38.1. ‘Why’ with sxʷ-
| ʔaʔstúʔŋət kʷaʔčaʔ nəsxʷhiyáʔ. | ‘Why did I go?’ |
| ʔaʔstúʔŋət kʷaʔčaʔ ʔən̓sxʷhiyáʔ. | ‘Why did you go?’ |
| ʔaʔstúʔŋət kʷaʔčaʔ ʔən̓sxʷhiyáʔ hay. | ‘Why did you folks go?’ |
| ʔaʔstúʔŋət kʷaʔčaʔ sxʷhiyáʔɬ. | ‘Why did we go?’ |
| ʔaʔstúʔŋət kʷaʔčaʔ sxʷhiyáʔs. | ‘Why did he/she/it/they go?’ |
► 1 Do you get the feeling of déjà vu (in Klallam that would be kʷɬk̓ʷə́nnəŋ) here? You have indeed already seen the word ʔaʔstúʔŋət. If you don’t remember how you’ve learned to use ʔaʔstúʔŋət, you must review §12.3 now before you go on.
► 2 In §12.3 you learned that ʔaʔstúʔŋət means basically ‘do what?’ so that, for example, ʔaʔstúʔŋət cxʷ ʔuč means ‘what are you doing?’
► 3 Here you can see that when ʔaʔstúʔŋət is followed by the speech act particle kʷaʔčaʔ and a verb prefixed with sxʷ‑, the meaning expressed is ‘why?’
► 4 Just as ʔaʔstúʔŋət has a basic meaning different from ‘why,’ kʷaʔčaʔ and sxʷ‑ have their own basic meanings.
► 5 The basic meaning of kʷaʔčaʔ is something like ‘therefore,’ ‘so,’ ‘thus,’ or ‘that explains why.’ For example, hiyáʔ cn kʷaʔčaʔ means ‘therefore I went’ or ‘that explains why I went.’
► 6 You have also seen the prefix sxʷ‑ before. It was introduced in §23.4 and §32.2. Check back now to see how it works there.
► 7 The prefix sxʷ‑ means ‘reason for,’ ‘reason why,’ or ‘cause of.’ For example, the term of endearment nəsxʷhiyí has the ‘my’ prefix, the root hiyí ‘live, breathe,’ and with the sxʷ‑ it means literally ‘my reason for living.’
► 8 Combining these meanings, we can say that a literal translation of the second model, ʔaʔstúʔŋət kʷaʔčaʔ ʔən̓sxʷhiyáʔ might be something like ‘so your reason for going is to do what?’ This English is too awkward, so the normal translation is ‘Why did you go?.’
► 9 Remember, as usual, that although the models are translated with the English past tense, the Klallam is unspecified as to tense. You can specify past or future by putting yaʔ or caʔ after the possessed verb. For example, ʔaʔstúʔŋət kʷaʔčaʔ ʔən̓sxʷhiyáʔ caʔ ‘Why will you go?’
► 10 The kʷaʔčaʔ is sometimes dropped so that ʔaʔstúʔŋət ʔən̓sxʷhiyáʔ can also mean ‘Why did you go?’ But kʷaʔčaʔ is usually there.
► 11 New vocabulary: ʔáɬaʔ ‘here’; c̓sə́t ‘punch him/her/it/them’
 | ʔaʔstúʔŋət kʷaʔčaʔ ʔən̓sxʷməsítəŋ. | ‘Why were you chosen?’ |
 | ʔáwənə nəsx̣čít. | ‘I don’t know.’ |
| ʔáwənə ʔən̓tálə. | ‘You have no money.’ |
| ʔáwənə nətálə ʔiʔ ʔuʔiyám̓ cn. | ‘I have no money, but I’m strong.’ |