54.1. -nəs ‘object of intent’
| ʔənʔánəs cn. | ‘I came for/at him/her/it/them.’ |
| ʔənʔánəs cn ʔaʔ nə́kʷ. | ‘I came for/at you.’ |
| ʔənʔánəs cn ʔaʔ nə́kʷ hay. | ‘I came for/at you folks.’ |
| ʔənʔánəs cxʷ ʔaʔ ʔə́c. | ‘You came for/at me.’ |
| ʔənʔánəs cxʷ hay ʔaʔ ʔə́c. | ‘You folks came for/at me.’ |
| ʔənʔánəsəŋ cn. | ‘He/she/it came for/at me.’ |
| ʔənʔánəsəŋ cxʷ. | ‘He/she/it came for/at you.’ |
| ʔənʔánəsəŋ cxʷ hay. | ‘He/she/it came for/at you folks.’ |
| ʔənʔánəsəŋ st. | ‘He/she/it came for/at us.’ |
► 1 The verb root in each of these models should be familiar to you. The root is ʔənʔá ‘come.’ In each of the models, this root is followed by the suffix ‑nəs.
► 2 The ‑nəs suffix is like ‑nəxʷ in that it has a second pronunciation. In §31 it was shown that ‑nəxʷ occurred on strong and weak stems, while ‑náxʷ occurred on zero stems. Similarly, ‑nəs occurs as ‑nás on zero stems and stems that have no vowel other than ə.
► 3 The models are divided into two sets. The first set has ʔənʔánəs, the active, transitive form. The second set has ʔənʔánəsəŋ, the passive form. Remember (§31, §44) that the passive is marked by ‑əŋ following the transitivizer and changes the role of the subject. So, the meaning of ʔənʔánəsəŋ could also be given as ‘I was come for (or come at) by him.’
► 4 Notice the English translations. Each translation has ‘came for/at.’ This indicates that the Klallam could be translated as ‘came for’ or ‘came at.’ So the first model, for example, could be translated ‘I came for him’ or ‘I came at him.’
► 5 The basic meaning of this ‑nəs suffix is that there is an object approached by an agent with a particular intent. In English the sentence ‘He came at me’ would usually be understood as someone intending to do me harm. The sentence ‘He came for me’ could mean someone came intending to do me harm, or it could be someone came to help me or to give me a ride or with some other innocent intent. The Klallam ‑nəs suffix also has both uses.
► 6 Usually this transitivizer is interpreted as indicating some bad intent, but not necessarily. For example, the sentence ʔənʔánəsəŋ ʔaʔ cə sqáx̣aʔ would, in isolation, be interpreted as ‘The dog came at him’ or ‘The dog attacked him’ or ‘He was attacked by the dog.’ But this sentence was observed in a story told by Amy Allen, and the meaning was clearly that the dog was coming for someone stranded on a rock in the water to rescue him. In either case, the dog is certainly coming with some intent. It is just our usual experience that when a dog is coming ‘at’ you, its intent is probably not good.
► 7 With some roots, the ‘bad intent’ interpretation seems unavoidable. For example, the root č̓ə́yəxʷ ‘enter’ (a zero stem) combines with ‑nəs to form č̓ixʷnás ‘barge in on someone.’ So we get sentences like č̓ixʷnás cn ‘I barged in on him/her/them.’
► 8 With some other roots, the ‘intent’ is usually not interpreted as ‘bad.’ For example, táči ‘arrive here’ combines with ‑nəs to produce tčínəs ‘get here for.’ So we get sentences like tčínəs cn ‘I got here for him (to pick him up)’ and tčínəsəŋ cn ‘He got here for me (to take me somewhere).’ Neither of these two sentences indicates a particularly bad intent. But they could.
► 9 The ‑nəs suffix can normally occur only on verbs of motion, such as ʔənʔá ‘come,’ ʔúx̣ʷ ‘go to,’ č̓ə́yəxʷ ‘go in,’ t̓úk̓ʷ ‘go home,’ wáʔ ‘go along,’ and tə́s ‘arrive there.’ See Appendix D for a long list of motion verbs. The entry for ‑nəs in the Klallam Dictionary has more examples.
► 10 There is one exception to the rule that the ‑nəs suffix occurs only on verbs of motion. This exception is the root háhək̓ʷ ‘remember.’ For example, háhək̓ʷnəs cn cə sqʷáy means ‘I remember the word.’
► 11 You will be relieved to know that there are no special object suffixes following this transitivizer. In order to specify a first or second person object (‘me’ or ‘you’), you usually use a focus pronoun following the preposition ʔaʔ. See §4.6, §15, §16.2, §21, §34, §40.3, and §46.3 for other uses of the focus pronouns.
► 12 It is possible to use a special object pronoun similar to the ‑nəxʷ and ‑txʷ sets. These object suffixes begin with an ŋ. So, for example, ʔənʔanəsŋúŋə cn means ‘I came for/at you.’ This usage is found in the speech of only the oldest recorded Klallam speakers. No complete list of these object forms has been obtained. The younger elders, who directly helped with this grammar do not use it at all. A number of such forms can be found in the Klallam Dictionary.
► 13 The second group of models shows that when you have a third-person (he/she/it/they) agent, you must have the passive. The first- (me or us) or second-person (you) object of intent appears as the subject of the passive. In other words, in Klallam you cannot directly say something like ‘He came at us.’ You have to use the passive, as in the last model sentence, which could also be translated ‘We were come for/at by him/her/it.’
 | ʔaʔstúʔŋət kʷaʔčə ʔən̓sxʷmə́yaʔt cə nəsqáx̣aʔ. |
 | ʔənʔánəsəŋ cn. |
| ʔáw. ʔənʔánəsəŋ cxʷ ʔaʔ či píšpš. |
| ʔáwənə yaʔ nəsx̣čít. mán̓ cn ʔuʔ x̣ɬtáŋ. |