letter "s", even though the sound of this plural letter "s" changes to a phonetic "z" in many words. (These are words where the letter before the plural "s" is voiced, that is, the vocal cords in our throats vibrate when we say voiced sounds.) In contrast to phonetic spelling, writing according to the sound patterns of a language can be called "phonemic" writing. The official spelling of Cheyenne is nearly "phonemic". It is used in this grammar book. The official spelling works better than phonetic spelling to help us see the sound and grammar patterns of the Cheyenne language. It's good to have an official alphabet. It can standardize spelling.
Use the official alphabet if it is required. You may be required to use the official alphabet to pass a bilingual teacher's test.
Sometimes it can be helpful to use phonetic spellings instead of official Cheyenne spellings. Often it works better to use phonetic spelling for license plates for your car. It can be better to use phonetic spelling for newspapers or when authors write about Cheyennes in their novels and want to include a few Cheyenne words.
I personally recommend using the phonetic spelling of Tsitsistas for the name the Cheyennes call themselves. This spelling is much easier to read than the official spelling of Tsetsėhestȧhese, or with pitch marks, Tsétsėhéstȧhese. If newspapers or other publishers or signmakers leave off the dots over the vowels of the official spelling and write the name for Cheyennes as Tsetsehestahese, that is very inaccurate. No one would pronounce this very word correctly if it is spelled as Tsetsehestahese. This is one of the most important words for Cheyennes and it needs to be pronounced correctly. By the way, Grinnell's spelling of Tsistsistas (with the extra "s") is inaccurate. Cheyennes do not call themselves Tsistsistas. Instead, in both Oklahoma and Montana they call themselves Tsitsistas. If you have Internet access and can view links in this book, click on this word, Tsitsistas, to hear it.
It is better to write with a phonetic spelling that will be pronounced correctly than to write with the official spelling and have it be pronounced incorrectly. This is especially true if you are writing for people who do not read Cheyenne and people who do not speak it. The official spelling is better for those who want to see the patterns of the Cheyenne language. And it is better for people who have taken the time to learn the official spelling. The official spelling does fit the Cheyenne language better, but sometimes in life it is better to do something that works than to do something which is more accurate but doesn't work.
It's fine to write with phonetic spellings if they work better for you. It's fine to write namshim for 'my grandfather' instead of the official spelling namėšeme. It is better to spell with "sh" instead of "š" if a newspaper or other publisher will not print the "š" letter and, instead, changes it to a regular "s". That would really be inaccurate. In the Cheyenne Dictionary we include phonetic ("simplified") spellings for many words, along with the official spellings.
Here are some phonetic spellings which you may find useful, along with the official spellings and the meanings of the Cheyenne words. (Often more than one phonetic spelling is possible. For instance, you could spell 'pemmican' phonetically either as am or um.) At this point we are unable to account for which words receive an antepenultimate high pitch. We can note that if an antepenultimate high occurs on a verb, it only occurs on inanimate intransitive (II) verbs, and only on II verbs with singular subjects and in the indicative mode. Nouns which receive antepenultimate high pitches are old, typically with known Proto-Algonquian source words (etyma).

Parts of speech
Cheyenne has three parts of speech: nouns, verbs, and particles. In the next section we will examine Cheyenne nouns. A large section in the middle of the book is devoted to Cheyenne verbs. Particles are basically any words other than nouns and verbs. There are subtypes of particles. Some subtypes referred to in this book are demonstratives, indefinite pronouns, interrogative particles, numbers, conjunctions (connectives), and location particles. We will examine Cheyenne particles more closely after the large section on verbs.

tse'tohe and he'tohe words
The English word "this" can be used with many English words, for example: this man, this girl, this ball, this stick, this tree, this money, this dog, this airplane, this tomato, this finger, this ring, this car, this tooth, this shirt, this belt, this rope, this rock.
But in Cheyenne there are two words that mean 'this': tse'tohe and he'tohe 23 . If we say these words with Cheyenne nouns, we quickly discover that something is different from English. If we say tse'tohe with all Cheyenne nouns, Cheyenne speakers will tell us that we are not speaking Cheyenne right. And if we try to say he'tohe with all Cheyenne nouns, Cheyenne speakers will tell us the same thing: we are not speaking Cheyenne right.
We soon learn that Cheyenne nouns are separated into two groups. The two Cheyenne words meaning 'this' cannot be said with both groups of nouns. The word tse'tohe can only be said with nouns from one of the groups, and the other word he'tohe can only be said with nouns from the other group. Here are some Cheyenne words from these two groups: Can you figure out why the first group of things goes with tse'tohe and why the second group goes with he'tohe? If you can't, it's all right. You can keep reading the next section of this book to learn the difference between the two groups of Cheyenne things. You will learn about something called animacy, which is a way to talk about which words can be said with tse'tohe and which ones can be said with he'tohe.

Animacy
According to Cheyenne grammar, every noun is either animate or inanimate. Biologically, we think that if something is animate it is living, and if something is inanimate it is non-living. But the grammatical categories of animate and inanimate do not line up exactly with what is biologically living or non-living.
In the Cheyenne language, most things we would think of as living, such as people, animals, and trees, are grammatically animate,. But even if objects have biological life, not all of them are grammatically animate. In Cheyenne trees are grammatically animate but bushes are inanimate, as is grass.
Some objects that are not biologically alive are grammatically animate, perhaps because of some spiritual function they have had, such as the sun, moon, stars, and rocks. Some articles of clothing are animate but others are inanimate. Articles of clothing made from fibers are animate, such as dresses, shirts, scarves, pants, socks, and gloves. Other clothing is inanimate, such as shoes, hats, and belts. Some body parts are animate but others are inanimate. Kidneys are animate but the liver and lungs are not. The brain is animate but the head is not. Fingers are animate but arms are not. Breasts are animate but nipples and a vagina are not. Testicles are animate but a penis is not.
Fruit is animate. But apples are inanimate in Oklahoma while they are animate in Montana. Names of berries have the same word root as names of fruit, yet berries are inanimate in both Oklahoma and Montana.
There probably were some cultural or spiritual reasons in the far past why Cheyenne nouns were assigned to either the animate or inanimate categories. But today we do not know what all those reasons were. So we simply must recognize that Cheyenne nouns are assigned to either the animate or inanimate category on the basis of Cheyenne grammar. Linguists call such grammatical animacy a kind of grammatical gender. Some languages classify their nouns according to feminine and masculine, and sometimes neuter, genders. Some language classify their nouns according to whether they are human or nonhuman. Other languages classify their nouns according to their shapes. Other languages classify their nouns according to whether or not they are grammatically animate or inanimate. Cheyenne is one of these languages. Linguists consider animate and inanimate to be classes of grammatical gender.
Animacy is pervasive throughout Cheyenne grammar. It determines the gender class of every Cheyenne noun. Animacy is marked on verbs and on other parts of speech such as demonstratives ('this' and 'that'). Learning how to correctly say the animate or inanimate parts of Cheyenne grammar is one of the most important parts of becoming a Cheyenne speaker.

Plurals
Cheyenne adds a plural suffix to nouns if they refer to more than one thing. Notice the difference between the singular and plural nouns in the following lists: When we first examine Cheyenne nouns, it looks like there is a bewilderingly large number of ways to mark them as plural. Changing a noun from singular to plural appears to require the following suffixes: -ȯtse, -nȯtse, -estse, and -nėstse.
It looks like there are even more plural suffixes for animate nouns, including -ho, -no, -o'o, -ne, and -hne. We can see from mo'éhno'ha 'horse' and mo'éhno'hāme 'horses' that some spelling changes are required to make some plurals. And there are pitch changes that make some nouns plural, as with hóma'e 'badger' and homā'e 'badger'.
It looks like a difficult job to learn how to make Cheyenne noun plurals from singulars, doesn't it? But the job becomes less confusing if we do it in a different way. Instead of starting with singular nouns and adding to them to make plurals, let's start with plurals and derive singulars from them. If we do this, we can reduce the number of Cheyenne plural suffixes to two for animate nouns and two for inanimate nouns. 25 The two animate pluralizers are -o and -é. The two inanimate pluralizers are -ot and -ét. (Because of a phonological rule of Cheyenne, these last two will actually be pronounced as -ȯtse and -ėstse.) If we create an "abstract" spelling for a noun "stem" we can get by with just these four pluralizers. The abstract spelling is either the same as the singular spelling or else halfway between the singular and plural spellings, The abstract spellings can be supported on technical grounds, especially from how the noun stems are spelled in some other words such as equative verbs. We will not discuss the technical issues further now, but it is enough to point out that there are good reasons from a study of the patterns (morphology) of Cheyenne to believe the abstract noun stems allow us to view pluralization of Cheyenne nouns as being simpler than it at first appears. Let's see how this works in the following lists with abstract noun stem spellings. The column for the abstract stem spellings is simply labeled "stem" in these lists, to save space, but there is enough evidence to consider the abstract stem spellings as the actual spellings of the stems. So we will refer to these actract spellings as stem spellings from now on.  25 And when we study the phonological history of Cheyenne within the Algonquian language family, we see that these four pluralizers actually descend from just one animate Proto-Algonquian pluralizer, *-aki, and one inanimate pluralizer, *-ali. 26 Whisper marks are omitted in the abstract Cheyenne spellings since voicelessness predictably. Cheyenne devoicing (whispering) occurs predictably by phonological rules listed at the end of this book (Leman and Rhodes 1978). Pitch changes which are seen in these lists also occur according to phonological rules (Leman 1981

Deriving animate singulars and plurals
The stem for 'bird' is vé'keséh. If we add the pluralizer -o to this stem, we get the proper pronunciation for the plural, vé'kėseho 'birds'. If we subtract-h from the end of the stem, we get the pronunciation for the singular vé'kése. 27 Including the -h at the end of the stem for 'bird' is not simply an ad hoc solution to derive the singular and plural pronunciations easily. There is additional support from Cheyenne grammar for the spellings of the noun stems 28 . The presence of the stem-final -h for 'bird' is found in so-called equative verbs. In the story of The Bat (included in the texts section of this book), a bat is told, "Névé'kėséheve," meaning 'You are a bird.' In this verb the pronominal prefix is né-'you' and the equative suffix is -éve meaning 'be'. The remaining part of this verb is the noun stem we have listed for 'bird', vé'keséh-. Equative verbs support the spelling of other animate and inanimate noun stems also.
If we add the -o pluralizer to póesón, the stem for 'cat', we get póesono, the correct plural pronunciation. If we subtract the letter -n from the stem we get the correct pronunciation for the singular, póéso 'cat'.
The stem spelling of šé'šé for 'duck' is the same as its singular spelling šé'še, except for the stem-final high pitch. (The stem-final high pitch cannot be heard when the word is pronounced since the last vowel of a word is whispered and pitch cannot be heard on a whispered vowel.). If we add the 27 Some speakers pronounce 'bird' as vé'késo. 28 Historical and comparative evidence from Proto-Algonquian and other Algonquian languages should also support Cheyenne noun stem spellings.
pluralizer -o to the stem we get šé'šéo. But the plural is actually pronounced as šé'šeo'o. 29

Vowel-stretching
Why are the two extra letters -'o added to the -o pluralizer of šé'šeo'o? There is a restriction in Cheyenne phonology that does not allow a word to end with two or more vowels. Instead, if a word ends in two or more vowels, something we call vowel-stretching occurs, stretching out one of the two last vowels of a stem and inserting a glottal stop. This creates a kind of echo sound at the end of a word. Algonquianist Ives Goddard 30 first discovered and described Cheyenne vowel-stretching (1978:79, fn. 14). See the Vowel-Stretching section of the phonological rules later in this book for further explanation of this important phonological process.

Deriving inanimate singulars and plurals
We have stated that there are two pluralizers for inanimate nouns, -ot and -ét. But inanimate noun plurals actually end with "phonetic" spellings -ȯtse and -ėstse, as seen in the preceding list. (The two letters -se are added to these pluralizers by phonological rules 31 described at the end of this book. An "s" is inserted between the /é/ and /t/ of the /-ét/ pluralizer by another phonological rule.) If we add the first inanimate pluralizer, -ȯtse, to the stem for 'ax', hóhkoxeh, we get the spelling hóhkoxehȯtse. The second "o" is devoiced to ȯ by a phonological rule, giving us the actual pronunciation spelling of the plural, hóhkȯxehȯtse. If we subtract -h from the hóhkoxeh stem, we get the spelling, hóhkoxe. The the second "o" is again devoiced to ȯ by phonological rule. Finally, the high pitched first ó is lowered, resulting in the actual pronunciation spelling of the singular hohkȯxe.
If we add -ȯtse to the stem for 'shoe', we get the plural spelling mo'kehanȯtse. A phonological rule causes the first /e/ to devoice, giving us the actual plural spelling, mo'kėhanȯtse. Interestingly, this "n" must have been pronounced in the singular word in the early 1900s, since Petter wrote the singular in his dictionary (1915:714, 963) as "mocan". That "n" is no longer pronounced in the singular 32 but it is still heard in the equative verb émo'kėhaneve 'it is a shoe'.
If we add the other inanimate pluralizer 33 to the stem for 'belt', hoestátón, we get the correct spelling for the plural, hoestátónėstse. When we subtract the -n from the stem, we get the proper spelling for the singular, hoestáto 'belt'. 29 A High Push-Over rule lowers the second high pitch. This rule is described in the Phonological rules section of this book. 30 Because of this important observation by Goddard, I called this process Goddard's Law in my early publications. Later I used the descriptive term, vowel-stretching. 31 The rule of e-Epenthesis adds "e" to the end of any word that ends in a consonant, such as /t/ of the inanimate pluralizers. Then the rule of t-Assibilation changes the /t/ to -ts before the vowel /e/. 32 Dropping of word-final sounds (called apocope) has been part of historical phonological changes in Cheyenne and other Algonquian languages for a long time. 33 Phonemic /-ét/, with a pronunciation spelling of -ėstse.

Obviatives
Only one third person can be in focus at a time in any single language segment (span) in Cheyenne. Any other third persons, including, nouns which refer to them, must be in an obviated form. The obviated form of a noun marks it as being out of focus. In this section we examine obviated nouns. In the next section we will examine obviation on animate nouns possessed by a third person. Later, we will examine verb suffixes which refer to obviated third persons. In some cases an additional -ho is added.

Possessives
Possessives are nouns which refer to things which belong to one or more people. Cheyenne indicates possession with prefixes on nouns, as shown with the noun mȧhēō'o 'house': The prefixes indicating possession are: na-'first person' ne-'second person' he-'third person' We will study verbs in the next section of this book, but for now notice that the possessor prefixes are low pitched while the person prefixes on verbs are high pitched 38 : Ná-mésehe. 'I'm eating.' (or 'I ate.') Né-mésehe. 'You're eating.' (or 'You ate.') É-mésehe. 'He (or She) is eating.' (or 'He/She ate.')

Possessee pluralization
Possessed nouns take the same plural suffixes that unpossessed nouns do:

Inclusive and exclusive 'our' possessors
In English, without other clues, we cannot tell whether or not the word "our" includes the 37 Or Éméhoto. 38 The high pitches on verb prefixes become low pitches when the future tense is used. Cf. námésehe 'I'm eating (or 'I ate') with nȧhtsemésehe 'I will eat.' person someone is speaking to. In Cheyenne there is no such ambiguity. If Cheyennes say 'our' which includes the person(s) they are speaking to, they use 'our' inclusive pronominal affixes. 39 If Cheyennes say 'our' that excludes the person(s) they are speaking to, they use 'our' exclusive pronominal affixes. So, nemȧheónane means 'our house' (which includes you as owner). And namȧheónáne means 'our house' (which excludes you as owner). Some other inclusive and exclusive first person possessors (corresponding to English 'our') are: inclusive 'our' exclusive 'our' nevéenane 'our (incl) tepee navéenāne 'our (excl) tepee' neamȧho'héstonane 'our (incl) car' namȧho'héstónáne 'our (excl) car' nenésonėhane 'our (incl) child' nánésónėháne 'our (excl) child' nėstotséhane 'our (incl) pet' nȧhtotséháne 'our (excl) pet' Cheyenne has the same exclusive and inclusive difference for "we" and "us" in verbs: inclusive 'our' exclusive 'our' nénémenema 'we (incl) sang' nánémenēme 'we (excl) sang' névóomone 'we (incl) saw him' návóomóne 'we (excl) saw him' néhetaene 'he told us (incl)' náhetaēne 'he told us (excl) So the two different first person plurals, whether for possessive nouns or verbs, are called inclusive 'we' and exclusive 'we'.

Obviated possessives
When an animate noun is possessed by a third person the ending of the noun changes: nanéso 'my child' nenéso 'your child' henésono 'his/her child(ren)' In the word henésono both the child and the parent are grammatical third persons. In Cheyenne, as in other Algonquian languages, only one third person can be in the grammatical spotlight at any one time. For possessed nouns, the possessor third person remains in the spotlight. The third person that is possessed (called the possessee) must move out of the spotlight. This move out of the spotlight is called obviation. In the word henésono the possessor (the parent) remains in the grammatical spotlight. The child is obviated, moving out of the grammatical spotlight.
An obviated noun is unspecified for number, that is, a possessed obviative may refer either to a single or plural entity. Remember that gender is also unspecified in the third person in Cheyenne. So, the word henésono can mean any of the following: 'his child', 'his children', 'her child', or 'her children'.

Inanimate possessives
Many Cheyenne

Dependent stems
The unpossessed form of each of the preceding words can be pronounced as individual words. The Cheyenne word for 'land' is an individual word, ho'e. But if this word for 'land' is possessed, it cannot be pronounced as an individual word. Nouns which are possessed and cannot be pronounced by themselves are called dependent stems. We mark dependent stems, as we do any bound morphemes, with a hyphen (-) to indicate that they cannot be pronounced by themselves. Here are some dependent stems, along with their possessed forms which can be pronounced as individual words: -hto'e 'land', 'nȧhto'e 'my land', nėsto'e 'your land', hesto'e 'his/her land' -htōtse 'pet', 'nȧhtōtse 'my pet', nėstōtse 'your pet', hestotseho 'his/her pet(s)' -'éxa 'eye', na'éxa 'my eye', na'éxánėstse 'my eyes', he'éxánėstse 'his/her eyes' -'evo 'nose', na'evo 'my nose', ne'evo 'your nose', he'evo 'his/her nose' -me 'older sister', name 'my older sister', hemeho 'his/her older sister'

Dependent stem ma-prefix
Some possessive noun stems require the prefix ma-for them to be pronounced as complete words. This prefix has no meaning, unlike my claim in earlier editions of this book that it referred to an unspecified possessor, 'someone'. So, ma'exa simply means 'eye', not 'someone's eye', as I previously claimed. I also erred previously when I wrote this word with a raised high pitch, ma'êxa. It does have a phonemic high pitch /é/, but it is lowered by pitch rule in the singular possessor forms.
Some other nouns that require the ma-prefix with a dependent stem are:

Doublets with the ma-prefix
Some nouns have an independent form as well as a dependent stem which takes the ma-prefix (as well as person possessor prefixes). We call such pairs of nouns lexical doublets. The independent form always begins with the letter "h". meaning independent form ma-form bone he'ko mȧhtse'ko brain hestahpe mȧhtsėstahpe gland héta'e mȧhtséta'e heart hēsta mȧhtsēsta thigh hénóme mȧhtsénóme

ma-forms in word formation
A word composed of a ma-prefix plus dependent stem can function just like any other independent noun. It may be pluralized with a normal plural suffix: ma'exa eye ma'éxánėstse eyes mȧhtsesta heart mȧhtsėstahȯtse hearts A ma-prefixed noun behaves like an independent noun. For instance, it can take a prenoun to create a compound word: amȧho'hé-mȧhtse'ko 'tire' (literally, car-leg)

Possession suffix -am
Some nouns require a special possession suffix when they are possessed. The suffix is spelled -

Animate possessives
Most inanimate nouns require only a possessive prefix to be possessed. But possessed animate nouns require not only a possessive prefix, but also either the possessive suffix -am or they must be dependent stems. For instance, it would not be grammatical to take an animate noun, such as oeškēse 'dog' and only add a possessive prefix, such as na-'my', creating the word *naoeškēse 45 , intended to mean 'my dog'. Following are the correct ways to speak about a dog that is possessed, as well as other possessives: The asterisk * is typically used to indicate that something is ungrammatical. In this book, with the letters "PA," the asterisk also marks a Proto-Algonquian form (and it is not ungrammatical). 46 Another pronunciation is oeškēso.

Irregular possessives
Some possessives have irregular prefixes. These prefixes reflect changes that occurred in the historical development from Proto-Algonquian (PA) to Cheyenne. Irregular possessive prefixes developed when regular PA prefix vowels lengthened as they coalesced with following stem-initial vowels. This resulted in reflexes in Cheyenne with a change of prefix vowels and high pitch on these vowels instead of the regular low pitch on possessor pronominal prefixes

Mixed paradigm
The possessed word for 'younger siblings' include most of the irregular possessive prefixation we have just seen but use a high-pitched ná for first person possessives:

Regularized possessives
Irregular forms are more difficult to learn than regular forms. Speakers of languages with irregular paradigms often try to regularize them to regular paradigms. Cheyennes have been 54 Alternate forms are ése'éhane and nevése'ane. 55 As with the possessive of 'mother', no plurals are known for plural 'fathers' possessed by singular possessors. 56 The words for 'grandchild' are also used to mean 'child-in-law'. For example, néxahe means 'my grandchild ', 'my son-inlaw', or 'my daughter-in-law'. 57  While the process of regularization is occurring, both irregular and regular forms exist. Cheyenne speakers are aware that there are these competing irregular and regular forms.

Diminutives
Cheyenne marks some nouns as diminutives. A diminutive is a word that is modified so that it refers to something that is smaller than a larger thing referred to by a regular form of that word. For instance, the Cheyenne word for 'cat' is póéso. If the letters "hk" are inserted into the middle of this word, we get the diminutive word, póhkéso which mean 'kitten'.
Diminutives sometimes have a teasing meaning, with an affectionate connotation. For instance, you can call a 50-year old man a ma'háhkėséhéso 'little old man' with a sense of teasing and/or affection. Calling him this double diminutive would contrast with how one would normally call an older person, say 70-years old, an old man, with the diminutive ma'háhkéso. And you could call an even older man a ma'háéso, which is less diminutive than ma'háhkéso.

/-(h)k/ diminutives
Some other diminutives are also marked by addition of of /k/ or /hk/ 60 :

Noun phrases
Cheyenne nouns may be preceded by quantifiers and demonstrative pronouns or discourse pronouns. Otherwise, Cheyenne does not have adjectives or other parts of speech which can belong to noun phrases.

Demonstratives
Demonstratives point to a noun, either physically in the speech situation or to a previous mention of a noun in a discourse: tsé'tóhe póéso 'this cat' tá'tóhe mo'éhno'ha 'that horse' hé'tóhe mȯxe'ėstoo'o 'this book' We will describe demonstratives and discourse pronouns more fully in the section on Deictics.

Discourse pronouns
Discourse pronouns point to a noun previously mentioned in a discourse: néhe hetane 'that man' (the one being talking about) héne mȯxe'ėstoo'o 'that book' (the one being talked about)

Adjectival prenouns
Cheyenne does not use adjectives in noun phrases. Instead, it uses prenouns which attach to nouns to indicate adjectival qualities: mo'ȯhtávė-hohpe 'coffee' (literally, black-broth) ma'ė-ho'évohkȯtse 'corned beef' (literally, red-meat) ma'xė-háhnoma 'bumblebee' (literally, big-bee) heóve-amȧho'hestȯtse 'schoolbus' (literally, yellow-car) táxe-mésėhestȯtse 'table' (literally, top-eating.thing) Compound words composed of prenouns plus nouns, such as those in this list, are commonly used in the language. Cheyenne speakers seem only to use a prenoun with a noun to create a new lexical term in the language. If Cheyenne speakers need to express other non-lexicalized adjectival meanings with nouns, such as for 'tall boy', 'skinny child', 'rich man', or 'smart woman', they use participle phrases. We will examine Cheyenne participle phrases shortly.

Participle phrases
Cheyennes do not productively use adjectival prenouns to create equivalents to English noun phrases with adjectives, such as "the tall man" or "the little baby". Instead, Cheyennes use participle phrases to express adjectival ideas, as in these examples: ($$RECHECK MY CLAIM AND THE EXAMPLES; should "the" be included in the glosses??) hetane tséhéne'enovaestse 'educated man' (lit., man who is educated) kȧsovááhe tséháa'ėstaestse 'tall young man' (lit., young man who is tall) ma'háhkéso tséhe'keomėstse 'fat old man' (lit., old man who is fat) amȧho'hestȯtse tséháoeme 'expensive car' (lit., car that is expensive)

Definiteness
There are no definite or indefinite articles in Cheyenne. Instead, nouns are definite or indefinite depending on the speech context (pragmatics). Typically, first mention of a noun in a discourse is indefinite. Subsequent references to that noun are definite. In the following story the first mentioned (definite) nouns are underlined and subsequent mentions (definite) are boldfaced: The Bear, the Coyote, and the Skunk by Jeannette Howlingcrane 19. Tséhvóomovȯse éstanéšėhe'névo'ȧhéotséhoono. when they saw him they took off in two directions When they saw him they took off in two different directions.
20. Essáanȧha'óoméhesesto tósa'e tséhešeaseta'xevȯse. they were not caught sight of wherever they took off to No one ever saw them again, wherever they took off to.

Discourse pronouns and definiteness
Discourse pronouns, such as néhe 'that one (animate) that we have been talking about', its inanimate counterpart héne, and the pointing pronouns tsé'tóhe 'this one (animate)' and hé'tóhe 'this one (inanimate)' indicate marked definiteness of a noun. $$EXAMPLES

Deictics
In this section words, or parts of words, which "point" are examined. The forms may point to show where something is, or the "pointing" may refer to a point in time, or to entities in a discourse.

Demonstratives
We introduced Cheyenne demonstratives in the Noun phrases section earlier in this book. $$COMBINE THE TWO SECTIONS AS WELL AS THE TWO SECTIONS ON DISCOURSE PRONOUNS?? Here we describe the demonstratives more fully. Cheyenne demonstratives are inflected for animacy and distance from the speaker. Demonstratives can modify a noun, to which they phonologically attach as clitics, or they can stand alone as a noun phrase. If they attach to a noun they lose their word-final -he, so, for instance hé'tóhe + motšėške is pronounced as hé'tó=motšėške 'this knife', where the "=" symbol represents the phonological attachment with its smooth flow from the end of the demonstrative to the beginning of the noun. tsé'tóhe this, these (animate) tá'tóhe that, those (animate) hé'tóhe this, these (inanimate) há'tóhe that, those (inanimate)

Discourse demonstratives
Discourse demonstratives refer to old or new things in discourse. Like the regular demonstratives, they are inflected for animacy and distance, in this case, how far away the referent is in the discourse.$$RECHECK GLOSSES néhe this, these (animate) héne this, these (inanimate) náhe that, those (animate) háne that, those (inanimate)

Locative particles
Locative particles refer to a location. Locative particles are inflected for distance from the speaker, new or old location (cataphoric vs. anaphoric??) in a discourse, and another parameter not well understood but translated by the English word 'over'.

Predicative pronouns
Predicative pronouns are inflected for animacy, number, obviation, distance (proximal vs. distal), and whether they are new or old (cataphoric vs. anaphoric??) in a discourse.?? They are not inflected for person as verbs are, but they function something like verbs, with glosses that sound like verbs. Predicative pronouns correspond to the distance and discourse values of the locative particles. There are full forms of predicative pronouns and contracted (more colloquial) forms.$$RECHECK THESE CLAIMS AND GLOSSES; REVISE BASED ON "CHEYENNE PRONOUNS AND PRONOMINAL FUNCTIONS" AND CHEYENNE DEIXIS PAPERS

Speech functions
Cheyenne speakers perform the same functions of speech that speakers of any other language do, including to inform, question, command, entertain, comfort, rebuke, tease, pray, and perform ceremonies. Among these, the first three reflect major grammatical patterns in Cheyenne. They correlate with the major sentence types of Cheyenne.

Sentence types
The major sentence types of Cheyenne and the speech functions to which they correspond are: sentence types speech functions statements inform interrogatives question imperatives command Next we examine these sentence types and how they are expressed in the Cheyenne grammatical system.

Statements
Cheyennes inform through statements. Statements typically are composed of a verb which may be accompanied by one or more nouns which the verb tells about. Statements may, however, be other parts of speech, such as a noun or particle which is a response to something someone else says. The particles héehe'e 'yes' and hová'ȧháne 'no' can serve as complete statements in answer to some questions. A significant part of this grammar will describe Cheyenne verbs which are used to inform. As a preview, they are verbs which are in the indicative, inferential, reportative, and preterit modes.

Questions
There are two kinds of questions which can be asked in Cheyenne: 1. Yes/No questions 2. Content questions

Yes/No questions
There are two ways to form yes/no questions in Cheyenne. Yes/no questions (also known as polar questions) are questions for which a "yes" or "no" answer is requested: 1. Add the -he interrogative suffix to a verb 2. Add the interrogative particle móhe to the beginning of a word to be questioned $$REVISE: The first way is to attach the inferential particle móhe to whatever word you desire to question. When móhe attaches to a following word its last two letters, -he, and is pronounced only as mó-: ($$INCLUDE discussion of the functions of word-internal question words and the reportative mode (e.g. étónėšévėsesto 'What in the world are they doing?', from Bat Story: náme'tatónėšévémȧse, whether word-internal question words are possible with the preterit mode, etc.)

mó-questions
The interrogative particle móhe can be attached to the beginning of several categories of words to question them. When it attaches to a word, it shortens to mó-and acts like a prefix to the word 64 . Questions formed with mó-have an assumption that the answer will be positive, unlike questions formed with the interrogative suffix -he. Cheyenne mó-questions are similar in function to English tag questions, such as "You've eaten, haven't you?" 65 Here are examples of Cheyenne mó-questions: Given what was narrated (preterit), did he win?

Content questions
Content questions are questions that ask for information other than "yes" or "no" answers. Content questions are created with question words (called interrogative pronouns) or meaning parts (morphemes) inside verbs (called preverbs and initials).
Interrogative pronouns are used to ask Cheyenne questions that correspond to English questions that begin with "What", "Who", "When", "Where", "Why", and "Which". An interrogative pronoun precedes the verb that accompanies it. We will study verbs and their categories in the next section of this book. In that section we will examine two main categories (called orders) of verbs, independent and dependent (called conjunct), which take different prefixes prefixes and suffixes from each other. For now we simply observe that What, Who, Why, and Which questions in Cheyenne require that verbs that go with them be dependent (that is, in the conjunct order). When and Where questions require that verbs that go with them be independent. Interrogative pronouns are inflected for number and obviation. How questions are expressed with preverbs and initials within verbs whose manner is questioned.

What questions
What questions use the interrogative pronoun hénová'e 'what?' or one of its related inflected forms, followed by a conjunct participle: Hénová'e tséméseto?

Whose questions
Who questions followed by a verb with the he-'have' preverb can be translated either as 'Whose ___?' or 'Who has ___?', which essentially mean the same thing. The he-'have' preverb is boldfaced in these examples to make it easier to see: Névááhe tsé-he-vóhkėha'ėstse?
Whose hat is this? / Who has on the hat? Névááhe tsé-he-mo'kėhānėstse?
Whose shoe is this? / Who has on the shoe? Névááhe tsé-he-voestóvėstse?
Whose dress is this? / Who has on the dress?

Which questions
Which questions use the interrogative pronoun táaso 'which?' and its inflected forms, followed by a noun or verb. The verb must be a conjunct participle. These interrogative pronouns are inflected for animacy and number. Hénová'e tsé-hése-oomȯhtse?
Why did you hit him?
Why did you (plural) leave?

When questions
When questions are composed of a time question word, typically tóne'še 'when?' followed by a verb in the independent order.
When are you going to leave?

How long questions
How long questions consist of the preverb or initial tóne'éše-within a verb of the independent order. Néta-tóne'éšė-háomóhtahe?
How long does it take to get to Hardin?

Where questions
Where questions are composed of the question word tósa'e 'where?' followed by a verb in the independent order.
Where are you going to go? Tósa'e néohkėhotse'ohe?
Where do you work? Tósa'e éhoo'e?
Where did you buy it? Tósa'e névóómo?
Where is the meeting going to be? Tósa'e nénėxhéstahe?
Where are you from?

How questions
How questions are expressed by the preverb tónėše-, initials tónet-, tónėst-, and related initials, all meaning 'how?' (or 'what?' with some finals). These initials and preverb appear within verbs of the independent order. The preverb and initials question how something about the verb is done. The How question roots, stems, preverbs, and initials are boldfaced in the following examples: Né-tónėše-véhe?
How long is he staying / How long did he stay? É-tónet-otse'ohe?
What sound does it make?

What root and stem questions
Questions formed from question roots and stems behave like the preceding How questions. However they are often best translated with the English question word "What".
What did he do to him?
Questions asking what someone is doing are formed with the interrogative stem -tónėšéve. This stem is inflected for person, number, obviation, and mode, like any other AI verb stem: Ná-tónėšéve?
What did they do?
'How many' questions Questions asking how many are formed with the interrogative particle tónesto 'how many?' or the preverb tónėstȯhe-, or the initial tónėst-.
What day of the week is it? (lit., how many days is it?) É-tónėst-ȯxeo'o? How many of them (an.) are there? É-tónėst-ȯhánėstse? How many of them (inan.) are there?
'How many times' questions Questions asking how many times something happened begin with the interrogative particle tónėstoha 'How many times?' Tónėstoha ného'soo'e?
How many times did they run?

To what degree questions
To what degree questions consist of the preverb tóne'xóve-within an independent order verb.
How much do you love her?
Other question forms Some content questions are created with forms unrelated to the tónėš(e)-/ tónėst-preverbs, initials, and roots. Nénéevá'eve?
Who are you?
What kind of a tree (bush) is it? Éhová'evenótseve?
What kind of a day is it? (cf. -tónėšeéšeeve, with the same meaning)
What did he say to him (obviative)?

naa questions
The conjunction naa 'and' can function as a kind of question word. In the appropriate speech context if naa precedes a noun, it can function as asking about that noun's location or well-being. Naa Amé'há'e?
How's your car?
I didn't do anything to him.

Content of saying questions and negatives
The verb of saying has an indefinite negative meaning with the preverb óxo-in negative contexts, including prohibitives: Násáa'-óxȯhéhe.
I didn't say anything.

hová'éhe and negatives
The indefinite pronoun hová'éhe 'something' has a negative meaning in a negative context: $$KEEP HERE OR MOVE TO ANOTHER SECTION OF THE BOOK??
I didn't see anything.
'someone' indefinite particles Who question words themselves never function as indefinite particles, but words which sound much like them and probably are semantically related to them, are indefinite particles in both form and function.
No one was there.

Rhetorical questions
Rhetorical questions have the forms of questions but do not function as questions. Typically they function as emphatic statements, such as rebukes.$$RECHECK THE EXAMPLES AND GLOSSES Nésáahe'évėhehe! Are you not a woman! Névé'hétónėšéve! Why did you do that! Névé'hénéméne! ??
Nothing would happen to me! Mónéme'hé-tone'oēto. You won't be able to do anything to him. (e.g., he's more powerful than you) Ésáatónėšeéno'éetȯhane! How does it not stop snowing!

Commands
There are several kinds of Cheyenne forms that function as commands. Further details about some of the forms in this section can be found in other parts of this book which focus on those forms themselves. For instance, we must introduce imperative mode verbs in this section devoted to commands. But description of full paradigms of imperative mode verbs will be found in the imperative mode subsections under discussion of the main verb types.
Commands can be either "positive" (e.g. Tie your shoes!) or "negative" (e.g. Don't cross the street!). Positive and negative commands are grammatically different in Cheyenne. (They belong to different modes.) Commands can be singular (said to one person) or plural (said to more than one person). tell people what not to do.

Imperative mode commands
The most common way of communicating a positive command is by use of the imperative verb mode.

Singular addressees
Imperative mode commands may be said to a single person (singular addressee). The imperative suffix for a command said to a single person is phonemically /-ht/. Here are some commonly used commands: Other suffixes can be added to verb stems to indicate that the action commanded is to be done later. These commands are called delayed imperatives. The suffix for a delayed imperative said to a single person is phonemically /-o/. The suffix for a delayed imperative said to more than one person is phonemically /-héné/. You should take it. Né-me'-méhótȧhtséme.
You should love each other (or, yourselves).

'should' impersonal commands
Impersonal verbs with the preverb me'-function as even milder commands. Even though these verbs are in the impersonal, they are often intended for one or more individuals . Their impersonal natural mitigates the directness of the command, sounding more polite in some speech contexts. É-me'-mésėhé-stove.
There should be love for one another.

Negative commands
Negative commands tell people what not to do.
Prohibitives A command telling more or more people not to do something is called a prohibitive. A prohibitive command is composed of the prohibitive preverb vé'(e)-in a verb with a second person ("you") subject. The preverb is pronounced as vé'e-if the next letter in the word is a vowel. Otherwise, it is pronounced as vé'-.
You (singular) shouldn't do there.

Negative 'should' impersonal commands
The 'should' and 'not' preverbs can be used with impersonal verbs to create statements that function as commands even milder than the negative 'should' commands in the preceding section. Even though the impersonal verb form is used, a speaker typically intends a single individual (or sometimes a group of individuals) to be impacted by the impersonal statement which functions as a mitigated command.$$RECHECK DATA É-mé'-sáa-nėhešévė-stovė-hane.
That shouldn't be said.

Negative impersonal commands
The mildest (most mitigated) commands are those which use the negative preverb in impersonal verbs:$$RECHECK THAT CLAIM É-sáa-nėhenóvė-hane.
That is not done.

Rhetorical question commands $$RECHECK THIS SECTION, INCLUDING THE DATA AND GLOSSES/ CLAIMS ABOUT FUNCTIONS
Some Cheyenne rhetorical questions can function as commands. These include negative interrogatives and negative prohibitives:
The preverb hé-is often included also. It adds a meaning something like 'for the purpose of':$$RECHECK THAT LAST CLAIM??
Let's go look on! (for example, at a powwow)

Mitigation of commands
It has been noted that some command forms are mitigated (milder). They are less direct, for instance, than the most direct commands, such as Méseestse! 'Eat!' and Tȧhéovēšėstse!'Go to bed!' We must note, however, that, unlike in some other languages, including English, more direct commands are not impolite or rude to use in Cheyenne. It is culturally appropriate to use a direct command with an elderly parent, for instance. Instead of degree of politeness determining the degree of mitigation of a command, it appears that degree of mitigation of Cheyenne commands is determined by degree of social closeness, how familiar a speaker is to the person being addressed by a command.
So, if you are not a Cheyenne and someone tells you Méseestse! 'Eat!', understand this use of the most direct command to be a kind of compliment. It means that you have gained a good level of acceptance within the social circle of that Cheyenne speaker.
In constrast, if someone says the mitigated command, Émé'mésėhéstove 'There should be eating!' there is some social distance intended. Such a mitigated command might be used, for instance, by a woman, who is trying to get her son-in-law to eat, but she cannot speak to him directly due to the Cheyenne taboo against her speaking to her son-in-law. $$RECHECK THESE CLAIMS

Verbs
An understanding of its verbs is essential to a proper understanding of Cheyenne. In a real sense the verb is the heart of the Cheyenne language. A Cheyenne verb is often like a complete sentence, all wrapped up in a single word. For instance, Éhoo'kōho means 'It's raining.' Énéméne means 'He's singing.' Návóómo means 'I saw him,' and Éohkėsáa'áahtomónéhe means 'He regularly does not listen.' We can add nouns to give more information. We can say "Hetane énéméne" which means 'The man is singing.' Návóómo váótséva means 'I saw a deer.' Much of this section of this book is devoted to paradigms (grammatical lists) of verbs. The lists are organized according to various categories. The categories are given technical labels. It is more important that you understand what kinds of verbs are in a category than that you understand what a technical label means. A person can, of course, easily learn a language without knowing any technical labels. Some people, on the other hand, find labels helpful. If you wish to understand more about the meaning of a label, and there is not enough explanation for it in this book, you might get some help from an English dictionary or by searching for the technical term on the Internet.

Transitivity
A transitive sentence has an "object", something or someone that is affected by the subject of the sentence. For instance, the words "He wrote a letter" form a transitive sentence. The object of the sentence is "a letter". An intransitive sentence does not have an object. The English sentence "She is cooking" has a subject, "She". There is no object telling what is cooked, so this sentence is intransitive.
Cheyenne verbs indicate whether they are intransitive or transitive, even if there is no separate noun which tells what the object is: intransitive meaning transitive meaning Émésehe.

Verbs and animacy
To understand Cheyenne grammar it is important to know whether the subject of a verb is animate or inanimate. And, if a verb is transitive, it is necessary to know whether the object is animate or inanimate. So, we can divide Cheyenne verbs into four main classes, (1) intransitive verbs having animate subjects, (2) intransitive verbs having inanimate subjects, (3) transitive verbs having animate objects, and (4)  There are also other important categories for Cheyenne verbs. Let's examine them.

Polarity
Cheyenne verbs are either positive 69 or negative. This is called polarity. Negative verbs are marked with the negative preverb sáa-and a negative suffix. Positive verbs are unmarked for polarity. The negative suffix is -hane for Inanimate Intransitive verbs and /-hé/ for all other verbs. Námésehe.
I did not eat.
It's not red.

Interrogatives
Verbs can be marked as questions, also known as interrogatives:

Imperatives
Cheyenne verbs can tell people to do things. These verbs are called commands, also known as imperatives.
I took it. Hestānȯhtse! Take it! Later, when we give more details about Cheyenne imperatives, we will show that imperatives can tell someone to do something immediately or at some later time.

Independent verbs
Cheyenne verbs are marked for whether or not they can stand alone. Verbs which can stand alone are translated as complete English sentences. Verbs which can stand alone are called independent verbs. Here are some indendent verbs: Énaóotse.
It tastes really good. Nátsėhésenėstséme.
I never see you.

Dependent (conjunct) verbs
Verbs which do not stand alone are called dependent verbs. It is traditional with people who study Algonquian languages to call dependent verbs conjunct verbs. We will use the label conjunct in this book but feel free to use the label dependent if it is more meaningful to you. Some Cheyenne conjunct verbs are: tséhnaóotsėse when he was sleeping tséhvóonā'o when it was morning ma'énėsétovoésta when it's afternoon

Orders
The last three categories of verbs, independent, conjunct, and imperatives, are called orders in Algonquian languages. The term order comes from the foundational work of Leonard Bloomfield (1946) on Algonquian languages. We will examine many verbs of each order in the next sections of this book. For now, here are a few examples:

Independent order verbs
Some examples of independent order verbs are: Náho'soo'e. I danced. Némésėhehe?
They must have been hungry.

Modes
Each order has two or more subtypes. These subtypes are called modes. A mode tells us something about how a speaker views the action or state of a verb. For instance, if a speaker does not know if something happened, he can ask whether it happened. As we noted earlier, an asking verb is in the interrogative mode.

Evidentials
Some Cheyenne modes indicate how speakers came by the information that they are sharing. Modes that are used to indicate the source of evidence for a speaker's information are called evidentials. If a Cheyenne speaker personally experienced something, they tell about it using what is called the indicative mode. Indicative mode verbs do not receive any evidential marking. Cheyenne does marks three evidential modes on verbs: reportative, inferential, and preterit.

Indicative mode
As just noted, the indicative mode indicates information which a speaker has personally witnessed, that is, personally experienced either by seeing, hearing, tasting, or feeling. Even though a verb in the indicative mode does not receive any evidential marking, the lack of marking clearly indicates personally witnessed evidence. For this reason, Sarah Murray ($$xxxx:xx) labels this the witness mode. Each of the following verbs must have been personally witnessed in order for a Cheyenne speaker to say them properly. This is an important point which can be difficult for English speakers to learn when they begin to speak Cheyenne: Énaóotse.
It tastes good.

Reportatives
If Cheyenne speakers have been told that something has happened (but have not seen it for themselves), they would use a reportative evidential.. Such verbs can be translated with English words like "It is said that ___" or "'they' say that ___".

Némanémȧse.
It is said that you drank. Éhnėševátamósesto.
It is said that he took pity on him (obviative).

Inferentials
A commonly used evidential is the inferential mode 70 Inferential verbs are used by speakers who have not personally seen what happened, nor been told it by others, but concluded what happened any other evidence available to them.
Verbs in the inferential mode begin with mó-71 , and can be translated with words like "He must have __" or "It must be ": Móhoo'kȯhóhanéhe It must have rained Mónémésėhehéhe You must have eaten

Preterit mode
Another mode is the preterit (called mediate mode by Petter 1951 and I used Petter's term in earlier editions of this book). Petter (1951:68) wrote that "The expression Mediate denotes here a separation by time or distance or mind not direct or present." I remember an elder telling me that that when he heard something told in this mode he felt "distant" from the events that were being narrated.

Use in legends
The preterit mode can also be considered a kind of evidential. The preterit marks actions which occurred long ago. No one living has any personal memory of them. The preterit has been used extensively when Cheyennes narrate legends, stories passed on down through many generations. Because this mode has so often been used when a storyteller narrates legends, Sarah Murray (xxxx:xxx$$) has used the informative label narrative for it. I use the label preterit now because the Cheyenne suffixes of this mode are cognate with the preterit mode of other Algonquian languages, as Pentland (1984) observed. Semantically, the "separation by time" semantics of this mode aligns with the past tense idea of the preterit mode in other Algonquian languages.

Mirative usage
The preterit is also used in contemporary settings to indicate surprise or exclamation on the part of a speaker. An older Cheyenne lady once heard me speaking some Cheyenne at a basketball game. She exclaimed, "Nooo, étsėhésenėstséhoo'o!" which could be translated to English as 'Wow, surprisingly he speaks Cheyenne! Sometime forms indicating surprise are called miratives.

Interrogative mode
The interrogative mode, marking yes/no questions (also known as polar questions), is a non-70 Called the dubitative mode in earlier editions of this book. Sarah Murray (2010) calls it a conjectural mode, an accurate label. 71 A shortened form of the particle móhe meaning "Really?" evidential mode. The suffix -he marks the interrogative mode: Nénémene-he? Did you sing? Émésėhevo-he?
Did they eat?
are verbs which usually need some other verb(s) to help them out. From English grammar, this second type of verb .;rould (??) "dependent" verb. It has become traditional with people who study Algonquian languages to use another label for this type, "conjunct". In these notes, the label "conjunct" will be used.. But, remember that you can used the label "dependent" if it is more meaningful to you. $$REVISE??
Here are some examples of some independent order verbs and some conjunct verbs: when he sang those who are· singing whether he prayed when he comes

Modes
There are two basic categories of modes in Cheyenne, evidential and non-evidential.

$$KEEP OUTLINE, OR ONLY USE PROSE??
This outline summarizes the major categories of Cheyenne verbs. Roman numbers (I, II, II) in the outline designate the three orders, Independent, Conjunct (that is, Dependent), and Imperative. Capital letters (A, B, C, etc.) designate modes. In general, each mode has all the positive/negative, transitivity, and animacy categories listed in the outline for the Independent Indicative.

Independent Order morphology summary
Cheyenne affixes in this section are spelled before pitch rules apply to words.

/-némené/ 'sing' and /-néméné/ 'have a crooked face'
Cheyennes enjoy pointing out that énéméne can mean either 'he sang' or 'he has a crooked face'. They enjoy suggesting that they sound the same because a person may have a crooked face while they are singing. This homophony is actually coincidental, as can be seen from differences in pronunciation in some of their other person and number combinations: The negatives of this verb stem always add at least the negative suffix /-hé/ to the end of the stem. So the vowels /óe/ of this verb stem never appear word-finally, as they do in the singular subject positive verbs, listed earlier, which require vowel-stretching: They did not dance -oveše 'go to bed' Verbs with the AI final -eše add /ná/ to their stems except when-eše is word-final: Násáa'ovėšenáhe I did not go to bed Nésáa'ovėšenáhe You did not go to bed Ésáa'ovėšenáhe He did not go to bed Ésáa'ovėšenáheho He (obv) did not go to bed Násáa'ovėšenáhéme We (excl) did not go to bed Nésáa'ovėšenáhema We (incl) did not go to bed Nésáa'ovėšenáhéme You (pl) did not go to bed Ésáa'ovėšenáheo'o They did not go to bed

-ováxe 'dream'
The extra /ná/ of the 'lie' final also appears in the negative forms of the verbs for 'dream':

Animate Intransitive equative verbs
The formula (or frame) for equative verbs consists of the personal prefix é-, an incorporated noun, and an equative suffix /-vé/ which means 'be'. For example, the animate Cheyenne noun hoohtsėstse means 'tree'. If this noun stem is incorporated into the equative verb frame, the result is éhoóhtsetseve which means 'it (animate) is a tree'. Equative verbs can be pluralized like other AI verbs. So éhoóhtsetséveo'o means 'they are trees.' Equative verbs are not very useful for beginning Cheyenne language learning. But they are very useful for discovering the spelling of Cheyenne noun stems and their phonemic pitches. Inanimate nouns can also be incorporated into the equative frames and we will see examples of them later in the section of this book devoted to II verbs. Here are some AI equatives:

Éhováheve
It is an animal.

Animate Intransitive Independent Interrogative verbs
There are two ways to create yes/no questions 77 in Cheyenne: (1) add the interrogative suffix -he to the end of a verb (2) add the prefix mó-to the beginning of a word (1) is the older method; (2) is newer. The prefix mó-is a contracted form of the question particle móhe meaning 'Really?" Mó-can attach to many Cheyenne words to question them, including nouns, demonstrative and discourse pronouns, and verbs.
Verbs with third person plural and obviative subjects require addition of the syllable "vo" before the -he suffix is added. The syllable "ma" is added to verbs which have first plural inclusive subjects, before the -he suffix is added.

Animate Intransitive Inferential verbs
The inferential mode is very frequently used by Cheyennes. It is used to tell about something which you have concluded but have not directly observed or had told to you by someone else.
For someone whose first language is not Cheyenne, it can be difficult to learn to use the inferential mode. In English I can easily say "My daughter made frybread yesterday" whether or not I actually saw her making it. But I can't say the same thing in Cheyenne if I didn't actually see her making the frybread. Instead, if I saw the frybread after it was made and figured out that my daughter was the one who made it, I must say the Cheyenne equivalent of "My daughter must have made frybread yesterday."

Inferential formula
Cheyenne inferential verbs have a complicated structure. At a minimum, they have the following parts:

mó-+ PERSON + VERB STEM + NEGATIVE SUFFIX + INFERENTIAL SUFFIX
The mó-prefix is the same prefix we saw in one of the ways to make yes/no questions in Cheyenne.
The personal prefix is either first person ná-or second person né-. The third person prefix é-is not used in the inferential mode.
As with any independent order verb, tense can be marked next.
There can be one or more preverbs.
There must be a verb stem.
There must be the negative suffix /-hé/, except that an II (Inanimate Intransitiveverb will take the /-hane/ suffix, instead.
Inferentials take the usual suffixes for plural subjects and/or objects as well as direct or inverse voice.
Following Petter (xxxx:xxx) I called this the dubitative mode in earlier editions of this book. I have come to believe that this label is not accurate. Unlike my earlier claim, this mode does not indicate doubt on the part of a speaker, for which the label dubitative would be appropriate. Instead, this mode indicates that speakers infer what they are saying based on whatever evidence is available to them. Sarah Murray (xxxx:xx) has used another accurate label for this mode, the conjectural.

Mónémanėhēhe
You must have drunk.

Mómanėhēhe
He must have drunk. Mómanėhevōhe He (obv) must have drunk.

Mónémanėhemēhe
You (pl) must have drunk.

Mómanėhevōhe
They must have drunk.

Mónéháeanȧhēhe
You must be hungry.

Móháeanȧhēhe
He must be hungry. Móháeanȧhevōhe He (obv) must be hungry. Mónáháeanáhemanēhe We (excl) must be hungry. Mónéháeanáhemanēhe We (incl) must be hungry. Mónéháeanȧhemēhe You (pl) must be hungry.

Móháeanȧhevōhe
They must be hungry.

/-he/ 'say'
All persons can be used with verbs of saying in the inferential mode, although third person subjects are most frequently used.
You must have said that. Móhehēhe.
He must have said. Móhehevōhe.
They must have said.

Inferential pitch template
Some pitches behave differently in inferentials than they do in other Cheyenne modes. There is a special inferential template that modifies pitches near the end of inferential verbs. $$DETAILS?

Animate Intransitive Negative Inferential verbs
Negative inferentials require a negative preverb ho'nó-81 , instead of the usual sáa-negative preverb. They take the suffixes of the conjunct order, rather than the affixes of the independent order used by positive inferentials. Negative inferentials optionally use the prefix mó-of independent order positive inferentials.

Animate Intransitive Reportative verbs
Cheyenne speakers use the reportative mode to communicate information they heard from other people. Following Petter (xxxx:xxx), I called this the attributive mode in earlier editions of this 80 Mónánėhehēhe, with the anaphoric preverb nė-, sounds more natural than Mónáhehēhe. Móhehēhe, with a third person subject and without that preverb, does sound natural. 81 Cheyenne ho'nó-appears to function parallel to Cree pwaa, which, like ho'nó-, only occurs with conjunct order verbs 82 There is no distinction in conjunct verbs between inclusive 'we' and exclusive 'we'.

Animate Intransitive Preterit verbs
The preterit mode is used by Cheyennes for telling about things which happened before the memory of anyone currently living. The preterit and reportative have traditionally been the most common modes used to narrate legends and folktales. The preterit is also used for exclamations of surprise. Following Petter (xxxx:xx) I used the label mediate for this mode. Verbs in the preterit mode only take third person subjects.

Animate Intransitive Imperative verbs
The imperative mode communicates commands through imperative suffixes on verbs. There are two kinds of imperatives: (1) those commanding immediate action; (2) those commanding delayed action.

Animate Intransitive Immediate Imperative
An immediate imperative addressed to a single person takes suffixes spelled -htse or -stse, both phonemically /-ht/. An immediate imperative addressed to more than one person takes no suffix.

Inanimate Intransitive equative verbs
The formula for equative verbs consists of the personal prefix é-, an incorporated noun, and an equative suffix /-vé/ which means 'be'. For example, the inanimate Cheyenne noun mȧhēō'o means 'house'. If this noun stem is incorporated into the equative verb frame, the result is émȧheóneve which means 'it is a house'. Equative verbs can be pluralized like other II verbs. So émȧheónévénėstse means 'they are houses.' Equative verbs are not very useful for Cheyenne language learning. But they are very useful for discovering the spelling of Cheyenne noun stems and their phonemic pitches. Animate nouns can also be incorporated into the equative frames and examples of them are listed earlier in this book in the section devoted to AI verbs.
Here are some II equatives: Émótšėškeve.
It is a shoe. Émo'kėhanévénėstse. They are shoes.

Impersonals
Impersonals consist of the personal prefix é-, an AI verb stem, and the impersonal suffix /-htove/ (or an alternate pronunciation /-nove/). Impersonal verbs do not refer to specific people doing some action. Instead, they focus on the action itself. Impersonal verbs can take plural suffixes, indicating that an action has occurred more than once. Émanéstove.
There is drinking.
There is eating.
There is praying.
There is singing.

Impersonals with reflexive/reciprocal stems
Transitive Animate (TA) reflexives and reciprocals 86 can appear as impersonals. When they do, they behave as regular II verbs. In the following word pairs the first word of a pair is the original reflexive/reciprocal and the second word is an impersonal made from the original reflexive/reciprocal: They love themselves/each other. Éméhohtȧhtséstove. There is love for themselves/one another.
They argued with each other. Éoó'evótȧhtséstove. There is arguing with each other.

Inanimate Intransitive Independent Indicative relational verbs
Unlike animate nouns, inanimate nouns with third person possessors are not marked for obviation. However, II verbs which have subjects possessed by third persons act like they are marked for obviation. But there are some important differences between animate obviation and what could be called inanimate obviation. Because of these differences, those who study Algonquian languages differ on whether to use the label inanimate obviation 87 . Some prefer, instead, to call the "obviated" II verbs 84 This sounds the same as Éhe'eve 'she is a woman'. 85 This sounds the same as Émo'ėškoneve 'it (animate) is a finger'. 86 Reflexives refer to action toward oneself. Reciprocals refer to action toward one each other. Remember that Cheyenne reflexives and reciprocals are pronounced the same. We can only tell the difference between them from the speech context or if there is some other word, such as the reciprocal particle nonámé'tó'e 'toward each other', included. 87 Some who have used the label inanimate obviates are Ellis (1971), Frantz (1991), Valentine (2001), and Wolfart (1973). relational verbs 88 . I use the label relational verbs in this book. The Cheyenne relational suffix is -tse. In the following sentence pairs the second sentence has a relational verb: Namȧhēō'o étȧhpé'o 'My house is big'; Hemȧhēō'o étȧhpe'otse 'His house is big (rel).' Neamȧho'hestȯtse émá'o 'Your car is red'; Heamȧho'hestȯtse éma'otse 'His car is red (rel).' Namȯx'ėstoo'o éhó'ta 'My book is here'; Hemȯxe'ėstoo'o ého'tatse 'His book is here (rel).' Unlike AI obviated verbs, II relational verbs are marked for number of their subjects: Namaahe évóhko 'My arrow is bent.' Hemaahe évóhkotse 'His arrow is bent (rel).' Namaahótse évóhkónėstse 'My arrows are bent.' Hemaahótse évóhkonetōtse 'His arrows are bent (rel).'

Inanimate Intransitive Indicative Negative verbs
II verbs take the usual sáa-negative preverb. They take -hane as negative suffix, rather than the /-hé/ suffix found in the AI, TA, and TI paradigms. There are pitch variations among speakers as to whether the II negative suffix is phonemically spelled /-hané/ or /-hane/. Ésáaho'táháne.
They are not yellow (rel).
They are not good (rel).
They are not dry (rel).
Ésáamanéstovėhanéhetse. There is not drinking (rel).$$DETAIL AND/OR GIVE SOME RELATIONAL VERBS WHICH DO NOT HAVE 3 RD P. POSSESSOR SUBJECTS Ésáamanéstovėhanéhenetōtse.

Inanimate Intransitive Interrogative verbs
II verbs become yes/no questions in the same two ways that AI verbs do: (1) add the interrogative suffix -he to the end of a verb (2) add the prefix mó-to the beginning of a word

-he suffix II Interrogative verbs
The -he interrogative suffix is not seen in the spelling of II verbs which have plural subjects. However, this suffix actually was a part of the formation of II yes/no questions with plural subjects. Let's examine the formation of II yes/no questions with the verb stem -pėhéva'e 'be good'. Here are the forms of the verb with singular and plural subjects: It's good. Épėhéva'énėstse.
They are good.
The suffix -he is added to the singular subject form to create this pronunciation: Épėhéva'ehe? Is it good?
Formation of the yes/no question with a plural subject is more complicated. The question verb requires the third person prefix é-, the verb stem -pėhéva'e, plural suffixation, plus the interrogative suffix -he. Here is the phonemic spelling of all these parts: /é-pehéva'e-nevot-he/ Are they good?
A phonological rule causes the second "e" to devoice. Other phonological rules cause the "h" of the -he suffix to be absorbed as the word-final "e" causes the "t" before it to assibilate to "ts". After the phonological rules apply, we get this pronunciation spelling of the word:
They must be good.
They must be red.
They must be yellow.
There must have been eatings.
His houses must be yellow (rel).
They are said to be (here/there).
They are said to be bent.
They are said to be red.
They are said to be yellow.
They are said to be good. návóomāne I was seen névóomāne you were seen évóome he was seen návóomanēme we (excl) were seen névóomanema we (incl) were seen névóomanēme you (pl) were seen évóomeo'o they were seen 90 Cheyenne reflexives and reciprocals have identical morphology. So, outside some speech context, this Cheyenne verb can mean either 'they saw themselves' or 'they saw each other'. A reciprocal particle, nonámé'tó'e, can precede this verb so that it will only mean 'they saw each other'.

/-het/ 'tell (someone)'
The stem-final "t" of /-het/ becomes "š" before "e" in second person subject local forms. The stem changes to /-hestóh/ in the third person passive forms.

/-a'tas/ 'accidentally cut (someone)'
The stem-final "s" (from PA *š) of /-a'tas/ becomes "x" before "e". First person subject local forms, as well as reciprocal/reflexive forms, take suffixes that begin with "e" rather than the usual "a". The stem-final "ev" of verb stems such as -vovéstomev contracts to "óe" word-medially in the inverse voice. The "e" of "ev" becomes high-pitched before a word-medial "a". The stem-final "ov" of verb stems such as -héne'enov contracts to "óe" word-medially in the inverse voice. The "o" of "ov" becomes high-pitched before a word-medial "a".

Transitive Animate Independent Indicative negative verbs
TA verbs become negative with the addition of the sáa-preverb and /-hé/ negative suffix.
'not see (someone)' násáavóomȧhtséhe I did not see myself nésáavóomatséhe I did not see you násáavóomóhe I did not see him násáavóomamóheho I did not see him (obv) nésáavóomatséhéme I did not see you (pl) násáavóomóheo'o I did not see them nésáavóoméhe you did not see me nésáavóomȧhtséhe you did not see yourself nésáavóomóhe you did not see him nésáavóomamóheho you did not see him (obv) nésáavóomėhemeno you did not see us (ex) nésáavóomóheo'o you did not see them násáavóomaēhe he did not see me nésáavóomaēhe he did not see you ésáavóomȧhtsēhe he did not see himself ésáavóomóheho he did not see him (obv) násáavóomaehéne he did not see us (excl) nésáavóomaehene he did not see us (incl) nésáavóomaehévo he did not see you (pl) násáavóomaehétsenoto he (obv) did not see me nésáavóomaehétsenoto he (obv) did not see you ésáavóomaeheho he (obv) did not see him násáavóomaehétsenone he (obv) did not see us (ex) nésáavóomaehétsenone he (obv) did not see us (in) nésáavóomaehétsenovo he (obv) did not see you (pl) ésáavóomaehevo he (obv) did not see them nésáavóomatsėhemeno we (ex) did not see you násáavóomóhéne we (ex) did not see him násáavóomamóhene we (ex) did not see him (obv) násáavóomȧhtséhéme we (excl) did not see ourselves nésáavóomatsėhemeno we (ex) did not see you (pl) násáavóomóheneo'o we (ex) did not see them nésáavóomóhene we (incl) did not see him nésáavóomamóhene we (in) did not see him (obv) nésáavóomȧhtséhema we (in) did not see ourselves nésáavóomóheneo'o we (incl) did not see them nésáavóoméhéme you (pl) did not see me nésáavóomóhévo you (pl) did not see him nésáavóomamóhevo you (pl) did not see him (obv) nésáavóomėhemeno you (pl) did not see us (ex) nésáavóomȧhtséhéme you (pl) did not see yourselves nésáavóomóhevoo'o you (pl) did not see them nésáavóomaeheo'o they did not see me nésáavóomaeheo'o they did not see you ésáavóomóhevo they did not see him (obv) násáavóomaehéneo'o they did not see us (excl) nésáavóomaehéneo'o they did not see us (incl) nésáavóomaehévoo'o they did not see you (pl) ésáavóomȧhtséheo'o they did not see themselves násáavóomanéhe I was not seen nésáavóomanéhe you were not seen ésáavóoméhe he was not seen násáavóomanéhéme we (excl) were not seen nésáavóomanéhema we (incl) were not seen nésáavóomanéhéme you (pl) were not seen ésáavóoméheo'o they were not seen 'not know (someone)' TA verb stems that end in "ov" experience contraction of the "ov" in the inverse voice. $$RECHECK PARADIGM

Transitive Animate Interrogative verbs
Yes/no questions are formed with TA verbs in the same two ways that they are formed with AI verbs: (1) Add the interrogative suffix -he (2) Prefix the indicative form of the verb with mó-Note that interrogative verbs with third person plural subjects or objects substitute "vo" for phonemic /o/ before the interrogative suffix -he.  Návóomaevohe? Did they see me? Névóomaevohe?
Did they see you? Évóomovovohe?
Did they see themselves?
Were they seen? Are you his/her mother? Néheškenotse?
Is she your mother?

Transitive Animate Inferential verbs
The TA inferential paradigm looks much the same as the preceding negative interrogative paradigm with the following differences: (1) The sáa-negative preverb does not occur in inferentials (2)  It's said I did not see you Násáavóomóhesėstse It's said I did not see him Násáavóomamóhesesto It's said I did not see him (obv) Nésáavóomatséhémėse It's said I did not see you (pl) Násáavóomóhesesto It's said I did not see them

Nésáavóoméhémȧse
It's said you did not see me Nésáavóomȧhtséhémȧse It's said you did not see yourself Nésáavóomóhesėstse It's said you did not see him

Nésáavóomamóhesesto
It's said you did not see him (obv) Nésáavóomėhemenȯse It's said you did not see us (excl) Nésáavóomóhesesto It's said you did not see them

Násáavóomaehesėstse
It's said he did not see me Nésáavóomaehesėstse It's said he did not see you Ésáavóomȧhtséhesėstse It's said he did not see himself Ésáavóomóhesesto It's said he did not see him (obv) Násáavóomaehénesėstse It's said he did not see us (excl) Nésáavóomaehénesėstse It's said he did not see us (incl) Nésáavóomaehévosėstse It's said he did not see you (pl) Násáavóomaehétsenósesto It's said he (obv) did not see me Nésáavóomaehétsenósesto It's said he (obv) did not see you Ésáavóomaehésesto It's said he (obv) did not see him Ésáavóomȧhtséhesesto It's said he (obv) did not see himself Násáavóomaehétsenónėsesto It's said he (obv) did not see us (ex) Nésáavóomaehétsenónėsesto It's said he (obv) did not see us (in) Nésáavóomaehétsenóvȯsesto It's said he (obv) did not see you (pl) Ésáavóomaehévȯsesto It's said he (obv) did not see them

Nésáavóomatsėhéménȯse
It's said we (ex) did not see you Násáavóomóhenesėstse It's said we (ex) did not see him Násáavóomamóhenėsesto It's said we (ex) did not see him (obv) Násáavóomȧhtséhémánėse It's said we (ex) did not see ourselves Nésáavóomatsėhéménȯse It's said we (ex) did not see you (pl) Násáavóomóhenėsesto It's said we (ex) did not see them

Nésáavóomóhenesėstse
It's said we (in) did not see him Nésáavóomamóhenėsesto It's said we (in) did not see him (obv) Nésáavóomȧhtséhémánėse It's said we (in) did not see ourselves Nésáavóomóhenėsesto It's said we (in) did not see them

Nésáavóoméhémėse
It's said you (pl) did not see me Nésáavóomóhevosėstse It's said you (pl) did not see him Nésáavóomamóhevȯsesto It's said you (pl) did not see him (obv) Nésáavóomėhemenȯse It's said you (pl) did not see us (ex) Nésáavóomȧhtséhémėse It's said you (pl) did not see yourselves Nésáavóomóhevȯsesto It's said you (pl) did not see them

Násáavóomaehésesto
It's said they did not see me Nésáavóomaehésesto It's said they did not see you Ésáavóomóhevȯsesto It's said they did not see him (obv) Násáavóomaehénėsesto It's said they did not see us (ex) Nésáavóomaehénėsesto It's said they did not see us (in) Nésáavóomaehévȯsesto It's said they did not see you (pl) Ésáavóomȧhtséhesesto It's said they did not see themselves

Násáavóomanéhémȧse
It's said I was seen Nésáavóomanéhémȧse It's said you were seen Ésáavóoméhesėstse It's said he was seen Násáavóomanéhémánėse It's said we (ex) were seen Nésáavóomanéhémánėse It's said we (in) were seen It's said they did not take him (obv) Ésáahoxomóhevȯsesto It's said they did not feed him (obv) Ésáašéxanóhesesto It's said he did not free him (obv)

Transitive Animate Preterit verbs
As previously explained, Cheyenne verbs in the preterit mode occur mostly in legends. They can also occur in contemporary contexts when a speaker wishes to convey surprise (i.e. as miratives).
The preterit mode usually occurs with third person subjects and objects, but the verbs in the following examples from texts seem to be mirative usages of the preterit occurring with local arguments: Náéšėho'ėhnémoho káhkėse o'hé'e! Wow, I have come close to a river! (Floating Eyes:062) Nétaéšėhevéxahé'tovatsémoho! " náhéto. You are already now my son-in-law!" I told him. (The Brothers-in-law) The examples below will be given with the past tense morpheme /h/ (with its allomorphs x, s, š, and ') since this is how preterit verbs are heard in Cheyenne legends. English translations of the example verbs include the words "Once upon a time" to try to show a difference in meaning between these preterit verbs in legends and regular Cheyenne indicate verbs which have the past tense morpheme /h/. But be aware that the English words "Once upon a time" are only used in English fairy tales or other make-believe stories which everyone knows did not actually happen. Actions conveyed by the Cheyenne preterit mode may similarly be make-believe fairy tales, but they may also actually have happened. They may just have happened so long ago that no one alive today knows anyone who saw the actions, inferred the actions (inferential mode), or to whom the actions were reported (reportative mode).

Some grammatical relationships different from English
Here we point out some differences between how the grammars of Cheyenne and English express some semantic relationships. By pointing out these differences, we are not suggesting that either language is inferior, non-standard, or "backwards". On the contrary, both languages are grammatically logical and beautiful in how they express the intended meanings. For examples of other Cheyenne verbs with interesting grammatical ways to express semantic relationships, see the end of the section in the middle of this book on Inanimate Subject Transitive Animate Independent Indicative verbs.

-háamá'tá
The Cheyenne TI verb /-háamá'tá/ grammatically treats an inanimate body part that hurts as the direct object of the verb. This is a perfectly logical way to express the meaning intended. 'My nose hurts' is how the meaning of the first sentence, Náháamáta na'evo, below, is naturally translated to English. This verb could literally be translated to English as 'I hurt to my nose.' (It does not literally mean 'I hurt my nose'.) This literal translation sounds odd in English, but there is nothing odd about the Cheyenne verb. It is simply a different grammatical method to express the same semantic relationship of the equivalent English sentence. Neither grammatical method is inferior.
My eyes hurt. (lit., I hurt to my eyes) We already noted the same grammatical relationships in the corresponding TA verbs at the end of the section on Transitive Animate Independent Indicative verbs: Náháamá'tóvo namo'ēško.
My fingers hurt. (lit., I hurt to my fingers)

-táa'á 'fit (something)'
This Cheyenne verb treats a part that fits someone as the object of the verb.. Again, this is a perfectly logical way to express the intended meaning. The English wording 'The cap fits me' is grammatically correct for the English language and the corresponding Cheyenne sentence is grammatically correct for the Cheyenne language. Neither language is "backwards" in how they express meaning about fitting; they simply express the same meaning using different grammar.
The shirts fit me. (lit., I fit to the shirts)

'(something) taste good'
In Cheyenne food which gives the sensation of good taste is grammatically the object of the TI verb -pėhéve'áhtá: Nápėhévé'áhta ho'évohkȯtse.
The meat tastes good to me. (lit. I good taste to it) Transitive Inanimate Independent Negative Indicative verbs TI negatives require the sáa-preverb and -hé suffix, as do AI and TA verbs. Traditionally, a TI inanimate object agreement marker /-á/ changes to /-ó/ in negatives. Younger speakers are regularizing the TI negative paradigm so that they keep the /-á/ in both positive and negative verbs.

'not see (something)'
Násáavóóhtóhe I did not see it Násáavóohtȯhenȯtse I did not see them Nésáavóóhtóhe You did not see it Nésáavóohtȯhenȯtse You did not see them Ésáavóóhtóhe He did not see it Ésáavóohtȯhenȯtse He did not see them Ésáavóohtȯhetse He (obv) did not see it Ésáavóohtȯhétsenȯtse He (obv) did not see them Násáavóóhtȯhénóne We (ex) did not see it Násáavóohtȯhénonėstse We (ex) did not see them Nésáavóohtȯhénone We (in) did not see it Nésáavóohtȯhénonėstse We (in) did not see them Nésáavóóhtȯhénóvo You (pl) did not see it Nésáavóohtȯhénovȯtse You (pl) did not see them Ésáavóóhtȯhénóvo They did not see it Ésáavóohtȯhénovȯtse They did not see them

Ésáavóohtomóvȯhénȯse.
He is said not to have seen his __ (rel). Ésáavóohtomóvȯhénȯsestȯtse.
They are said not to have seen his __ (pl) (rel).

Ésáahestanomóvȯhénȯse.
He is said not to have taken his __ (rel). Ésáahestonomóvȯhénȯsestȯtse.
They are said not to have taken his __ (pl) (rel).

Verbs are listed with past tense /h-/ and its allomorphs [s], [š], [x]
, and ['] since this is how preterit verbs most often occur. English meanings of the preterit verbs appropriately include the words "Once upon a time" since text in the preterit mode typically refer to legends. Unlike English legends and folktales which begin with the words "Once upon a time", however, Cheyenne texts in the preterit may refer to historical characters and events. Preterit verbs can also be used in contemporary settings where a speaker communicates surprise. As with AI, II, and TA verbs, TI verbs only take third person subjects in the preterit mode. Once upon a time they did not see it Éssáavóohtȯhénovȯhoonȯtse Once upon a time they did not see them (inanimate)

Éssáahestanóhenoho
Once upon a time he did not take it Éssáahestanóhenȯhoonȯtse Once upon a time he did not take them (inanimate) Éssáahestanóhenovoho Once upon a time they did not take it Éssáahestanóhenovȯhoonȯtse Once upon a time they did not see them (inanimate)

Transitive Inanimate Imperatives
As with the AI and TA paradigms, Cheyenne commands are for either immediate or delayed action. The same word is used to command someone to do something to one thing or more than one thing. For instance, Vé'hóóhtȯhtse! can mean either 'Look at it!' or 'Look at them (inanimate)!'

Some grammatical relationships different from English
At the end of the section on Transitive Animate Independent Indicative verbs we listed several examples of TA verbs for which Cheyenne and English differ in how they assign grammatical relationships to the same semantic relationships. In this section we observe the same kinds of differences between grammatical and semantic relationships for Inanimate Subject Transitive Animate verbs:

'miss (something)'
In English a thing which is missed by someone is treated as the direct object of the verb 'miss'. In Cheyenne a thing which is missed by someone is treated as the semantic subject (causer of the feeling of missing) of the verb. Both kinds of grammatical relationships for the same semantic relationships are perfectly logical.
I miss the boats. (lit., 'The boats cause loneliness to me.')

-pėhéveahtám 'like to listen to'
In Cheyenne the thing that someone likes to listen to is grammatically the subject of the TA verb -pėhéveahtám. This is a different, but logical and appropriate, grammatical method of expressing the same semantic relationship that English expresses by having the person who likes a sound be the grammatical subject of a sentence. Épėhéveahtámaa'e.
'He likes to listen to it. (lit., 'It causes good listening to him.') Épėhéveahtámaenóvo.
'They like to listen to it. (lit., 'It causes good listening to them.')

Inanimate Subject-Transitive Animate Independent Indicative relational verbs
An inanimate subject possessed by a third person can act upon an animate object. Throughout this book we are calling a verb that reflects an action by something possessed by a third person a relational verb.

'not accidentally hit (someone)'
Násáa'a'ta'óéhe It did not acc. hit me Násáa'a'ta'óhenȯtse They did not acc. hit me Nésáa'a'ta'óéhe It did not acc. hit you Nésáa'a'ta'óehenȯtse They did not acc. hit you Ésáa'a'ta'óéhe It did not acc. hit him Ésáa'a'ta'óehenȯtse They did not acc. hit him Ésáa'a'ta'óehetse It did not acc. hit him (obv) Ésáa'a'ta'óehétsenȯtse They did not acc. hit him (obv) Násáa'a'ta'óéhénóne It did not acc. hit us (ex) Násáa'a'ta'óehénonėstse They did not acc. hit us (ex) Nésáa'a'ta'óehénone It did not acc. hit us (in) Nésáa'a'ta'óehénonėstse They did not acc. hit us (in) Nésáa'a'ta'óéhénóvo It did not acc. hit you (pl) Nésáa'a'ta'óehénovȯtse They did not acc. hit you (pl) Ésáa'a'ta'óéhénóvo It did not acc. hit them Ésáa'a'ta'óehénovȯtse They did not acc. hit them
Didn't the stick accidentally hit you (plural)?

Ditransitive Independent Indicative verbs
Ditransitive verbs are marked for two objects. One object, called the primary object, is the person affected by the action of the subject. The other object, called the secondary object, is what or whom the subject used to relate to the primary object. For instance, if I say, in English, (1) "I gave my son a horse", "I" is the subject, "my son" is the primary object, and "a horse" is the secondary object. I can also say in English, (2) "I gave a horse to my son". In this sentence "my son" is considered an indirect object in English grammar. "A horse" is the direct object (what was given). Cheyenne does not have both options, (1) and (2), for speaking about two objects. Cheyenne only has option (1). A technical way of saying this is that Cheyenne obligatorily advances indirect objects (recipients/datives) to direct objects.
Cheyenne ditransitive verbs are marked for person, number, and animacy of their subject and primary and secondary objects. The primary object is always animate. The secondary object can be either animate or inanimate. Examples of verbs with both animate and inanimate secondary objects will be given.
Ditransitive paradigms look similar to Transitive Animate paradigms, with additional suffixes for animacy and number of secondary objects.

/-mét/ 'give (something to someone)'
These ditransitive verbs refer to when a single inanimate object is given to someone. They gave them to us (in) Émétanovȯtse They gave them to him (obv) Námétaenonėstse They gave them to us (ex) Nétmétaenonėstse They gave them to us (in) Némétaenovȯtse They gave them to you (pl) Émétȧhtsénovȯtse They gave them to themselves Námétanenȯtse I was given them Némétanenȯtse You were given them Émétsenȯtse He was given them Námétanénonėstse We (ex) were given them Némétanénonėstse We (in) were given them Némétanénonovȯtse You (pl) were given them Émétsenovȯtse They were given them

/-mét/ 'give (someone to someone)'
These ditransitive verbs refer to when an animate object is given to someone. The abbreviation obv' refers to a third person further obviated than than a third person (obviative).

/-mét/ 'give (plural animate objects to someone)'
These ditransitive verbs refer to when more than one animate object is given to someone.

Overview of Conjunct Order modes
The conjunct order is used for dependent verbs and a few verb types 121 which function as independent verbs. Conjunct modes express a variety of modal relationships that the action or state of a conjunct verb has to an independent verb to which it has a syntactic relationship. Conjunct modes are differentiated by mode prefixes. In the conjunct order, animacy, person, number, and obviation of subjects and objects are marked only by suffixes. Here is an overview of conjunct modes:

Indicative
The conjunct indicative refers to an action or state which a speaker assumes to have occurred or be true. The conjunct indicative prefix is tsé-. It is most commonly followed by the morpheme /h-/ which appears to be the same morpheme as the past tense /h-/ of the independent order. However, this /h-/ has a wider semantic range in the conjunct order than it does in the independent order. In the independent order this /h-/ only refers to past tense (farther back in time than English past tense). In the conjunct order, however, this /h-/ can also function to indicate location and a generic form of causality.
tséhnéménėse 122 when/where/since he sang tséhmanéto when/where/since I drank tséhvóonā'o when/since it was morning

Potential
The conjunct potential mode refers to an action or state which has not yet occurred, but, typically, a speaker expects to occur. The prefix for the potential mode is mȧh-. Suffixes in the potential for third person subjects require an /ht/ whereas third person suffixes in the indicative are usually /s/.

Conditional
This mode uses the potential prefix and adds the preverb vé'-to it, creating a conditional: mȧhvé'néménėstse if he sings mȧhvé'háomóhtȧhévȯhtse if they are sick

Irrealis
The irrealis mode uses just the vé'-preverb and refers to action or a state which is contrary to reality. This preverb is used in independent verbs to refer to an action which is prohibited, which is semantically related to its meaning in conjunct order verbs.
vé'néménėstse if he were a singer / or, if he had sung 121 A few Cheyenne verbs have conjunct morphology but function as independent verbs. Among them are negative inferentials, optatives, and the obligative mode. There are some conjunction indicatives which function as independent verbs, if they include an oh-preverb following the tsé-conjunct indicative prefix. This oh-preverb is obsolescing and is not well understood. $$RECHECK AND NOTE DIC'Y AND TEXT EXAMPLES??. The few Cheyenne conjunct forms that can function as independent verbs may reflect earlier wider usage of pre-Cheyenne conjuncts functioning as independents, since some conjunct verbs still function as independent verbs in some other Algonquian languages. 122 Some speakers also say tséhnéménėstse. It is unclear what, if any, difference there is between tséhnéménėse and tséhnéménėstse.
vé'hetanéveto if you were a man

Iterative
Iterative verbs refer to action which occurred repeatedly. This mode uses the hó'-prefix: hó'néménėse whenever he sang hó'tonéto whenever it was cold

Habitual
The habitual mode refers to how things typically occur. Its prefix is ȯh-, but this prefix is difficult to hear and is often omitted. The habitual mode suffix /-ht/ is added after person and number suffixes.

Concessive
The concessive mode refers to a something which might be expected to cause something else not to happen, but it happens anyway. The concessive uses the iterative prefix hó'-plus the preverbnėše and sometimes also the preverb kánome-.
hó'nėšenéménėstse even if he sings, even though he sang hó'nėšė-hoháetonéto even if it is really cold

Contraindicative
The contraindicative refers to a condition that a speaker had assumed was true but wasn't. It uses the particle maa'séóhe which may cliticize to the beginning of the verb as a prefix.
I thought you were sick (but you aren't).

Optative
The optative expresses a wish. Its prefix is momóxe-.
I wish I understood it.

Interrogative
The conjunct interrogative refers to a condition that the speaker wonders is true or not. Its prefix is éó-. Note that this use of the term interrogative is different from, although related to, its more common usage referring to a question. The use of the term interrogative for a conjunct mode is established in Algonquian language study. It refers to a kind of embedded question, dependent on some independent order verb. éónéménėstse whether/if he sang (e.g. I wonder if he sang) Násáahéne'enóhe éóhoo'kōho I don't know whether/if it rained

Obligative
The obligative uses the prefix áh-. This conjunct mode may be nearly obsolescent. Its meaning is now commonly expressed with the me'-'should' preverb in a verb of the independent order.

Oratio Obliqua
The term oratio obliqua comes from Petter (1952:105). This mode is marked by a word-final conjunct suffix -vo. It is difficult to characterize the meaning of this mode suffix. Petter stated that it "refers or relates to a place or time removed from one" (1952:106). It is possible that this -vo suffix is related to the -vo suffix of absentative participles. The spiritual song "Jesus Above" (from the book Tsese-ma'heone-nemeotȯtse, page ____) has a verb in the oratio oblique mode:

$$INCLUDE SONG
The verb is tséhméhaevoneotsevo 'when I used to be lost (removed)'. Note that the -vo suffix contrasts with the /-tó/ suffix of the regular conjunct indicative verb, tséhméhaevoneotséto 'when I was lost'.$$TRY TO GET A CLEARER DESCRIPTION OF THE SEMANTIC DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE TWO FORMS tséhvoneotse-vo when I was lost (removed) tséhvoneotse-vȯse when you were lost (removed) Infinitive $$RECHECK: This mode takes the prefix é-plus the me'-'should' preverb and the hešecomplementizer preverb.

Negative Inferential
A negative inferential functions as an independent order verb, but has the form of a conjunct order verb. A negative inferential takes an old negative prefix ho'nó-. It optionally takes the inferential prefix mó-.

Participles
Participles require conjunct suffixes but act as nouns rather than verbs. They can be translated as relative clauses in English. The two most common participle prefixes are tsé-and néh-. tsénéménėstse the singer (i.e. the one who sings) tsénémenese the singers (those who sing) tséheškese the one who is his mother Tsétsėhéstȧhese

Animate Intransitive Conjunct Potential verbs
The conjunct potential requires a phonemic /ht/ in third person suffixes which the conjunct indicative does not. This /ht/ is pronounced as [st] following the vowel /e/. Here is a full sentence illustrating how the conjunct potential can be used: Mȧhnémeneto nȧhtapėhévetanóotse 'When you sing I'll be happy'.

Animate Intransitive Conjunct Iterative verbs
The prefix for the conjunct iterative is hó'-. The conjunct iterative refers to specific instances of repeated actions while the conjunct generic states a general rule of action.

Animate Intransitive Conjunct Negative Inferential verbs
Negative inferentials take the forms of the conjunct order but function like verbs of the independent order. They are the negative counterparts to the animate intransitive independent order positive inferentials, seen earlier in the independent order verbs section of this book. Note that these negative inferentials require an old negative preverb ho'nó-, rather than the usual negative preverb sáa-. Ho'nó-seems to appear only in negative inferentials. The inferential prefix mó-may optionally appear on negative inferentials. In previous editions of this book negative inferentials were translated as intensives. For instance, Móho'nónemenéto was translated as 'No doubt I did not sing'. The claim of intensive meaning was incorrect. Instead, negative inferentials have the same meaning as positive inferentials (taking the independent order), except that they have a negative meaning.

Examples in sentences
In the following sentences the conjunct verb is marked as relational because there is already a third person in the sentence, and the Cheyenne language permits only one third person to be in focus at a time within a sentence (or even a larger discourse span).

Inanimate Intransitive Conjunct Negative Inferential verbs
These function as independent order inferential mode verbs but take the affixes of the conjunct order.

Transitive Animate Conjunct Indicative verbs
Unlike with independent order verbs, the distinction between exclusive and inclusive 'we' is lost in some person combinations of conjunct verbs (including participles). So when an English translation is given only as 'we', it can mean either exclusive 'we' or inclusive 'we'. Note, also, that some number distinctions are lost in conjunct verbs. For instance, tséhvóomōtse can mean either 'when we saw him' or 'when we saw them'. tséxhéne'enovatsemenoto when we (ex) knew you tséxhéne'enovōtse when we knew him tséxhéne'enóvamōtse when we knew him (obv) tséxhéne'enóvȧhtsétse when we knew ourselves tséxhéne'enóvatsemenoto when we (ex) knew you (pl) tséxhéne'enovōtse when we knew them tséxhéne'enovēse when you (pl) knew me tséxhéne'enovōse when you (pl) knew him tséxhéne'enóvamōse??when you (pl) knew him (obv) tséxhéne'enovemenoto when you (pl) knew us (ex) tséxhéne'enóvȧhtsése when you (pl) knew yourselves tséxhéne'enovōse when you (pl) knew them tséxhéne'enóva'évȯse?when they knew me tséxhéne'enóvata'ōse? when they knew you tséxhéne'enovovȯse when they knew him (obv) tséxhéne'enoētse when they knew us tséxhéne'enoēse when they knew you (pl) tséxhéne'enóvȧhtsévȯse when they knew themselves tséxhéne'enonēto when I was known tséxhéne'enoneto when you were known tséxhéne'enoese when he was known tséxhéne'enóhetsėse??when he (obv) was known tséxhéne'enonētse when we were known tséxhéne'enonēse when you (pl) were known tséxhéne'enonóhévȯse when they were known Mȧhvéstȧhémaa'ėstse nȧahtsepėhévetāno. When he (obv) helps him, I'll be happy.

Transitive Animate Conjunct Negative Indicative verbs -vóom 'see (someone)'
tséssáavóomȧhtséhéto when I did not see myself tséssáavóomáhetse when I did not see you tséssáavóomóhevo when I did not see him tséssáavóomamóhevo when I did not see him (obv) tséssáavóomatséhése when I did not see you (pl) tséssáavóomóhevóno when I did not see them tséssáavóoméheto when you did not see me tsésáavóomȧhtséheto when you did not see yourself tséssáavóomóhevȯse when you did not see him tséssáavóomamóhevȯse when you did not see him (obv) tséssáavóomėhemenoto when you did not see us (ex) tséssáavóomóhevóse when you did not see them tséssáavóoma'éése when he did not see me tséssáavóomáheta'e when he did not see you tséssáavóomȧhtséése when he did not see himself tséssáavóomóése when he did not see him (obv) tséssáavóomaehétse when he did not see us tséssáavóomaehése when he did not see you (pl) tséssáavóoma'éhetsėse when he (obv) did not see me tséssáavóomata'óhése when he (obv) did not see you tséssáavóomaeēse when he (obv) did not see him tséssáavóomȧhtséhetsėse when he (obv) did not see himself tséssáavóomaehétse when he (obv) did not see us tséssáavóomaehése when he (obv) did not see you (pl) tséssáavóomaehevȯse when he (obv) did not see them tséssáavóomatséhemenoto when we (ex) saw you tséssáavóomóhétse when we saw him tséssáavóomamóhétse when we saw him (obv) tséssáavóomȧhtséhétse when we saw ourselves tséssáavóomatséhemenoto when we (ex) saw you (pl) tséssáavóomóhétse when we saw them tséssáavóoméhése when you (pl) did not see me tséssáavóomóhése when you (pl) did not see him tséssáavóomamóhése when you (pl) did not see him (obv) tséssáavóomėhemenoto when you (pl) did not see us (ex) tséssáavóomȧhtséhése when you (pl) did not see yourselves tséssáavóomóhése when you (pl) did not see them tséssáavóoma'éhévȯse when they did not see me tséssáavóomata'óhése when they did not see you tséssáavóomóhévȯse when they did not see him (obv) tséssáavóomaehétse when they did not see us tséssáavóomaehése when they did not see you (pl) tséssáavóomȧhtséhévȯse when they did not see themselves tséssáavóomanéhéto when I was not seen tséssáavóomanéheto when you were not seen tséssáavóomeēse when he was not seen tséssáavóoméhetsėse?? when he was not seen tséssáavóomanéhétse when we were not seen tséssáavóomanéhése when you (pl) were not seen tséssáavóoméhévȯse when they were not seen

Other examples$$RECHECK
tséssáavéstȧhémaeēse when he (obv) did not help him tséssáaméotaēse?? when he (obv) did not fight him tséssáahéne'enóéhétse when he did not know us tséssáavovéstomóéhétse 135 when he did not teach us tséssáaho'eotséhevo when I did not bring him tséssáaho'eotséhevȯse when you did not bring him tséssáaho'eotseóése?? when he did not bring him (obv) tséssáaho'eotsėhóhétse when we did not bring him tséssáahéne'enóéése when he did not know me tséxhéne'enoeese when he (obv) did not know him tséssáa'ovéstomóéése when he did not teach me tséssáa'ovéstomoeese when he (obv) did not teach him tséssáahéne'enóéhévȯse when he (obv) did not know them tséssáa'ovéstomóéhévȯse when he (obv) did not teach them

Transitive Animate Conjunct Generic verbs
Conjunct generic mode verbs state a kind of generalization. These verbs have a broad time idea of 'when', similar to the meaning of English 'whenever', but without the idea of repeated action which is communicated by the conjunct iterative mode. The generic mode is similar to what has been called a generic aspect for some languages, although the Cheyenne generic need not state an action that is continuously occurring. The ȯh-prefix is often omitted.  To save space and make meanings easier to understand, these participles are translated (glossed) as if they were possessed nouns. But they are actually not possessed nouns. For instance, in the earlier section of this book on possessed nouns, we saw that the possessed noun meaning 'my father' is ného'éehe. Its participle equivalent is tséhéhéto, which is glossed here as 'my father'. But a more accurate translation of the participle is 'the one who I have as father'. Tséhestónȧhétóse is glossed as 'your daughters', but a more accurate translation is 'those who you have as daughters'.

Other participle kinship term person combinations
Kinship terms exist in full TA participle paradigms, with person combinations besides those just listed. Following are some other person combinations for kinship term participles. tséhešké'toveto you who have me for a mother tséhešké'tovése you (plural) who have me for a mother tséhešké'tóó'estse the one who has me for a mother tséhešké'toese those who have me for a mother tséhešké'tovātse I who have you for a mother Unlike with TI independent order verbs, there is no difference in pronunciation between the conjunct order TI verbs which refer to exclusive 'we' and inclusive 'we'.
Speakers differ on whether the last vowel is "e" or "o" on first and second person singular subject verbs which have a TI theme of -om. So, for instance, 'when I saw it' is pronounced both as tséhvóóhtómo and tséhvóóhtóme.
I'm looking for those (in) that they don't have. ??

Ditransitive Conjunct Indicative verbs
Ditransitive conjunct indicative verbs look like Transitive Animate Conjunct Indicative verbs. ($$RECHECK THAT). Ditransitive conjunct verbs are inflected for person and number ?? of the subject of the verb as well as the indirect object (morphosyntactic primary object). Animacy and number of the semantic secondary object (the thing or person which is given) are not marked on the conjunct ditransitives, as they are on independent order ditransitive verbs. So when the thing given is translated as "it" in the following verbs, the translation could also be "him", "her", or "them (inanimate or animate)".

Complex sentences
Now that we have examined indendepent and dependent (conjunct) verbs, we can study complex sentences in Cheyenne. A complex sentence contains at least two verbs, one of which is dependent upon the other, typically called the main (or matrix) verb.
Cheyennes often utter complex sentences in which there is a conjunct verb which has some kind of temporal or adverbial relationship to the main verb of a sentence:

$$EXAMPLES FROM TEXTS
Less frequently and probably much less frequently than in English, Cheyennes utter sentences in which the dependent verb is a complement of the main verb. A complement verb acts something like an object to the main verb. In English we might say, "I'm know that you've been sick." The clause "that you've been sick" is the complement to the main verb "know." This complement acts as an object to "know", tell us what it is that the speaker knows.
Here are some examples of sentences with complement verbs found in Cheyenne texts:

$$EXAMPLES FROM TEXTS, INCLUDING FROM THE BROTHERS-IN-LAW TEXT
If you are studying Cheyenne, trying to obtain complex sentences with complements, be cautious in your study. Try not to ask Cheyenne speakers to directly translate English sentences with complements to Cheyenne. It may be possible to get literal translations of such English sentences, but there is a good chance that they will not be natural sentences. It is better to study enough Cheyenne so that you will learn which verbs can naturally take complements and what kinds of verbs can naturally be their complements. It is often better to record and study natural Cheyenne texts and look for examples of complement sentences in those texts than to try to directly elicit complex sentences in Cheyenne.

Complex verbs
Some complex sentence semantic relationships are expressed in Cheyenne by single verbs with a part of those verbs being in a complex subordinate relationship to another part of those verbs. One of the most common Cheyenne finals for such verbs is -tanó which means 'want to' when it acts as the matrix verb in a complex semantic relationship. I have referred to verbs which take this final as desiderative verbs. Námésėhétáno.
I want to eat. Nánaóotsétáno.
I want to sleep.

Transitive complex verbs
Transitivizing suffixes can be added to the -tanó final creating a kind of transitive semantically dependent verb within the complex verb structure:

Word order
It is important to know what order words should appear in in any language. In some languages, such as English, word order can tell us who is doing what to whom, as in the sentence "John kissed Mary." In this English sentence we can tell from the word order that John is the one who did the kissing and Mary is the who who was kissed. In a language like English we say that word order is syntactically determined, that is, the grammar (syntax) of the language determines the order of words such as subjects, objects, and verbs in a sentence.
Many languages, including Cheyenne, do not have word order that is determined by grammatical relationships such as subjects and direct objects. Instead, word order of subject and object nouns in Cheyenne sentences is determined by how speakers organize information in their speech context. For such languages we say that word order is pragmatically determined.
So two different systems determine word order in English and Cheyenne. This is why it is very important that sentences not be translated from English to Cheyenne using the same word order that the sentence had in English. Instead, it is important to follow the Cheyenne rules for word order, which have to do with matters such as what is in focus in a Cheyenne speaker's mind. If you are a Cheyenne speaker, try not to think about the words of an English sentence if you are translating something from English to Cheyenne. Instead, just try to think about the meaning of the Cheyenne sentence and what you have already said in Cheyenne that is related to that sentence. Then try to say the sentence "the Indian way", saying it as naturally as if you did not know any English and were just talking in Cheyenne.

Word order and speech context
Cheyenne subject and object nouns occur in an order determined by the speech context. That is, their order is pragmatically determined. Elena Leman (1999) has researched the pragmatic factors that determine word order in Cheyenne. $$ (GIVE EXAMPLES FROM HER BOOK) She discovered that a word that is "newsworthy" 139 occurs as the first element 140 in a Cheyenne sentence.
A word is newsworthy if it receives some special attention such as if it is emphasized or contrastive. $$ (RECHECK THAT SENTENCE) The newsworthy word in a sentence may be a subject or object noun, a verb, or some other sentence element. The first word in each of the following sentences is newsworthy: Mé'ėstse néohkenėheto'eétahe! 'Always you're doing that!' Naa mȯséškanetsénoonáhe mósto'sevéseéetsėhe'ȯhtsėhēhe tséhmóheeohtséstovetse. 'And the bat (in contrast to the animals and birds mentioned in the preceding sentences in this story) was also going to go to where there was a meeting.' (The Bat story, in the Texts section of this book) $$ (OTHER EXAMPLES?) If you are a Cheyenne speaker and someone asks you how to translate an English sentence to Cheyenne, do not copy the order of words in the English sentence. Cheyenne word order is different from English word order in sentences. English sentences usually have a required word order based on English syntax (grammar), namely, subject nouns come before their verbs and object nouns follow them. Cheyenne grammar does follow this syntactic order for words in a sentence. A Cheyenne sentence which follows the English word order may not sound wrong by itself, but it will not have the best word order unless it follows the natural order for words as a Cheyenne conversation or other discourse progresses.

Free word order
Linguists often refer to languages such as Cheyenne as free word order (or nonconfigurational) languages. In such languages subject and object nouns, verbs, and sometimes other sentence elements can occur in any order. But what these linguists actually mean by the term free word is that the order of words is not determined by the syntax of the language. Instead, Cheyenne, like many other languages, has word order which is determined by the speech context (known as pragmatics), rather than syntax.

Basic word order and naturalness
Linguists refer to basic word order in languages in terms of the abbreviations S, V, and O, where S = Subject, V = Verb, and O = Object. English is an SVO language because in a typical English sentence the subject comes before the verb and if there is an object it comes after the verb. For instance, if there is a man we've been talking about and he shot a deer we could say what happened in English as "The man shot a deer." "The man" is S (Subject). The verb (V) is "shot". And the O (Object) is "a deer".
Sometimes linguists ask if Cheyenne is an SVO language, or if it has some some other basic word order, such as SOV. To answer this question, we must return to the observations just made, that overall Cheyenne word order in sentences is not determined by syntax, but, instead, by speech context (pragmatics). So we really cannot say that Cheyenne has a basic word order such as SVO.
Next, it should be noted that it is rare in Cheyenne for both a subject and object noun to occur with a verb. If you study natural Cheyenne texts, such as those which appear in the Texts section of this book, you will find very few sentences with subject and object nouns along with a verb. So it's basically a moot question to ask what is the basic word order in Cheyenne, in terms of linguistic symbols such as S, V, and O.
It is important for Cheyenne sentences to be grammatically correct as well as natural. So, if you are a Cheyenne speaker and someone asks you to translate an English sentence with both a subject and object noun, hesitate before simply translating the English sentence word for word. For instance, hesitate before translating an English sentence such as "The man saw a deer" to Cheyenne. It is possible to translate this sentence directly to Cheyenne as: Hetane móhvóomȯhevóhe váotseváhne. That is a grammatical sentence in Cheyenne. But this sentence would not occur naturally in Cheyenne as often as it might in English.
Instead, in natural Cheyenne, speakers would more likely express the same meaning in more than one sentence. Typically, a Cheyenne speaker would introduce the man in a sentence such as: Hetane mó'ameohtsėhēhe 'A man was going along.' Then in the next sentence it can be said what the man saw, as in: Móhvóomȯhevóhe váotseváhne 'He saw a deer.' (The Cheyenne word for 'man', hetane, would not usually be repeated in the second sentence.) It's just not natural to try to get too much information into a single Cheyenne sentence. For that matter, it probably isn't natural in English either, at least not for a sentence uttered by itself without any preceding context.
An important principle for translation of anything into any language, including Cheyenne, is to avoid asking (and answering) the question "Can you say this in your language?" Instead, it is better to ask the question, "Is this said in your language?" or "How do you naturally express this meaning in your language?" It is not only important to say things grammatically correct in a language, but also to say them naturally.
Study of natural texts, including conversations, speeches, and stories, in Cheyenne can help us understand natural ways of speaking Cheyenne. We must always be cautious about directly translating anything from English, or any other language, to Cheyenne. Instead, we must try to say things in Cheyenne as they would be said if they were part of a natural conversation between fluent Cheyenne speakers.

Default pragmatic word order
Even though we cannot speak of a basic word order in Cheyenne, there is a strong tendency for certain word orders to occur. These word orders are pragmatically determined, but so prevalent that some people might like to refer to them as basic word orders.
Subject nouns which are non-contrastive and definite (already established in a discourse) occur following the verb they are associated with much more often than they do preceding that verb. Notice that in the following text there 72 "sentences," including the title and ending (which is not a full sentence). Of the 72 sentences, only 6 have SV order, while there are 20 sentences with VS order. 36 sentences have no subject noun at all. In most of (count them??) the VS occurrences of the subject noun are definite and non-contrastive. Subject nouns that precede verbs are boldfaced in this text. Subject nouns that follow verbs are boldfaced and italicized.
A Man Who Looked for a Son-in-law.025 tȧhéaahtomónėstse ta-hé-áahtomóné -ht TRL-PURP-listen -IMPV dir-pv-vai -mode "Go to listen! A Man Who Looked for a Son-in-law.026 PST-tell -DIR -RPT -OBV pro-tns-vta -voice -mode -num Go to find out who is going to be son-in-law!" he told her.
PST-tell -DIR -RPT -OBV pro-tns-vta -voice -mode -num When the talking is about over, when you're going out, drop it!" he told her.
He went with the one who announced.

Word formation
Cheyenne words are often made up of smaller parts (morphemes). These parts are like building blocks.

Nominalization
A noun may be consist of verb stem plus a nominalizer (a suffix that turns a verb into a noun): ame'ha-htȯtse 'airplane' (literally, flying-thing) 144 141 Historically, hótame referred to a dog. Later, the word oeškēse was used to mean 'dog'. When that happened, hótame narrowed in meaning to refer to a special kind of dog, such as a 'hound' (e.g. greyhounds and rottweilers). But it also broadened in meaning to refer, more generally, to a domesticated animal. 142 Southern Cheyennes have used the word ka'énėhótame to refer to a cat. They also use the word póéso for a cat, perhaps borrowing it from Northern Cheyennes, who themselves may have borrowed it as a sound translation from the English word "pussy". Petter (1915:215) lists the word ka'eeséhotame (literally, short-nose-domesticated.animal) for 'cat'. Petter began his work in Oklahoma, before moving to Montana perhaps Southern Cheyenne have used both ka'énėhótame and ka'eeséhotame for a cat. 143 The Cheyenne noun final /-o'há/ descends from a PA final that originally meant 'dog'. Over time, the final came to mean 'horse' in Cheyenne. mésėhe-stȯtse 'food' (literally, eating-thing) éškȯs-éné-hé 'greyhound' (literally, sharp-face-being) 145 tsėhe'ėse-esé-he 'elephant' (literally, long-nose-being) vovéstomósané-he 'teacher' (literally, teaching-being) hoéstónéhe-he 'student' (literally, writing-being)

Verb formation
As we have already seen in discussion of verbs, Cheyenne verbs can be long, consisting of many morphemes. Independent order verbs typically are made up of a pronominal prefix, optional tense markers, preverbs that have aspectual and adverbial meanings, then a verb stem, then one or more suffixes which typically give information about person, number, and mode.

Pronominal prefixes
Pronominal prefixes are high pitched except when they precede the future tense marker: ná-first person (e.g. I, we) né-second person (you, you plural) é-third person (he, she, animate it) Pronominal prefixes plus future tense -htse nȧhtse-first person + future tense nėstse-second person + future tense tse- 146 third person + future tense

Tense
Cheyenne marks two tenses: h-'past' and -htse 'future' on its verbs. Verbs which are unmarked for tense refer to the present or recent past. Preterit, which is a tense in some languages, is not a tense in Cheyenne. Instead, the Cheyenne preterit is a mode.

Unmarked tense
The following verbs are unmarked for tense. They may refer either to the present or recent past.

Past tense
Past tense is marked with phonemic /h-/, which has the following pronunciations:

[h] before any other sounds
Past tense is farther past in time than recent past. But it need not be distant past. Whether or not a verb is marked with past tense depends on the relative time frame in the mind of the speaker. There is no simple rule that says, for instance, that a verb will be marked with past tense if it refers to a time more than a month ago or more than a year ago.
He said that to him (preterit mode).

Far past tense $$RECHECK TO DETERMINE IF /neh-/ WAS IN ERROR AS FAR PAST IN THE EARLIER GRAMMAR??
Ná-nėh-vóómo. I saw him a long time ago. É-nėh-mésehe.
He danced a long time ago.

Future tense
Future tense is marked by htse-. Instead of their usual high pitch, pronominal prefixes are pronounced with low-pitched vowels preceding future tense. Because the low-pitched vowel precedes /h/, the vowel is also whispered (devoiced). The third person prefix /é-/ is omitted before the future tense marker and then the future tense marker is shortened to tse-. Examples of verbs with the future tense follow: Nȧ-htse-mésehe.
(The cow) will have four legs. (said by Sweet Medicine)

Future tense plus translocative
If the future tense marker precedes the ta-translocative directional, the two morphemes combine as /hta-/ which retains both the future tense and translocative meanings. Nȧ-hta-vé'háhtse.
I will see you again.

Directionals
Directionals occur after the tense slot in the verb and before preverbs. Directionals indicate whether action is coming toward or away from a speaker.

Preverbs list
Here are some of the most commonly occurring preverbs. In this list a vowel which is in parentheses ( ) will occur if the next morpheme begins with a vowel. He began to sing to them. (1980:45:18)

Verb stem formation
Verb stems are the central core of verbs. Verb stems are built from roots, initials, medials, and finals. Even though pronominal prefixes are not part of verbs stems, they will be included in our examples, following, so that there are complete verbs which may be pronounced as words.

Roots
A verb stem may consist of just a root. A root cannot be divided into any smaller meaning parts, nor does it need any other parts to complete its meaning. A root can stand alone as a complete verb, as long as it has any required grammatical affixes, such as person prefixes and suffixes. Here are some Cheyenne roots:

Initials and medials
We will study medials more thoroughly shortly. A verb stem may consist of an initial plus a medial: É-momóht-óhtá.

Initials and finals
We will also study finals more thoroughly shortly. A verb stem may consist of an initial plus a final: He's praying secretly. (lit., he-secret-pray) É-he'kon-ose.

Medials
Medials are noun-like meaning parts that are included in some verbs. Many body parts have medial forms in Cheyenne. Sometimes the spelling of a body part medial is unrelated to the spelling of the noun for that same body part. Some other things have medial forms, as well. Some medials have no noun counterpart. Examples of verbs with other medials Ée'-óma'-o'e. It's upward sloped ground. Évóhp-een-oo'e.

Body part medials
The ground is covered with white snow. Éanȯh-óné-ána.
He has two wives.

Finals
Finals are the last meaning part of many verb stems before any grammatical suffixes occur referencing person, number, animacy, obviation, and mode. Finals can be categorized into two groups, concrete finals and abstract finals.

Concrete finals
Concrete finals specify what kind of an instrument, position, or action was used to carry out what the verb, as a whole refers to, such as whether the action was done by hand, foot, mouth, heat, cutting, standing, sitting, lying down, flying, or running. Here are some common concrete finals in Cheyenne:

Instrumental finals
Instrumental finals tell what kind of an instrument was used to perform the action of the verb:

Examples of verbs with abstract finals
The abstract finals in the following verbs are preceded by hyphens and boldfaced: Épėhév-ahe. He is good. Épėhév-a'e.
He is a quiet person.
He is a loving person. Éméhó-sáne.

Relative roots
In Algonquian language relative roots, preverbs, and initials relate the verb they are in to something preceding or following in the speech context. Cheyenne heše-functions as a relative preverb and as a complementizer in dependent verbs of complex sentences, which is a kind of relative function. The initial heš-/het-152 performs the same anaphoric discourse function as does the hešerelative preverb. The preverb nė-can precede a relative root or initial to further specify that it refers back to something preceding in the speech context. That is, it is an anaphoric marker. The preverb tsėcan precede a relative root or initial to specify that it refers forward to something yet to be said. So, tsė-is a cataphoric marker. Relative roots, preverbs, and initials are boldfaced in the following examples:

Instrumentals
Instrumentals are language forms that indicate the tools or means used to do actions. Cheyenne has two ways of expressing that someone is doing something "with" or "by means of" something:

Instrumental preverb vé'še-
The preverb vé'še-is used to indicate that the action or state of a verb was accomplished or reached by means of something.
He hit me with a stick.
The chicken (animate) made me sick. $$IS THIS A NATURAL EXAMPLE??

Instrumental suffix -vá
The suffix /-vá/ 154 marks a noun which is used to perform some action.
I accidentally cut myself with a knife.

Use of both the instrumental preverb and suffix
It is possible for both the instrumental preverb and instrumental suffix to be used in the same sentence: $$HOW NATURAL IS THIS??

Benefactives
Cheyenne verbs can indicate that an action was done for the benefit of someone. There are several TA verb endings which can express such a benefactive meaning.

-vomotah 'for the benefit of'
The TA final -vomotah expresses a benefactive meaning: Náháóéna I prayed Náháoenavomotāho I prayed for him Néháoenavomotaahtse I prayed for you Néháoenavomotatsemeno We (exclusive) prayed for you (sg/pl).
-vomotah can also express a substitutive meaning, which is a kind of benefactive meaning. A substitutive meaning communicates the idea that someone does something in place of someone else.
Náhotse'óhevomotāho I worked for him (that is, I worked in his place).
The English sentence "I worked for him" is ambiguous in that it can mean that I worked in his place. Or, it can also mean that I worked for someone to would earn money. Cheyenne uses a different ending on its verb for 'work' to express the idea of working for someone as employment: Náhotse'ota I worked for him (that is, he employed me) Náhotse'óto He worked for me (that is, I employed him) Nátotse'ótoo'o They worked for me (that is, I employed them)

Other benefactive finals
Some abstract TA finals can express a benefactive meaning with certain verb stems: Nánéméne. I sang. Nánémeōvo.
I baked it for him. Náhonóhtomevonȯtse.
He baked them (inan) for me.

Causatives
Some TA verb endings express the idea of causing someone to do something.

-'seh
The TA final -'seh can be added to many TA verb stems to create causatives:

Particles
In this book we consider any part of speech other than nouns and verbs to be particles. We introduced particles at the beginning of this book. We mentioned that possible subtypes of particles are demonstratives, indefinite pronouns, interrogative particles, numbers, conjunctions ( Naa nėhe'še hóseto, "Amėške nėstseó'komatsénoho vóohe." 'And then again (he would say), "Fat, I'll take a small bite of you, stop."' (Croft 1988:18)

Numbers
Cheyenne numbers are expressed through several well developed systems. One set of numbers is used for counting how many things there are. Another set of numbers is used for counting how many times some action is done. Another set of numbers is used for counting groups. Some numbers are particles. Others are parts of verbs. Let's examine the various number systems. $$REVISE (include nó'kóve, number preverbs, how many overnights, numbers of days: néšéé'ėstse, etc.) Cheyennes usually teach children Cheyenne numbers in bilingual school programs. They teach children to count in Cheyenne, since they, the teachers, were taught to count in English when they were in school. But it is likely that number counting was never a natural Cheyenne activity--and it probably is not a natural activity for learning to speak English, either. And it is questionable how useful reciting numbers is for learning to converse in Cheyenne.
If you are a Cheyenne language teacher, I would encourage you to teach children numbers in natural ways, rather than teaching them a list of numbers and asking them to recite them. For instance, you might show them three balls and ask them, in Cheyenne, of course, how many balls there are. Ask them how many times they have played hand games. Teach them to ask how many months old a baby is and teach them how to give right answers to such a question.
Try to avoid teaching any lists of words, whether they are lists of number, colors, or animals. Speakers of any language do not normally recite lists of words. Instead, people naturally use words as they experience life. Try to remember how you were taught to understand and speak Cheyenne, and then try to teach that same way to children in Cheyenne language programs. The main point is: Make language teaching natural. Just keep speaking in Cheyenne to children, just as parents speak any language to their children. Parents keep talking to their children even though their children don't understand every word right away. But by repeating words and sentences over and over when it is the right time to say them in natural speech contexts, children begin to understand the words, whether it is "Don't do that!" in English or its equivalent "Névé'nėhešéve!" or thousands of other words in whatever language you speak.
Even though learning to recite a list of Cheyenne numbers may not help children very much to learn to understand and speak Cheyenne, it is important, eventually, to learn the various ways that Cheyennes organize numbers and use them in natural speaking. Always, however, Cheyenne language needs to take place in natural speech contexts. While children are walking, eating, or playing, talk with them in Cheyenne about what they are doing and what you are doing. No one can learn to understand and speak Cheyenne by learning lists of words, looking up words in a Cheyenne dictionary, or even reading this grammar book. Cheyenne dictionaries and grammar books can be helpful resources. They just should not be used as patterns for teaching Cheyenne to others. Let's now learn about Cheyenne numbers, even though we encourage you not to simply memorize the lists that are written in this section about numbers.

Number particles
Numbers which indicate how many things and how many times can be considered particles. Number particles are not inflected for animacy of a noun that they modify.

Cardinal numbers
Cardinal numbers tell how many things there are. Things counted can be anything, such as trees, cars, tepees, babies, men, women, dogs, cats, deer, books, or  Examples of numbers of times 1. Nó'ka nénaeotse. 'You fainted one time.' 2. no'ka ho'né'ėstóva 'one step length' (lit., 'once by step'; this is approximately one yard) 3. nexa hámȯhtsėhnéstóva tsénėhe'ėsévoénėstse 'twice tepee raising that's how long his face is' (This is a funny phrase said by a lady related to a man who had a long face, whom she wished to shame for having beaten his wife. It can be paraphrased as something like "his face is so long he could pitch two tepees on it".) 4. Neva náhoxéhé'šéva.?? 'Four times I pledged to put on a Sun Dance.'

Numbers of groups
These numbers tell how many groups there are. A group can be a pair, a band, etc. A group number is composed of a number stem plus the group suffix /-óvé/.

Numbers in verbs
Cheyenne numbers appear in several verb constructions. They can occur as preverbs, initials, and roots of verbs.
It's the second day of the week. Nána'he-enō'tse.
He is five years old.
He/It costs five (dollars).

Number roots
Number roots occur with both animate and inanimate subjects. Animate subjects can be of any person, first, second, third, or obviated:
There are twenty of them (inanimate).
There are ten of them (inanimate).

Numbers as participles
Number roots occur in participles that refer to either animate or inanimate things. The participles can take subjects of any person, first, second, third, or obviated:

Numbers in days of the week
Numbers are used in names for some of the Cheyenne days of the week. Note that in Oklahoma the first day begins on Tuesday, while in Montana the first day begins on Monday. Here are some of the ways to say the Cheyenne days of the week. For other ways, see the later section of this book on Days of the week in the larger section on words for Time in Cheyenne. To make them easier to see, numbers in the names for days of the week are highlighted here:

Language change
Changes occur over time in every language. Sounds and meanings of Cheyenne words have experienced such historical changes.
Cheyenne has descended from Proto-Algonquian (PA), the ancestor of all the Algonquian languages. Through careful study linguists are able to observe changes which have occurred in the sounds and grammar between Proto-Algonquian and each of its desdendant languages, including Cheyenne.
We have also been able to observe further changes taking place in the Cheyenne language in the past few decades. Let's outline some of the main changes which have occurred in the long history that has led to the current sounds and grammar of Cheyenne.

More recent Cheyenne sound changes
We can observe some changes in Cheyenne from published records. Other changes have been personally observed.

h-addition
We have noted that PA nouns that began with a vowel now begin with the letter "h" in Cheyenne. Most of this change occurred before the end of the 1800s when Petter began his study of Cheyenne. However, Petter (1915) did record some Cheyenne nouns which he heard beginning with a vowel, which later began with "h":

Simplification
Simplification of sound sequences and regularization of grammatical patterns commonly occur in languages. We observe both forms of language change in Cheyenne.

Loss of voiceless syllables
Younger Cheyenne speakers simplify the sounds of some words. They drop the sounds of some words, especially some voiceless syllables which are difficult to hear. Here are some words with their traditional pronunciation and pronunciations by many younger speakers today:

Regularization
Cheyennes have been regularizing some irregular grammatical patterns.

Obviation regularization
Cheyenne obviatives have been undergoing some regularization. Remember that Cheyenne, like other Algonquian languages, allows only one third person to be in focus at any one time. Any other third person is moved out of focus. It is called an obviative. A third person which remains in focus is called a proximate. Obviated nouns take an obviative suffix. Verbs which have obviated objects take obviative suffixes, as well.
Some proximate and obviative nouns, along with the phonemic spelling of the proximate, are: The older pronunciation has a low-pitched ending if the stem-final vowel is high-pitched. The regularized pronunciation has a high pitch on the first vowel of the obviative suffix, regardless of the pitch of the stem-final vowel.

Regularization of the TI theme sign
A increasing number of speakers regularize the TI theme sign to /á/ instead of retaining the older /ó/ theme sign which occurred in TI negative verbs.

Borrowing
Cheyenne includes words borrowed from other languages.

Sound translations
A sound translation is a kind of borrowing that adapts the sounds of a word in one language to the sounds of another language.
The Cheyenne word heávohe 'devil' appears to be a borrowing from Spanish, from contact with Mexicans, of their word for the devil, "diablo". This kind of borrowing is sometimes called a sound translation. The sounds of "diablo" have been adapted to sound more like a Cheyenne word.
One Cheyenne word meaning '25 cents' is tȯhévetse, phonetically [t h o y vɪc]. This is a sound translation from the English term "two bits" which was used commonly in the past to refer to a 25 cent coin.
A century or so ago Cheyennes adapted the name of the capital of the United States, Washington, pronouncing it as Vášėtaēno. This is a sound translation of the word "Washington" plus the Cheyenne locative suffix -no which means 'place'.

Loan translations
Cheyennes traditionally had no greetings or leavetakings. After bilingualism with English increased, Cheyennes literally translated English greetings and leavetakings to Cheyenne. These have been used for several decades by at least some Cheyenne speakers.

Greetings
Pévevóona'o 'Good morning' Péveéšeeva 'Good day' Pévėhetóéva 'Good evening' Pévetaa'ēva 'Good night' These greetings have been adapted to be pronounced as verbs, creating more natural sounding greetings used by some speakers: Épévevóonā'o 'It's a good morning' Épéveéšeeve 'It's a good day' Épévėhetóeve 'It's a good evening' Épévetaa'eve 'It's a good night'

Good-bye
The English leavetaking 'good-bye' (historically shortened from "God be with you") has not been literally translated to Cheyenne. Instead, Cheyennes have borrowed English "See you later!" as a leavetaking used by many speakers today. Cheyennes have adapted this borrowing to be pronounced as a fully inflected verb: Nėstaévȧhósevóomȧtse 'I'll see you again later.'

Other loan translations
The Cheyenne verb náé'ahe means 'I am out of money' (literally, 'I-broken'). This appears to be a semantic borrowing from the English idiom "I am broke". The Cheyenne sign that accompanies this verb is the same sign used for something that is literally broken. The Cheyenne word for 'plum' is má'xeme. We used it as a preverb along with the Cheyenne verb stem /-he'anátó/ meaning. We then had fun combining this new preverb with other verbs, such as Éma'xenéhotoanáto 'It's plum difficult'. Cheyennes enjoy playing with words.
If enough Cheyennes like the literally translated idioms they sometimes become more widely used.

Creation of new words
Cheyennes create new words when the need arises. Some created words have been used for so long that they are no longer thought of a new words. Others are more recently minted. Some have been created recently but are not in common usage.

Older created words
Here are some words which were created when Cheyennes encountered new things and needed names for them. These words have been a regular part of the Cheyenne language for many years:

The Cheyenne lexicon
The lexicon of a language is its entire inventory of words (vocabulary) and other important meaning parts (morphemes). The lexicon also should indicate relationships among the words. The Cheyenne lexicon is found in dictionaries of Cheyenne. The most recent dictionary is titled Cheyenne Dictionary. We have attempted to include all the words and lexical relationships among them in the Cheyenne Dictionary. We have attempted to write the words in the dictionary are accurately as possible. An online version of this dictionary can be accessed at this Internet address: http://cdkc.edu/cheyennedictionary/index.html The online dictionary includes links to audio files so that thousands of the words and other morphemes in the dictionary can be heard.
Study of the Cheyenne lexicon is very interesting. Through study of the Cheyenne lexicon we can learn so many interesting things about how Cheyenne speakers say words.

One word or two words
An interesting thing to learn when studying the lexicon of a language is whether it uses one or more words for something. Different languages use different numbers of words to refer to the same thing. Such differences between languages are interesting. If all the flowers in the world had the same color and shape, flowers would be a little boring. It's the same way with languages. If all languages said everything the same way, they would not be as interesting as they are. Differences among flowers, animals, people, cultures, and languages are interesting and beautiful. Just because one language says something one way and another language says it a different way is not a cause for shame or a feeling that one language is better than another language, regardless of what you might have been taught about your language by schoolteachers or others.

Binomials
Sometimes one language requires two or more words to say the same thing said in another language by only one word. A two word phrase that refers to something is called a binomial. Cheyenne speakers use a single word (monomial), kȧsovááhe, that requires two words (binomial) to say the same thing in English, "young man". English uses one word (monomial), "boy", that requires a compound word to say the same thing in Cheyenne, hetané-ka'ėškóne, literally "male-child". For now, we will consider a compound word as a kind of binomial (double word). Which is the better way of referring to a boy, the single English word "boy" or the Cheyenne double word, "hetané-ka'ėškóne"? Hopefully, you will answer that neither one is better. Both are good, appropriate ways to say the same thing in each language.
With that understanding, that each way of saying something is good, let us compare some monomials (single words) and binomials (double words) of Cheyenne and English:

Semantic ranges
Sometimes a word in one language does not exactly match a word (or words) in another language. The words in the different languages might have slightly different meanings. Or they might share some of the same meanings, but have some meanings that are not the same. Again, this does not mean that one of the languages is better than the other language. It just means that the languages have different ways of saying things.
The set of meanings that a word has is called its semantic range. Often the semantic ranges of words between languages do not match up exactly. This makes the job of translating between these language more difficult, but not impossible.
Cheyenne and English have different semantic ranges for words having to do with siblings. For instance, in the Cheyenne language there are several words that refer to sibling relationships: older sibling, younger sibling, older brother, younger brother, sibling/cousin, etc. $$DESCRIBE THE DETAILS, TRY TO SHOW THEM WITH SEMANTIC RANGE CIRCLES $$DEVELOP THIS SECTION Even if something cannot be said as concisely in one language as it is said in another language, usually there is some way to express the same meaning, even if it takes more words than another languages uses to do so.

It isn't said
Some things are simply not said, at least not yet, in a language. That does not mean, however, that they cannot be said in that language. I am often asked how to say something in Cheyenne.
Sometimes I have to answer, "I don't know. I have never heard that said. But if Cheyennes decide to say that in Cheyenne, it can be said and it might become a regular part of the language." Here are some things which I don't think are said yet in Cheyenne: Happy birthday! Merry Christmas! Again, just because these things are not said in Cheyenne, does not mean that English is a better language than Cheyenne. It just means that Cheyennes have not felt a need yet, or a strong enough need, to say these things in Cheyenne. In the case of "Merry Christmas!", the concept of Christmas was brought to the Cheyennes, probably in the 1800s. So, obviously, Cheyennes would not have said "Merry Christmas!" before they knew about Christmas. Cheyennes do just fine today saying things like "Merry Christmas!" in English and other things, if they wish, in Cheyenne.

Lexical relationships
Lexical relationships are systematic relationships among the words of a language.

Figurative language
Figurative language is the use of speech to express meanings different from the literal meanings of words used. Cheyenne figurative language includes metaphors, similes, and idioms. In examples that follow, the literal meaning of an expression is given in parentheses after its figurative meaning.
It has snowed and snow is hanging on tree branches.

Semantic domains
Semantic domains are how speakers of a language group words according to how they belong together in topics. Speakers of a language group words together as they view that they belong together. The culture of the speakers determines how the groupings of words are made. Groups of words that belong together, according to speakers of a language, are called semantic domains. Some Cheyenne semantic domains have been influenced by interaction between traditional Cheyenne culture and other cultures, especially those of the vé'hó'e (white people) and their educational, business, and entertainment cultural patterns. Following are some of the semantic domains of Cheyenne language and culture. Many others can be found in the Cheyenne Topical Dictionary (Glenmore and W. Leman,19__??), as well as online copies of the Cheyenne Dictionary.

Numbers
The Cheyenne language has words for various numbers. Cheyennes have traditionally spoken about how many deer they shot or how many children they have. Cheyennes tell how many times they have done some action. Cheyenne speakers knew their numbers as fluent speakers of the language. It is probable, however, that Cheyennes never traditionaly counted as an exercise in itself, as in done today in Cheyenne bilingual education programs. But counting is now considered a important part of Cheyenne language learning. Many Cheyenne children have learned to count from 1 to 10, using one or both of the two traditional Cheyenne number systems, numbers for how many things and numbers for how many times something is done:

Horses
Cheyenne life changed significantly after Cheyennes moved to the Great Plains and acquired horses. A horse culture developed. Words about horses became one of the most developed semantic domains of the Cheyenne language.

Colors
Fluent Cheyenne speakers have traditionally referred to various colors. Some of the words for colors can be used about almost any object. Other words are only used for certain purposes, such as the various colors of horses. Terms having to do with telling time and passage of time are one of the semantic domains of the Cheyenne lexicon. Time was traditionally noted in Cheyenne by the position of the sun, seasons of the year, and months. As Cheyennes have been increasingly influenced by the dominant culture surrounding them, this influence is reflected in terms for telling time, with adoption of terms for days of the week. There has also been some shift from using animate subjects with verbs for telling time to inanimate ones.
Traditionally, time was noted in Cheyenne by the position of the sun. Since éše'he 'sun' is animate, any verbs explicitly or implicitly referring to the position of the sun required animate subjects. Cheyennes extended use of the word for 'sun' to refer to clocks. Oklahoma Cheyennes also adopted an additional word for 'clock', kó'ko'ėhasēō'o, which literally means 'ticking thing'. This word is also animate.

Questions about time
Tóne

Months
There is no standard agreed upon list of Cheyenne names for the months. Instead, English names for months have been regularly used for many decades. However, some knowledge does remain of months or periods of time close to months. It is very possible that there never was a list of exactly twelve month names. Some information seems to suggest that some of the original month names did not correspond exactly to month divisions found on calendars in use today. More common month (or "moon") names may have originally been names for some of the major seasons and weather changes. It has been said that, traditionally, there were only six Cheyenne names for divisions of the years. There is often interest, however, in trying to construct a list of twelve month names. Cheyenne speakers have suggested various alternatives for month names. Somtimes there is disagreement as to which month is referred to by a term.
Here is one list which is in used on a Cheyenne calendar which has been distributed annually for many years. There has never been any official endorsement of this particular set of names, so Cheyennes should feel free to improve upon this list if improvement is possible at this date in history.
In the following lists a Cheyenne name for a month is given first, then its literal meaning, then a month on the "white" calendar that it may correspond to: Other preverbs can occur with this verb stem: Étónėstȯhe-éše'hāma? How many months old is he?/ How many months pregnant is she? Énėhestȯhe-éše'hāma.
That's how many months she has (= her months are up; she is due to deliver her child).

Numbers of years
$$He's so many years old, etc.

Onomatopoeia
Some words sound like the things they refer to. This association between the sounds of things and activities and words that refer to them is called onomatopoeia. There are a number of words in Cheyenne which are onomatopoeic. Often the onomatopoeia is found in repetition of Cheyenne sounds, related to as reduplication. Onomatopoeic words need to appear in a thorough lexicon of the Cheyenne language.
He repeatedly farted. kokȯhéáxa chicken kó'konȯxe'ėstónestȯtse typewriter (lit., pecking thing) kó'ko'ėhasēō'o clock (lit., ticking thing; an Oklahoma Cheyenne word) hevovetāso whirlwind, dragonfly Translation $$DEVELOP THIS SECTION ON TRANSLATION TO AND FROM CHEYENNE. Describe literal and idiomatic translation. (Include mention of the late Tom Gardner's stating that we needed "thought translation", which would be a good way of referring to idiomatic translation.) Include translation of figures of speech. Address the issue that some things said in one language sometimes do not have a translation equivalent in another language, e.g. Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday. Address the difference between: (1) Can this be said? vs. (2) Is this actually said? Discuss the CAN(A) acronym standard for acceptable translation: Clear, Accurate, Natural, (Acceptable). $$DEFINE SOURCE AND TARGET LANGUAGES.

Literal translation
A literal translation translates the form of the individual parts of an expression in the source language (the language you are translating from). All around the world many people assume that a literal translation is the best and most accurate kind of translation. But literal translation often are not adequate. Often they communicate a different meaning from the meaning of the original source language expression. And one of the most basic principles to follow for accuracy in translation is not to change the meaning during translation.
Cheyennes find great humor in literal translations which have some translations have made which do not communicate the right meaning. $$INCLUDE EXAMPLES FROM PAPER ON CHEYENNE TRANSLATION HUMOR, INCLUDING THE STORY OF "slide home" Cheyennes laugh at these stories because they recognize that the literal translation was not adequate to translate the intended meaning. So what principles should be followed to make a translation that is adequate? We try to answer this important question in the next section.

Translation equivalence
Literal translations are often not adequate because they sound unnatural. And they often do not communicate the original meaning very well. Instead of translating literally, better translation may be found by using translation equivalents which are already in use in the language and function as close as possible to how an expression functions in the translation source language.
When translating from one language to another, it is helpful to try to find the closest natural translation equivalent as possible. By this we mean that a translation should be natural in the target language and also has the same meaning as what you are translating from in the source language. Translation equivalence is a complicated topic that deserves much more attention that we can give it here.
We can find some guidance in the search for natural translation equivalents by looking at how Cheyennes have created new words in the past. You might want to review the preceding section titled "Creation of new words". Cheyennes created a fine word for an airplane. They could have tried to literally translate the English word "airplane" so that the translation would include the Cheyenne word for air, omotome. But that is not what Cheyennes did. Instead, they created a word that describes what an airplane does. They used the verb stem -ame'há 'fly', already widely used by Cheyenne speakers, and turned it into a noun, ame'hahtȯtse, literally 'flying thing'. The Cheyennes did the same thing when they created the word for 'car, automobile'. They took a verb already widely used by Cheyennes, -amȧho'he 'to go along by heat' and turned it into nouns, animate amȧho'héhe and inanimate amȧho'hestȯtse, both meaning 'going along by heat thing'.
The Cheyenne words for 'airplane' and 'car' clearly and naturally communicate the function of these two forms of transportation. We can follow this principle whenever we are asked to translate something from English to Cheyenne. We can try to find an expression already in Cheyenne which functions in the same way as the English expression functions.
With the principle of translation equivalence in mind, let's think about translating a common English expression to Cheyenne. English speakers use the expression "Happy New Year!" to celebrate the beginning of a new year. Cheyennes do not say "Happy New Year!" in the Cheyenne language. So how might we translate "Happy New Year!" to Cheyenne, without creating an expression that sounds unnatural? Instead of focusing on trying to literally translate the individual words of the English expression, we can look for any expression already in use in Cheyenne that could function as a some kind of equivalent to "Happy New Year!" The closest expression already in use in Cheyenne is Aa'e émóna'e which literally means "The year is new." Now, this expression doesn't initially sound like it has the same meaning as English "Happy New Year!" But it is what Cheyennes have said at the beginning of a new year, for as long as they have known about the ending and beginning of a year. Even though the English and Cheyenne expressions do not literally mean the same thing, the Cheyenne saying can be at least a first candidate as a translation equivalent, since it performs much of the same cultural function. For both English and Cheyenne, the two expressions are what people say to note the beginning of a new year. The two expressions are as close as we can find without creating a new expression that would literally mean "Happy New Year!" But how would one even try to say in Cheyenne that a new year is happy?! Translation is difficult. Of course, Aa'e émóna'e says nothing about "happy" and for some Cheyennes it might be important to include the meaning of "happy" in a translation of "Happy New Year!" So, we can consider revising the Cheyenne expression already in use by adding Pevetano! 'Be happy!' to it. Would the final expression of Aa'e émóna'e, pevetano! Sound natural in Cheyenne. I think it would. Does it include the idea of happiness? Yes. Does it include the idea of a new year. Yes, it does. It is worth testing this new translation to see how acceptable it is to other Cheyenne speakers.

Translation adequacy
Here are two of the most important principles to follow when translating.

Accurate
Does the translation have the same meaning as the original? Accuracy is not a matter of keeping the form of the original, but, rather translating the original meaning however it is actually said in the translation language.
Translation of Ó'kȯhomȯxháaheta to English as Little Wolf was clear and natural, but not accurate. Its meaning was actually Little Coyote.

Natural
The literal translation of "Hang around!" to Cheyenne was perhaps accurate, but it was not natural. It is not how Cheyennes would actually express the meaning of the English expression.
In order for a translation to be both clear and natural, it must respect the grammatical patterns of the both the source and target languages. Every language is different from every other language. If you are translating from English to Cheyenne, or from Cheyenne to English, it is important not to try to force either language to use the grammatical patterns of the other language.

Some grammatical relationships different from English
In this section we describe some ways that the grammatical patterns of English and Cheyenne do not match, yet it is possible to translate accurately and naturally between these languages, while respecting these differences.
There are many interesting differences between how the grammars of Cheyenne and English express some semantic relationships. By pointing out these differences, we are not suggesting that either language is inferior, non-standard, or "backwards". On the contrary, both languages are grammatically logical and beautiful in how they express the intended meanings. For examples of other Cheyenne verbs which have different grammatical relationships from English to express the same semantic relationships, see the end of the next major section of this book, Transitive Inanimate Independent Indicative verbs.
My fingers hurt.
The first example can be literally translated as 'I hurt to my finger." This literal translation sounds odd in English, but there is nothing odd about the Cheyenne verb. In spite of what some Cheyennes believe and have said, based on what they have learned, explicitly or implicitly, from teachers and administrators in English schools, there is nothing "backwards" about the Cheyenne language. Each language is beautiful and has unique ways of saying things. Just because a language expresses something in a different grammatical way from another language does not make that language backwards, ugly, or in any way inferior to any other language.
'fit (something)' This Cheyenne verb treats that part that fits as the object of the verb. Again, this is a perfectly logical way to express the intended meaning. The English wording 'The cap fits me' is correct for the English language and the corresponding Cheyenne sentence is correct for the Cheyenne language. Neither language is "backwards" in how they express meaning about fitting; they simply express the same meaning using different grammar.
So, if you are translating a Cheyenne sentence such as Nátáá'e hóhkėha'e, an accurate and natural translation in English would be "The cap fits me," even though the literal translation would be 'I fit to the cap.' This literal translation would be accurate in English, but not natural. A translation must be both accurate and natural for it to be an adequate translation.
The shirts fit me. (lit., I fit to the shirts) '(something) taste good' In Cheyenne the food which gives the sensation of good taste is grammatically the object of the TI verb -pėhéve'áhtá: Nápėhévé'áhta ho'évohkȯtse.
The meat tastes good to me. (lit. I good taste to it) 'think well of (someone)' In Cheyenne the person who is thought well of is grammatically the semantic subject (causer of the thinking well) of the TA verb -pėhévoemeh 'cause (someone) to value good.' Nápėhévoemeha.
I think well of him. (= 'He is of good value to me.') Nápėhévoemēho.
He thinks well of me. (= 'I am of good value to me.')

The translation process
If you are asked to translation something from English to Cheyenne, here are the steps we recommend that you follow to make the translation as natural as possible while communicating the same meaning: 1. Figure out what  The common temptation is to translation literally whenever you are asked to translate from English to Cheyenne. But a literal translation is often not the most accurate translation. And most of the time a literal translation is not how fluent Cheyenne speakers would actually say something with the meaning of the English expression you are trying to translate. Of course, if enough Cheyenne speakers prefer a literal translation and they can, in time, get the same meaning from it that the English expression has, it is fine to use a literal translation. But a literal translation should only be used if it comes to be accepted and used by a good number of Cheyenne speakers.

Language and social interaction
Like every other language, Cheyenne is used for a variety of social purposes. Some of the most common uses for language is to inform, question, command, exclaim, entertain, and rebuke.
Cheyennes speak their language following the norms of Cheyenne culture. These cultural norms influence which Cheyenne language forms are used.
One traditional Cheyenne cultural norm is that a woman must not speak to her son-in-law. She should not even say his name, especiall in front of him. And a man must not speak to his sister after she has reached puberty. And he should not speak to his daughter-in-law either.
If a woman wants to communicate something to her son-in-law, she can do so through her daughter, the wife of her son-in-law. Or she can speak indirectly to her son-in-law in his hearing (and usually the hearing of someone else also) using third person verbs, rather than direct speech with second person verbs.
If a woman wants her son-in-law to fetch some water or firewood, she can speak about him, in his hearing, with words like these: Tell that lazy husband of yours to get some water. $$ Brothers-in-law are expected to tease each other within Cheyenne culture. Such teasing has become an art form. Language forms and quality of speech are influenced by the effort to tease, sometimes close to the point of shaming, a brother-in-law in front of others.
The following story illustrates brother-in-law teasing. Notice all the direct in-your-face kind of speech in this text. This is characteristic of teasing speech. $$TRY TO FIND SPECIFIC LANGUAGE FORMS TO COMMENT ABOUT IN THIS TEXT
I always just talk to this Squint Eye Woman," éhevoo'o. he said.
"Ohkeéepėhéve'tovėstse, ohkeéehémanȯxeváenėstse "You have no way to get out of it," I told him. "Always treat me good, always give me a drink má'ȯhkevóometo nonóhpa nėstanėhešepėhévėhevéxahé'tovȧtse!" náhéto // whenever you see me so that way you will be a good son-in-law to me!" I told him.
"Heé, névááhe tsémȧhehéne'ēno? Névá'neée'ȯhkeno'kenėheve 169 "Hey, who is it that knows all of it? You are the only one who says that naa," náhéto. "Vo'ėstane náohkėsáa'éetšėhe'šenėhetaéhe," náhéto. and," I told him. "No one ever told me that," I told him. Cheyenne speakers and non-Cheyenne researchers sometimes refer to two of Cheyenne, Northern Cheyenne (spoken in Montana) and Southern Cheyenne (spoken in Oklahoma). Some people go even farther and speak of the "Northern Cheyenne Language." Many Cheyennes speak of language differences between Cheyenne spoken in Oklahoma and Montana. Some "Northerners", for instance, say that you can spot a speaker from Oklahoma after listening to just a few words of their speech.
My own research confirms that there are some slight differences in Cheyenne spoken in these two locations. As far as I have been able to determine, there are no differences in pronunciation or grammar. There are, however, a few words which are different between Montana and Oklahoma. Speakers from one location perfectly understand these words spoken in the other location. Are these word differences enough to say that there are two different dialects of Cheyenne? The answer to this question depends on whether you want to look only at technical linguistic data or also at how speakers of the language actually feel about their language differences. Because Cheyenne speakers from Montana and Oklahoma so strongly perceive there to be a dialect difference, and because they tease each other so much about those differences, these perceptions themselves create a sociological reality of a dialect difference. It would not be proper to say, therefore, that there is not a Northern versus Southern dialect of Cheyenne. We simply need to be aware what we are referring to when we speak of these "dialects." These are real dialects in the minds of the speakers, themselves, and that is a very important sociological (and sociolinguistic) reality.
On the other hand, we can also point out that there are very few actual linguistic differences between the Cheyenne spoken in Montana and that spoken in Oklahoma. In fact, it is more likely that there are some greater differences in the Cheyenne spoken by different Cheyenne families than there are between speakers from the North and South but these, also, are rather minimal, and often consist of little more than whether or not some people have a slight lisp, pronounce one vowel of a morpheme differently from other speakers, or have some similar small phonetic differences.
I have not heard any Northern vs. Southern dialectal differences in the morphology (grammar) of nouns or verbs. And I am not aware of any differences in the way words or morphemes are pronounced between Oklahoma and Montana speakers.
There are, however, a few individual words which are generally recognized to be used differently by Oklahoma and Montana speakers, even though they are not pronounced differently. Following is the entire list of such words which I have been given by Cheyenne speakers so far. But even in this list there are some words for which it is uncertain that it can be said that the words are different based on the location of the speakers. $$DON'T INCLUDE THE ORIGINAL SCANNED PAGED IN THE REVISED EDITION, BUT DO  MAKE SURE THAT SOME OF THE DATA IS INCLUDED IN EARLIER SECTIONS, SUCH AS THE  indefinite pronouns nevá'esėstse and

Dialogue
Dialogues are conversations that occur between two or more people. It is essential for anyone wishing to speak Cheyenne to learn to converse in Cheyenne. Cheyenne dialogues follow rules for what grammatical forms are appropriate to use for each turn of a conversation. It is also essential that conversation follow these rules so that each turn will sound natural. Conversations turns must not be literal translations from English dialogues.$$SEE IF ANYTHING NATURAL ENOUGH CAN BE IMPORTED FROM "LET'S TALK CHEYENNE"

Monologues
Monologues are longer stretches of speech by a single individual. Typical kinds of monologies are prayers, instructions, sermons, and stories. Many of the same patterns followed in dialogues are followed in monologues, except that all elements of the patterns are provided by a single individual in monlogues. Sometimes monologues are called texts. ??

naa mȯséškanetsénoonáhe mósėsto'sevéseéetse'ȯhtsėhēhe
And bat was also going to go to And a bat was also going to go to 4. tséhmóheeohtséstovetse where there was a meeting. the meeting.
5. éstatsėhe'ȯhtséhoo'o hováhne tséhmóheeohtsetsėse He went to animals where they were meeting. He went to where the animals were meeting.
6. hováhne éstsėhetaesesto nésáahováhévéhe névé'kėséheve Animals told him, "You are not an animal. You are a bird. The animals told him, "You are not an animal. You are a bird.

tatsėhe'ōhtsėstse vé'kėseho tséhmóheeohtsévȯse
Go over to birds where they are meeting!" Go to where the birds are meeting!" 8. éxhestóhehoo'o mȯséškanetsénoonáhe he was told, bat. the bat was told.

éstatsėhe'ȯhtséhoo'o mȯséškanetsénoonáhe tséhmóheeohtsetsėse
He went to, bat, where they were meeting, The bat went to where the birds were meeting.

naa hánȧháóhe tséstȧho'eōhtsėse énėxhósepéohehoo'o
And over there when he arrived he was again rejected.

mó'ȯhkėhéseéveahtoešenȧhēhe éšeēva
That must be why he hides in daytime. That must be why he hides in the daytime.
20. Essáanȧha'óoméhesesto tósa'e tséhešeaseta'xevȯse. they were not caught sight of wherever they took off to No one ever saw them again, wherever they took off to. To'seo'eMemee'estse menotse eohkeovoeheo'enenestse When they are going to be dried, chokecherries, they are first picked 1 naa eohkehoxe'anenestse.

Making Chokecherry Patties, by Elva
Eohkepeenestse naa mato eohkepenohenestse. and they are cleaned.
They are ground or they are pounded (with a tool).
HeMe ' e ' Me They are made into patties.
Tosa'e tse'o'o eohkeho'henestse. in a bag they are put. Someplace where it is dry they are kept.

COMMENTS ON THE TEXTS
$$CORRECT DEFECTIVE SCAN I have attempted to have a wide variety of texts from several viewpoints. There is geographical variety.
Speakers who live in Montana have (mt) after the author credit in the text; speakers who live in Oklahoma have (ok). Some stories are told by men, others by 1;vomen. Some stories are 11 historical" first-person eyewitness accounts while others are popular folktales.
There are other categories of "historicity", too, for instance, first-person accounts which were made up for pedagogical purposes for bilingual programs.
I have tried to select texts for inclusion which illustrate the various verbal modes.
In this section I will briefly comment on various aspects of the texts.
Two of the texts, "The Drumming Owls" and "The Whiteman and the Indian" illustrate the popular motif of tension between the Indian (xamae-vo'estane, 'ordinary-person') and a trickster.
Around the world i t is very common to find that different groups of people have stories illustrating the tension they feel as they come into contact with other kinds of people. In some Indian groups of Mexico stories first spoke of the tension between the Indians and the conquering Spaniards.
Today the same stories are told, but the oppressor is now the "wealthy" Mexican national land-owner.
Often, stories illustrating the cultural tension have plots in which the "underdog" ultimately overcomes or tricks the oppressor.
This motif of the tension between a people and a trickster is a common one in Cheyenne stories, and also in other languages of the people who first inhabited North America. In some languages the trickster is a coyote.
It is probably no accident that some of the language groups use the same word for 'spider' and 'trickster'.
Such is the case with Cheyenne and Arapaho and I seem to recall that a Muskogean language also uses the same word for 'spider' and 'trickster'. The Cheyenne word is ve''ho' e. The Arapaho word is nih?oo8oo (Salzmann,IJAL 22.151). After having used these words for their cultural tricksters, both Cheyennes and Arapahos applied these words to the white man once he arrived on the scene. Today, the term "vé'ho'e" first triggers the meaning 'white man' in the mind of the Cheyenne speaker. The folklore trickster in stories is usually translated by 'white man', as it is in the preceding texts. Interesting folk etymologies have developed around the term "vé'ho'e". Today I8 speakers know that vé'ho'e means both 'white man' and 'spider'. Some people say that the white man was given the same name as the spider because he arrived on Indian land and fenced in the range land so that it like a spider's web. Others point to Sweet Medicine's prophecy of the coming "person" Énóahešéve [ɪ n ó w a h ɪ š ɪ f ] 'he is giving away' Sometimes it is difficult to hear the difference between a non-phonemic [ w ] glide and the [w] sound of a phonemic /v/ that appears between "o" and "a". But it is often possible to tell whether a "w" sound is phonemic or not by listening to morphological alternations. For instance, we can tell that énóvahe 'he is slow' has a phonemic /v/, rather than the phonetic [ w ] glide, when the word is pluralized, énóvȧheo'o [ɪ n ó f h a y o ʔ ȯ] 'they are slow'. The phonetic [f] in this plural can only exist because it is the voiceless pronunciation of phonemic /v/ in the complex syllable of this word.

Prepenultimate Devoicing (PPD)
A low-pitched vowel is devoiced if it is followed by a voiceless fricative and not preceded by /h/: [+cont] PPD applies iteratively until its structural description is no longer met.

Penultimate Devoicing (PD) V → [-voiced] / C __ (h) C #
Penultimate vowels devoice if they are followed by an obstruent which, in turn, is followed by a word-final "e". The word-final "e" is inserted by the following rule of e-Epenthesis.

e-Epenthesis (e-Ep)
An "e" is added to the end of a word ends with a phonemic obstruent: Ø → e / C __ # See examples of e-Epenthesis under the preceding rule, PPD.

s-Epenthesis (e-Ep)
/h/ is inserted between /e/ and a phonemic word-final /t/. This /h/ is pronounced as [s] according to the preceding HSA rule: Ø → h / e __ t # PPD (Prepenultimate Devoicing) follows, causing the "e" added by e-Ep to be voiceless.

Complex Syllable Formation (CSF)
A complex syllable is formed when a consonant is followed by a voiceless vowel, /h/, then a voiced vowel. The /h/ becomes aspiration on the consonant.

High-Leveling (HL)
A low is raised to a high if it is preceded and following by high pitches:$$RECHECK RULE FORMULATION ` → ´ / ´ __ (Ṿ) ($) ´ # One or more more voiceless syllables can occur between the pitch that is raised and a following high pitch. It appears that this rule only applies when the word-final pitch is phonemically high. This rule is closely related to the preceding rule of LHR and may be part of a single natural rule of pitch assimilation that includes both LHR and HL.$$RECHECK, RETHINK, REVISE éávóónése /éávoonešé/ 'he's lying fasting' $$INCLUDE PHONEMIC SPELLINGS éstsénėhé'e 'swamp' ého'néhénóne /ého'néhenoné/ 'he sang a wolf song' nȧhtóóhévo /nahtóohevón/ 'my fingernail' onéhávó'ke 'bead'

Low-to-Mid Raising (LMR)
A low is raised to a mid when it precedes a phonemic word-final high and is not preceded by a high. (This second condition can be elimited from the rule if there is rule ordering and LMR is ordered after LHR.) ` → ¯ / __ ´ # kōsa /kosán/ 'sheep (singular)' hē'e /he'é/ 'woman' éhomōse /éhomosé/ 'he is cooking' étȧhpe'āse /étahpe'asé/ 'he has a big belly'

Word-Medial High-Raising (WMHR)
A high is raised if it follows a high (which is not a trigger for the High Push-Over rule) and precedes a phonetic low: One or more voiceless syllables may come between the two highs. (A devoiced vowel in this process must be phonemically low, not a phonemic high vowel which has been devoiced by the HPO rule.) Many verbal prefixes and preverbs are affected by WMHR.

Word-Final Lowering (WFL)
A word-final vowel is realized as a low pitch. If the word-final vowel is pre-pause, it will be devoiced by the Phrase-Final Devoicing Rule (PFDR).

Glottal Raising (GR)
A glottal stop can raise the pitch of a preceding vowel. The amount of elevation in pitch, if there is any, varies depending on the word and the speaker. There is a minor exception to this formulation of the VS rule when the phonemic word-final vowel sequences are ea# or oa#. Instead of expected phonetic ea'a# or oa'a#, respectively, most speakers pronounce ea'e# and oa'e#. We suggest that some kind of neutralization rule accounts for this exception. Such a rule may involve something like "strong" and "weak" vowels in Cheyenne, where "o" and "a" are strong vowels and "e" is a weaker vowel used in neutralization contexts such as this. Such known exceptions are: hēā'e /heá/ 'maybe', instead of expected hēā'a émea'e /éméa/ 'he gave', instead of expected émea'a hotóá'e /notóá/ 'buffalo', instead of expected hotóá'a Another minor exception in the speech of at least some speakers involves retention of high pitch on some phonemic pre-VS penultimate vowels when a lowering of the high pitch is expected. Such exceptions include: vée'ėse /vées/ 'tooth', instead of expected vee'ėse séo'ȯtse /séot/ 'ghost, corpse', instead of expected seo'ȯtse $$IS THERE ANY INTERACTION WITH / INFLUENCE FROM IAH (IMPERMANENT ANTEPENULTIMATE HIGH)??

Vowel Assimilation
An "e" assimilates to take on the phonetic value of an immediately preceding vowel when that "e" is followed by a consonant: Sometimes this assimilation is not total, but usually it is nearly so. Assimilation occurring to vowels which have undergone Vowel-Stretching is total, and so I write the second vowel in its assimilated form. I do not write non-Vowel-Stretched sequences in their assimilated forms, since they are sometimes not totally assimilated and also since their underlying (phonemic) forms can be more easily recovered from their written forms.

h-Loss
Phrase-medially, an /h/ which is preceded by a vowel and followed by a word-final vowel is lost by syncope: h → Ø / V __ V # X Vowel Assimilation applies to the vowel sequence produced by h-Loss. Vowel-Stretching does not, hence it must be ordered before the rule of h-Loss.

Labialization
The consonants "x" and "h" take on the labial quality of a preceding /o/ if they are followed by /e/ or /a/: But there is also an /x/, which should get swept up in the first rule, and writing /x/ out isn't straightforward.
However, the dictionary examples make it look like there is also a rule, h --> Ø / __x, i.e., there seem to be some examples in the x section that have past meanings but have no h before the x, and listening to them they seem not to be xx.
As for the /hh/ as [xx], a Stampean phonologist would count that as a fortition, rather than as a kind of assimilation, and say that it happens as a single process.