9.1. Just ʔáwə
In Klallam, ʔáwə means ‘no.’ Unlike English, Klallam does not use echo responses. To answer a question such as hiyáʔ u cxʷ ‘Did you go?’ you just answer with ʔáwə ‘no’ if you didn’t. Or you could answer ‘I didn’t go’ without the ‘no.’ If the answer is ‘no,’ you could also tell the asker what you did instead and respond with something like ‘No, I stayed home.’ But you never say ‘No, I didn’t go.’
Study the model dialogues:
| A: ʔíɬən u cxʷ. | ‘Did you eat?’ |
| B: ʔáwə. | ‘No.’ |
| A: kʷánəŋət u cxʷ. | ‘Did you run?’ |
| B: ʔáwə cn c kʷánəŋət. | ‘I didn’t run.’ |
| A: štə́ŋ u cxʷ. | ‘Did you walk?’ |
| B: ʔáwə. ʔítt cn. | ‘No. I slept.’ |
► 1 Review §3.2 on yes/no questions.
► 2 There are several words for ‘yes’: ʔáa, m̓, and hmm.
► 3 You also don’t use an echo if the answer is ‘yes.’ So if someone asks you hiyáʔ u cxʷ and you want to say ‘yes,’ you just say ʔáa or m̓ or hmm.
► 4 Note that there are two pronunciations: ʔáw is often used as ‘no’ by itself; ʔáwə is used as ‘not’ or ‘no’ when it is followed by a subject or other words. Furthermore, ʔáwə is often pronounced ʔáw in fluent speech.
► 5 Note that ʔáwə is stressed and so has an accent mark.
► 6 New vocabulary: ʔíɬən ‘eat’; sčánnəxʷ ‘salmon’; saplín ‘bread’
 | ʔíɬən u cxʷ ʔaʔ cə sčánnəxʷ. | ‘Did you eat the salmon?’ |
 | ʔáw. ʔíɬən cn ʔaʔ cə saplín. | ‘No. I ate the bread.’ |
| ʔən̓sƛ̓éʔ u či sčannəxʷ. | ‘Do you want some salmon?’ |
| ʔáwə. nəsƛ̓éʔ cə saplín. | ‘No. I want the bread.’ |