16.1. Equative construction
| čə́q cn x̣ʷənáŋ ʔaʔ nə́kʷ. | ‘I am as big as you.’ |
| čə́q cxʷ x̣ʷənáŋ ʔaʔ ʔə́c. | ‘You are as big as me.’ |
| čə́q cə píšpš x̣ʷənáŋ ʔaʔ cə sqáx̣aʔ. | ‘The cat is as big as the dog.’ |
► 1 The key word in this construction is x̣ʷənáŋ ‘like, how, way.’
► 2 The general pattern for this construction is:
QUALITY X x̣ʷənáŋ ʔaʔ Y
Compare this pattern with the English pattern:
X is as QUALITY as Y
► 3 The first model, čə́q cn x̣ʷənáŋ ʔaʔ nə́kʷ, can be seen as composed of two clauses: čə́q cn ‘I am big’ and x̣ʷənáŋ ʔaʔ nə́kʷ ‘it’s like you.’ So, when the two are combined in the one sentence it means literally ‘I am big like you.’ We can call the first clause the quality clause and the second clause the equative clause.
► 4 Although adverbial expressions will not be covered in detail until §28, it is worth mentioning here that the quality clause can be an adverbial expression, such as x̣ʷə́ŋ cn ʔəɬ štə́ŋən ‘I walk fast.’ When this is combined with the equative clause, we get x̣ʷə́ŋ cn ʔəɬ štə́ŋən x̣ʷənáŋ ʔaʔ nə́kʷ ‘I walk as fast as you.’
► 5 In §28, you will learn that there are two ways of forming adverbial expressions. Either method can be used in the quality clause. So x̣ʷə́ŋ cə nəsštə́ŋ ‘I walk fast’ can also combine with the equative clause to get x̣ʷə́ŋ cə nəsštə́ŋ x̣ʷənáŋ ʔaʔ nə́kʷ ‘I walk as fast as you.’
► 6 Possessed nouns can be used straightforwardly to express things like ‘my dog is as big as yours’: čə́q cə nəsqáx̣aʔ x̣ʷənáŋ ʔaʔ cə ʔən̓skʷáʔ. Note that for the ‘yours’ part, the emphatic possession word is used. See §5.2 for a reminder on how that is used.
► 7 Notice that all of the comparison examples we have used so far are equated to a specific thing: ‘as big as the dog,’ ‘as fast as you.’ We often want to compare something to a more general thing: ‘as big as a house,’ ‘as fast as a deer.’ Notice that English uses the article ‘a’ for this purpose. Similarly, Klallam uses the article či. So, for example, we get x̣ʷə́ŋ cxʷ x̣ʷənáŋ ʔaʔ či húʔpt ‘You are as fast as a deer.’
► 8 New words: ʔiʔánkʷs 'brave,' q̓aʔq̓án̓əɬ 'slow, slowly,' síyaʔ 'grandparent'
 | mán̓ cn ʔuʔ x̣ʷə́ŋ ʔəɬ kʷánəŋətən. | ‘I run very fast. |
 | x̣ʷə́ŋ u cxʷ x̣ʷnáŋ ʔaʔ ʔə́c. | ‘Are you as fast as I am?’ |
| x̣ʷə́ŋ cn x̣ʷnáŋ ʔaʔ či húʔpt. | ‘I’m as fast as a deer.’ |
| hiyí u cə húʔpt. | ‘Is the deer alive?’ |