19.1. Today, tomorrow, and yesterday
| hiyáʔ cn ʔaʔ tiə ʔáynəkʷ. | ‘I go today.’ |
| hiyáʔ caʔn ʔaʔ tiə ʔáynəkʷ. | ‘I will go today.’ |
| hiyáʔ yaʔ cn ʔaʔ tiə ʔáynəkʷ. | ‘I went today.’ |
| hiyáʔ yaʔ cn ʔaʔ kʷiʔə ʔáynəkʷ. | ‘I went today.’ |
| hiyáʔ cn ʔaʔ či kʷáči. | ‘I will go tomorrow.’ |
| hiyáʔ caʔn ʔaʔ či kʷáči. | ‘I will go tomorrow.’ |
| hiyáʔ cn ʔaʔ kʷi čiʔáqɬ. | ‘I went yesterday.’ |
| hiyáʔ yaʔ cn ʔaʔ kʷi čiʔáqɬ. | ‘I went yesterday.’ |
| hiyáʔ cn ʔaʔ kʷi sčiʔəkʷɬnát. | ‘I went the day before yesterday.’ |
► 1 Most time expressions begin with the preposition ʔaʔ.
► 2 The word ʔáynəkʷ ‘today’ is usually preceded by the article tiə, which means ‘this.’ If the event occurred earlier today, that is, in the past but still today, kʷiʔə may be used in place of tiə.
► 3 The word kʷáči ‘next day’ is related to skʷáči ‘day’ and kʷaʔčéy̓ ‘morning.’ When kʷáči is used with the article či it always means ‘tomorrow.’
► 4 The word čiʔáqɬ ‘yesterday’ and sčiʔəkʷɬnát ‘the day before yesterday’ are always preceded by the article kʷi.
► 5 In §18, on time questions, we learned that a future event is preceded by the article či. The article kʷə or kʷi is usually used if the event is in the past. The same is true in all time expressions except for ʔaʔ tiə ʔáynəkʷ ‘today.’
► 6 Notice that the future word caʔ is optional with ‘tomorrow,’ and the past word yaʔ is optional with ‘yesterday.’
 | hiyáʔ cn ʔaʔ kʷiʔə ʔáynəkʷ. | ‘I went today.’ |
 | hiyáʔ u cxʷ ʔaʔ kʷi čiʔáqɬ? | ‘Did you go yesterday?’ |
| ʔáa. ƛ̓áy cn hiyáʔ ʔaʔ či kʷáči. | ‘Yes. I’ll go again tomorrow.’ |
| ʔaʔk̓ʷín ʔuč? | ‘What time?’ |