Words in Klallam can be short and simple like tán ‘mother,’ or long and complex like ʔən̕sxʷčɬɬq̕čšɬšáʔ ‘that’s why you were attacked by fifty of them.’ Some small words refer to complicated concepts like ʔíx̣ʷt ‘gather things together to get rid of them by scraping them up.’ And some long words refer to simple concepts like ʔəsxʷnaʔnáʔyaʔŋəs ‘smiling.’

Whether long or short, all words in Klallam have a root. The root of the word is the fundamental part of the word that gives it its basic meaning. A root may or may not have other elements of meaning attached to it. The word tán ‘mother,’ for example, has a root with nothing attached to it. The whole root stands free as a word by itself in this case. In the word ʔəsxʷnaʔnáʔyaʔŋəs ‘smiling,’ the root is nəy ‘laugh.’ In the word for ‘smiling’ the root has other elements of meaning attached to it.

The units of meaning that can be attached to a root in Klallam include prefixes and suffixes. A prefix attaches to the beginning of the root or to another prefix. The word ʔəsxʷnaʔnáʔyaʔŋəs ‘smiling’ has two prefixes: ʔəs‑ and xʷ‑ (a variant of nəxʷ‑). The ʔəs‑ prefix, called ‘stative’ and detailed in §43, indicates that the word refers to a state of being; the nəxʷ‑ prefix, called ‘locative’ and discussed in §32.2 and §52.2, makes the word refer to a location.

A suffix attaches to the end of a root or to another suffix. The word ʔíx̣ʷt, mentioned in the first paragraph, above, has a root and one suffix, the important –t transitive suffix. That suffix is introduced in §1 and further detailed in §7.1 and elsewhere. The word ʔəsxʷnaʔnáʔyaʔŋəs has two suffixes: ‑əŋ ‘middle voice,’ adding a meaning like ‘do some’ (discussed in detail in §44), and ‑əs ‘face’ (a variant of ‑us, discussed in §32).

In addition to prefixes and suffixes, Klallam has two other types of meaning units that attach to a word. These two other types often dramatically change the appearance of a root. They do not merely stick to the beginning or end. These types are called infixes and reduplication.

An infix is inserted into a word to add meaning. The plural is usually marked by an infix. For example, when you put aʔy into sqáx̣aʔ ‘dog,’ you get sqaʔyáx̣aʔ ‘a group of dogs.’ All of the different ways of making the plural are covered in §33. Another common infix is the ‘actual’ infix that adds a ‘continuing’ meaning by inserting  a glottal stop, ʔ. For example, šúpt ‘whistle’ becomes šúʔpt ‘whistling.’ The word ʔəsxʷnaʔnáʔyaʔŋəs ‘smiling’ has the ‘actual’ infix before the ŋ. As mentioned in note three on pronunciation, ə becomes a before a glottal stop. So the ‑əŋ suffix becomes ‑aʔŋ with the infix in this word.

When part or all of a word is copied to add meaning it is called reduplication. There are several different kinds of reduplication in Klallam covered here and there in the following sections (§33, §42, §43, §55).  One common one is called ‘diminutive reduplication.’ It adds the meaning of smallness. This pattern applied to sqáx̣aʔ ‘dog’ gets sqaʔqáʔx̣aʔ ‘little dog.’ This reduplication pattern includes an infix ʔ after the á. The word ʔəsxʷnaʔnáʔyaʔŋəs ‘smiling’ also has this ‘diminutive reduplication’ pattern.

Let’s summarize how the word ʔəsxʷnaʔnáʔyaʔŋəs ‘smiling’ is built.