35.1. A smoothly flowing story
| hiyáʔ ƛ̓ácu cə čáʔsaʔ sq̓ʷəyiʔáʔən̓ suʔwə́y̓qaʔ. | (1) |
| níɬ suʔčəm̓əsnə́kʷis. | (2) |
| suʔkʷčáŋəts cə náʔc̓uʔ, | (3) |
| ‘tx̣ʷín̓ cxʷ ʔuč. hiyáʔ u cxʷ ƛ̓ácu.’ | (4) |
| suʔqʷáys cə náʔc̓uʔ, ‘ʔáwə. hiyáʔ cn ƛ̓ácu.’ | (5) |
| suʔƛ̓áys qʷáy cə náʔc̓uʔ, ‘ó, nəx̣čŋín tə ʔaʔ či ʔən̓shiyáʔ ƛ̓ácu.’ | (6) |
► 1 Notice that the heading here is not ‘Models’ but ‘Model.’ This is not just a list of sentences or words, as previous models have been. This is a group of sentences that forms a single unit—a single, smoothly flowing story.
► 2 You may be familiar with this story. This a version of the story ‘Two Deaf Fishermen’ told many times by the late Tom Charles wətə́nəx̣ən.
► 3 At this point in your study of the Klallam language, you should be able to understand almost all of the details of this story. The only elements of this story that are new are those marked in lines (2), (3), (5), and (6). These are the elements that make this story flow and distinguish it from a mere list of sentences.
► 4 Let’s look at the details of this story line by line. The section where a particular grammatical element is discussed is given in parentheses:
Line 1: hiyáʔ ƛ̓ácu cə čáʔsaʔ sq̓ʷəyiʔáʔən̓ suʔwə́y̓qaʔ. ‘Two deaf men go fishing.’ This is a basic intransitive sentence (§1.1) with a noun phrase (§4) subject with a basic article (§4.2). It starts with a ‘go’ verb (§23.1) that is followed by the verb ƛ̓ácu meaning ‘to fish.’ The word for two, čáʔsaʔ, has the form used with people (§32.3). The word sq̓ʷiʔáʔən̓ ‘deaf’ is an adjective (§6) that appears in its plural form (§33). The noun is the word swə́y̓qaʔ ‘man’ in its plural form (§33).
Line 2: níɬ suʔčəm̓əsnə́kʷis. ‘So then, they meet each other.’ The verb here is čəm̓əsnə́kʷi, which means ‘happen to meet each other.’ The rest of this sentence, níɬ suʔ‑...s is the key to what makes this a smoothly flowing narrative. If you listen to any Klallam story, you will hear this níɬ suʔ‑... or some close variant of it more frequently than any other phrase. In the late Ed Sampson’s ‘Flood’ story (which can be heard on the Klallam language web site), for example, níɬ suʔ‑... occurs thirty-two times. When you learn how to use níɬ suʔ‑..., you’ll really be speaking Klallam. The níɬ suʔ‑... construction basically adds the meaning ‘so then...’ We will discuss the details of how this works in §35.2 below.
Line 3: suʔkʷčáŋəts cə náʔc̓uʔ, ‘So one shouted,’ This phrase introduces the quotes that follow in line 4. The verb in this phrase is kʷčáŋət ‘shout to.’ This is a basic transitive verb (§1.2) marked with a ‘he/she/it’ object (§7.1). The noun phrase cə náʔc̓uʔ has the basic article (§4.2) and the ‘person’ form of nə́c̓uʔ ‘one’ (§32.3). The rest of the line suʔ‑...s is a variant of the níɬ suʔ‑...s seen in line 2. This basically means ‘so ...’ and is a very common variant. For example, this variant occurs eight times in Ed Sampson’s ‘Flood’ story. The details of this pattern will be covered in §35.2.
Line 4: ‘tx̣ʷín̓ cxʷ ʔuč. hiyáʔ u cxʷ ƛ̓ácu.’ ‘Where are you going? Are you going fishing?’ This line contains two ordinary questions: a ‘where to’ question (§22) and a simple ‘yes/no’ type question (§3.2) with a ‘go’ verb (§23.1).
Line 5: suʔqʷáys cə náʔc̓uʔ, ‘ʔáwə. hiyáʔ cn ƛ̓ácu.’ ‘So the other said, “No. I’m going fishing.”’ The beginning of this is a phrase introducing the quote similar to line 3 and also has the suʔ‑...s pattern. The phrase cə náʔc̓uʔ can mean ‘one person’ or ‘another person’ or ‘the other person.’ The quote has the negative word ʔáwə (§9.1) in one sentence, then a simple ‘go’ verb sentence in the other.
Line 6: suʔƛ̓áys qʷáy cə náʔc̓uʔ, ‘ó, nəx̣čŋín tə ʔaʔ či ʔən̓shiyáʔ ƛ̓ácu.’ ‘So then again the other one said, “Oh, I thought you were going fishing.”’ The beginning phrase introducing the quote has the suʔ‑...s pattern on a phrase with ƛ̓áy ‘again’ (§29.1). The quote begins with the exclamation ó (§56), which is the only word in Klallam with the vowel o. The rest of the quote has a possessed noun nəx̣čŋín ‘my mind, thought’, and the ‘nonspecific’ article či marking a future event. This is similar to the patterns described in §10.1, and especially §18.1 and §26.1. The quote might more literally be translated ‘your going fishing is my thought (what I’m thinking).’ The tə is a speech act particle that indicates a speaker’s thought. This will be covered in §41.2.
 | tx̣ʷín̓ cxʷ ʔuč. | ‘Where are you going?’ |
 | hiyáʔ cn ʔəsʔúmənaʔ. | ‘I’m going hunting.’ |
| nəx̣čŋín ʔaʔ či ʔən̓shiyáʔ ƛ̓ácu. | ‘I thought you were going fishing.’ |
| hiyáʔ caʔn ƛ̓ácu ʔaʔ či kʷáči. | ‘I’ll go fishing tomorrow.’ |