4.1. Nouns
We can think of nouns as names of persons, places, and things. Here are some basic Klallam nouns that will be used in the rest of this section:
tán ‘mother’
cə́t ‘father’
cáčc ‘uncle’ or ‘aunt’
snə́xʷɬ ‘canoe’
ʔáʔyəŋ ‘house’
tálə ‘money’
húʔpt ‘deer’
sqáx̣aʔ ‘dog’
píšpš ‘cat’
qʷúʔ ‘water’
swéʔwəs ‘young man’
q̓áʔŋi ‘young woman’
sčáʔčaʔ ‘friend’
sqʷáy ‘word’
súɬ ‘road’
šč̓ə́yi ‘stick’
► 1 Note that nouns in Klallam can also usually be used as a verbs. For example, swéʔwəs cn is the sentence meaning ‘I am a young man,’ and cə́t u cxʷ means ‘are you a father?’
► 2 Note that the most prominent vowel of every noun is marked with an accent.
► 3 The word cáčc means either ‘aunt’ or ‘uncle.’ If you want to make it clear which you are talking about, you can use the feminine article for ‘aunt.’ These articles are covered in §4.5.
► 4 The word for ‘aunt’ or ‘uncle’ is pronounced čáčc by some elders.