10.2. I¸-class auxiliaries
Models
| 1) | ĆELÁL SEN I¸ YÁ¸. | ‘I almost left.’ |
| 2) | W̱ÁLEḴ SEN I¸ YÁ¸. | ‘I almost left.’ |
| 3) | X̱EṈ SEN I¸ YÁ¸. | ‘I might go/I can go.’ |
| 4) | TUWE¸AXEṈ SEN I¸ YÁ¸. | ‘I suddenly left.’ |
‣ 1 The first word in each of the models is an I¸-class auxiliary. These are called that because the small word I¸ is required to link the auxiliary to the main verb. Note that new words in the models have the stressed vowel underlined.
‣ 2 Just as with the U¸‑class auxiliary, the I¸-class auxiliary comes first in the sentence and the subject and any speech act modifiers (such as tense, yes/no question, etc.) follow the first word.
‣ 3 The auxiliary X̱EṈ means ‘might, can’. The word X̱EṈ means something different—‘fast, quick’—when it is in other constructions and not followed by the I¸ linker. See §29 for this other X̱EṈ.
‣ 4 The I¸ in this construction looks and sounds like the I¸ that means ‘and’ or ‘with’ (see §11.1), but it is not the same. The I¸ in this construction is never to be translated as ‘and’ or ‘with.’ To see how the two differ, look at these three sentences:
X̱EṈ SEN I¸ ŚTEṈ. ‘I can walk.’
can I i-link walk
X̱EṈ SEN I¸ ŚTEṈ SEN. ‘I’m fast and I walk.’
fast I and walk I
X̱EṈ SEN I¸ ŚTEṈ I¸ ȻONEṈET. ‘I can walk and run.’
can I i-link walk and run
The first of these three sentences has only the I¸-class linker and the X̱EṈ is interpreted as ‘can.’ The second sentence has the I¸ meaning ‘and.’ It conjoins two independent sentences. The third sentence here has both.
‣ 5 The auxiliaries in the first two models, ĆELÁL and W̱ÁLEḴ mean very similar things, and sometimes they can be used interchangeably. ĆELÁL means ‘just about to’ and implies that something is or was about to happen. The first model could also be translated ‘I’m ready to go.’ W̱ÁLEḴ means ‘nearly’ and implies that something did not happen that almost did.
‣ 6 The auxiliary in the last model (model 4), TUWE¸AXEṈ means ‘suddenly.’ It also covers the ideas ‘right away’ or ‘soon.’
‣ 7 Without the I¸ linker, TUWE¸AXEṈ is a verb meaning ‘to happen suddenly,’ as in TUWE¸AXEṈ TŦE X̱EṈÁLEḴEN ‘The strong tide happened suddenly.’
 | W̱ÁLEḴ SEN I¸ ĆAK. | ‘I almost fell’ |
 | X̱EṈ E SW̱ I¸ ŚTEṈ? | ‘Can you walk?’ |
| EWE. TUWE¸AXEṈ SEN I¸ XEȽSEN. | ‘No. Suddenly I hurt my foot.’ |
| ȻENÁṈESE SEN SE¸. | ‘I’ll help you.’ |
| 10.2A. Which of these sentences is ungrammatical? If it is ungrammatical, explain why it is. If it is grammatical, translate the sentence. If you see a word you don’t know, look it up in the SENĆOŦEN dictionary. | |
| 1. ĆELÁL SEN U¸ NEĆEṈ. 2. W̱ÁLEḴ SEN I¸ NEĆEṈ. 3. X̱EṈ I¸ ŚTEṈ SEN. 4. TUWE¸AXEṈ SEN U¸ YÁ¸. 5. TUWE¸AXEṈ I¸ ȻONEṈET TŦE SḴAXE¸. | 6. ĆELÁL I¸ ȻONEṈET ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸. 7. W̱ÁLEḴ SEN I¸ ȻENETEṈ ¸E TŦE SMÍYEŦ. 8. W̱ÁLEḴ SEN I¸ ȻENETEṈ TŦE SMÍYEŦ. 9. X̱EṈ E SW̱ I¸ ȻENET TŦE SMÍYEŦ? 10. X̱EṈ I¸ ȻONEṈET. |
| 10.2B. Make four new SENĆOŦEN sentences using I¸-class auxiliaries. | |