13.2. Reciprocal: Each other (control) -TEL
Models
| 1) | ȻENÁṈETEL ȽTE. | ‘We help each other.’ |
| 2) | ȻENÁṈETEL SW̱. | ‘You help each other.’ |
| 3) | ȻENÁṈETEL SW̱ HÁLE. | ‘You folks help each other.’ |
| 4) | ȻENÁṈETEL. | ‘They help each other.’ |
| 5) | ȻENÁṈETEL TŦE SṮELIṮȽḴEȽ. | ‘The children help each other.’ |
| 6) | ȻENÁṈETEL SEN I¸ TŦE NE TÁN. | ‘My mother and I help each other.’ |
‣ 1 Grammatical patterns that express the idea of two people acting toward each other are called reciprocal sentences. In English, we have the phrases ‘each other’ or ‘one another,’ as in ‘We helped each other’ and ‘We helped one another.’
‣ 2 Just as for the reflexive, in SENĆOŦEN there are suffixes on the verb that express the idea that the action happens back and forth between people. There are two ‘each other’ suffixes in SENĆOŦEN: one is used if the action is controlled, and the other if the action is not controlled.
‣ 4 The form of the control ‘each other’ suffix is ‑TEL. With a few roots, this suffix has the form ‑TOL and is stressed.
‣ 5 Although the subject of a reciprocal verb is typically plural, as in most of the models, it is possible to have a singular subject. The second model has SW̱ without the HÁLE pluralizer. But remember that HÁLE is not required and is only used to specify that you are speaking to a group of people.
‣ 6 The last two model sentences (6 and 7) have compound subjects: SEN I¸ TŦE NE TÁN ‘my mother and I’ and TŦE NE MÁN I¸ TŦE NE TÁN ‘my father and my mother.’
‣ 7 Just as with the reflexive, this suffix makes an intransitive verb, so the he/she/they form has an understood subject, just as any other intransitive verb (§1.1).
‣ 8 The L of the ‑TEL suffix is often glottalized. So the form can be ‑TEL¸.
‣ 9 There are a number of words that have the ‑TEL ‘each other’ suffix, even though the translation does not normally use ‘each other.’ It is easy to see in each one the ‘reciprocal’ meaning, even though they are not translated with ‘each other.’ Here are some of those (with the stressed vowel in red):
Á¸YEḴTEL ‘exchange’
ŦELEḴTEL ‘share’
EWOTEL¸ ‘contestant’
ȻINTEL ‘fight’
ȻENSISTEL ‘shake hands’
MELYITEL ‘marry.’
 | ṈEN¸ TŦE NE SĆȺ. | ‘I have lots of work.’ |
 | ȻENÁṈESE SEN SE¸. | ‘I’ll help you.’ |
| ȻENÁṈETEL ȽTE SE¸. | ‘We’ll help each other.’ |
| ÍY¸. ȻENSISTEL! | ‘Good. Shake hands!’ |
| 13.2.1A. Translate each of the following into English. 1. Á¸YEḴTEL ȽTE. 2. ȻENSISTEL E SE¸ SW̱ I, TŦE EN¸ SĆÁ¸ĆE¸? 3. ȻENÁṈETEL E LE¸ SW̱. 4. EWE SW̱ S ȻINTEL. | 13.2.1B. Translate each of the following into SENĆOŦEN. 1. Did you help each other? 2. We shook hands. 3. They helped each other. 4. They married. |