17.3. ‘Or’
| ʔíɬən u caʔ cxʷ nəw̓ʔítt u caʔ cxʷ. | ‘Will you eat or sleep?’ |
| sqáx̣aʔ u; píšpš u. | ‘Is it a dog or a cat?’ |
| k̓ʷə́nnəxʷ cn či sqáx̣aʔ kʷaʔ píšpšəs. | ‘I saw a dog or a cat.’ |
| k̓ʷə́nnəxʷ u cxʷ cə sqáx̣aʔ kʷaʔ níɬəs cə píšpš. | ‘Did you see the dog or the cat?’ |
| k̓ʷə́nnəxʷ cn kʷə čičəy̓íqʷtən kʷaʔ stáŋəs yaʔ čtə. | ‘I saw a Bigfoot or whatever it was.’ |
| ʔáwənə nəsx̣čít kʷaʔ hiyáʔəxʷ kʷaʔ ʔáwəxʷ c hiyáʔ. | ‘I don’t know if you went or if you didn’t go.’ |
► 1 The idea of ‘or’ is that there are two or more alternatives. For example, in ‘Do you want to eat or sleep?’ the alternatives are ‘eating’ and ‘sleeping.’ In ‘Is it a cat or a dog?’ the alternatives are ‘cat’ and ‘dog.’
► 2 There are three main ways of expressing alternatives—the idea of ‘or’—in Klallam. The first model shows one way, the second model shows the second way, and the other four models illustrate the more complex, third way.
► 3 The first model shows the pattern that is most similar to English. Here there is a special prefix nəw̓‑ that means, basically, ‘or.’ The use of nəw̓‑ is very limited—much more limited than English ‘or.’ It attaches to the second main verb of two independent sentences. It cannot be used to conjoin two nouns, as, for example, ‘the boy or the girl.’ This is used only in questions. This would never be used, for example, to express something like ‘I will eat or I will sleep.’
► 4 Note that the second model is just two yes/no questions (see §3.2). Each of the alternatives is expressed in a separate yes/no question. It could literally be translated as ‘Is it a dog; is it a cat?’ The whole construction together gives us the idea ‘Is it a dog or a cat?’
► 5 The second model is also used only in questions and only when questioning nouns in the pattern ‘is it a this or a that,’ as in the model.
► 6 The final four models all involve the small word kʷaʔ. The patterns shown in these examples are the most common and most generally used methods of expressing the idea of ‘or’ in Klallam.
► 7 Let’s look closely at the first of these last four models:
k̓ʷə́nnəxʷ cn či sqáx̣aʔ kʷaʔ píšpšəs.
see it I a dog it is a cat
If we just take the beginning of this, we have a sentence by itself with a pattern that should be very familiar to you: k̓ʷə́nnəxʷ cn či sqáx̣aʔ ‘I see a dog.’ The second part is new. The second part is a clause beginning with the particle kʷaʔ and followed by the alternative to the object of the first part, píšpšəs. The ‑əs on the end of píšpš is the third-person subordinate subject. Review §13 now to refresh your memory on the subordinate subjects.
► 8 Note that the word for ‘cat’ here is not treated as a noun—there is no article in front of it. In this context, it is really a verb meaning ‘to be a cat.’ The first word following kʷaʔ must always be a verb with a subordinate subject marker.
► 9 In this construction, we might translate kʷaʔ as ‘or,’ but the word kʷaʔ can usually be translated as ‘if’ or ‘when.’ In §30.1 the use of this little word with those meanings will be covered in detail.
► 10 The next model is essentially the same as the first kʷaʔ model. Aside from the main verb and the fact that it is a question, it differs only in the use of the focus pronoun níɬ after the kʷaʔ. This is very common in this kind of ‘or’ question. A more literal translation might be ‘Do you want the dog, or is it the cat?’ The níɬ corresponds to the ‘is it.’
► 11 The next model—the one about Bigfoot—is, again, essentially the same as the first kʷaʔ model. This one is included just because it has the very common and useful phrase kʷaʔ stáŋəs yaʔ čtə, which can be translated as ‘or whatever it was’ or as ‘or something.’ Remember from §12.2 that stáŋ means ‘what,’ and that yaʔ is the past tense (§2.1). The little particle čtə means something like ‘probably.’ This little word will be covered in §41.2.
► 12 In the final model the sentence begins with the very useful phrase ʔáwənə nəsx̣čít ‘I don’t know.’
► 13 Whereas all of the models so far express alternative objects, the final model shows how alternative events can be expressed. Note that in this model there are two kʷaʔ clauses. This one could also be translated ‘I don’t know whether you went or you didn’t go.’
► 14 Notice that, in the final model, the ‘you’ form of the subordinate subject suffix, ‑əxʷ, is used in both kʷaʔ clauses.
► 15 New vocabulary: čičəy̓íqʷtən ‘Sasquatch, Bigfoot’
 | ʔən̓sƛ̓éʔ u cə sqáx̣aʔ kʷaʔ píšpšs. | ‘Do you want the dog or the cat?’ |
 | nəsƛ̓éʔ cə sqáx̣aʔ ʔiʔ cə píšpš. | ‘I want the dog and the cat.’ |
| ʔáw. ʔuʔhúy ʔuʔ nə́c̓uʔ. | ‘No. Only one.’ |
| ʔiʔ ʔuʔnəsƛ̓éʔ cə čə́saʔ. | ‘But I want the two.’ |