20.3. Soon, Almost, and Barely
| kʷɬčəyáy cn ʔiʔ šč̓ə́t. | ‘I’ll hit it soon.’ |
| čəyáy cn ʔiʔ šč̓ə́t. | ‘I almost hit it.’ |
| čəyáy cə nəsʔuʔšč̓ə́t. | ‘I barely hit it.’ |
► 1 The meanings ‘almost’ and ‘barely’ are not really time expressions, but they are meanings of čəyáy, which is a time expression when it has the kʷɬ‑ prefix.
► 2 This a great example of how the grammar affects the meaning of a word. čəyáy can mean ‘soon,’ ‘almost,’ or ‘barely,’ depending on the grammar of the sentence it is in.
► 3 When čəyáy has the kʷɬ‑ prefix, it means ‘soon.’ The word kʷɬčəyáy always appears at the beginning, followed by the subject pronoun. The event follows, connected by the little word ʔiʔ. Here is the pattern for ‘soon’:
kʷɬčəyáy subject ʔiʔ event
► 4 The meaning ‘almost’ has the same grammar as the meaning ‘soon,’ but there is no kʷɬ‑ prefix on čəyáy. The čəyáy comes first, then the subject pronoun, then ʔiʔ, then the event. Here is the pattern for ‘almost’:
čəyáy subject ʔiʔ event
► 5 The meaning ‘barely’ has very different grammar. The čəyáy still comes first, but the subject is indicated by the possessive pronoun on the event. The event also has the ʔuʔ‑ prefix (§52.1). The event must be preceded by the cə article. Keeping in mind that the possessive could be a prefix or a suffix (review §5), here is the pattern for ‘barely’:
čəyáy cə possessive‑s‑ʔuʔ‑event
► 6 Note that the s‑ prefix is required here because the event has the possessive pronoun (see §10.3).
► 7 This illustration of a target shows the difference in meaning between čəyáy ʔiʔ šč̓ə́t ‘He almost hit it’ and čəyáy cə sʔuʔšč̓ə́ts ‘He barely hit it.’
► 8 As we will see in §29, kʷɬčəyáy and čəyáy used in the ʔiʔ construction are really types of intensifiers.
► 9 There is another way of expressing the idea of ‘soon’ in Klallam. The word c̓íŋi means basically ‘near, close’ and can refer to space or time. So c̓íŋi cn či nəsʔíɬən can be used to mean ‘I’ll eat soon.’ Literally it is something like ‘I’m close to my eating.’
 | čən̓táŋ caʔ cxʷ ʔay̓ či ʔən̓st̓úk̓ʷ. | ‘When will you go home?’ |
 | kʷɬčəyáy cn ʔiʔ hiyáʔ t̓úk̓ʷ. | ‘I’ll go home soon.’ |
| húy u cxʷ ʔaʔ cə ʔən̓sčáy. | ‘Are you finished with your work?’ |
| čəyáy cn ʔiʔ húy. | ‘I’m almost finished.’ |
