23.3. Sometime, always, long time, long ago, short time, and recently
Models
| 1) | YÁ¸ SEN SE¸ ¸E ȻSE U¸ ĆEN¸TÁṈ OL¸. | ‘I’ll go sometime.’ |
| 2) | YOŦ SEN OL¸ U¸ YÁ¸. | ‘I always go.’ |
| 3) | YÁ¸ SEN ¸E ȻSE ȻȽHIŦ. | ‘I went long ago.’ |
| 4) | ȻȽHIŦ Ȼ NE SYÁ¸. | ‘It’s been a long time since I went.’ |
| 5) | HIŦ Ȼ NE SLÁ¸E. | ‘I was there a long time.’ |
| 6) | HIŦ I¸ YÁ¸ SEN. | ‘It was a long time before I went’ |
| 7) | ḴȺ¸YES SEN OL¸ | ‘I'll be just a little while.’ |
| 8) | EWE SEN S YÁ ¸E TI¸Á ḴȺ¸YES. | ‘I don’t go these days.’ |
| 9) | NIȽ TŦE ḴȺ¸YES. | ‘He/she/it is the current one.’ |
| 10) | ȻȽḴȺ¸YES SEN OL¸. | ‘I did just a little while ago.’ |
‣ 1 In model 1, you see a word that was introduced in §21.1. If you ask an elder ‘What does ĆEN¸TÁṈ mean?’ they will say that it means ‘when.’ That is what it means without context, but put it in an adverbial prepositional phrase and it means ‘sometime.’ More precisely it means ‘some unspecified time.’
‣ 2 When used as ‘sometime’ in the construction shown in model 1, CEN¸TÁṈ is always preceded by U¸ ‘contrast’ prefix (§56.1). This shows that it is in contrast with ‘never’ or ‘always.’ It is also always followed by the OL¸ ‘limiting’ particle, which is often translated ‘just’ as in ‘I’ll go just sometime.’
‣ 3 The word for ‘always’ shown in model 2 has already been introduced. It is one of the U¸‑class auxiliaries described in §10.1. Note that the subject follows that first word, as usual.
‣ 4 Models 3 and 4 have the word ȻȽHIŦ ‘long ago.’ Model 3 shows this word’s typical use. As do most time expressions, it occurs as the object of the preposition ¸E in an adverbial prepositional phrase. Note that the article ȻSE is used because it refers to a remote time. See §4.3 for discussion of this article.
‣ 5 In model 4 we have the ȻȽHIŦ at the beginning of the sentence in focus position. The event that is being specified is in a Ȼ clause, which were introduced in §12.6, This sentence could also be translated roughly ‘My going was a long time ago.’ But native speakers will give the more natural English translation ‘It’s been a long time since I went.’ In general, this is the pattern that is used for translating ‘long time since’ into SENĆOŦEN.
‣ 6 The word ȻȽHIŦ is often pronounced ȻȽIŦ, with the H dropped in fluent speech.
‣ 7 The word ȻȽHIŦ is pretty obviously based on the word HIŦ meaning ‘long time.’ ȻȽHIŦ has the ȻȽ ‘already’ prefix (§56), which is usually written as a separate word. But ȻHIŦ has enough of a distinctive meaning and special pronunciation (the H dropping) that it can be considered a single word.
‣ 8 The last two models, 5 and 6, show how HIŦ ’long time’ is used. The grammatical pattern in model 5 is the same as that in model 4—the event is specified in a Ȼ clause. Model 5 could be roughly translated ‘My being there was a long time.’
‣ 9 In model 6 HIŦ occurs in a conjoined construction. Literally this could be translated ‘It was a long time and I went,’ but native speakers give the more natural English translation shown in the model. This illustrates another way that SENĆOŦEN has to make adverbial expressions. There are more examples of this coordinate adverbial construction in §29.2.
‣ 10 Model 7 shows that the word ḴȺ¸YES can be used as the opposite of HIŦ. ḴȺ¸YES has a wide range of meanings that are all related to the idea of ‘a short time’—‘recent, lately, current, nowadays, a little while.’
‣ 11 Model 8 shows that when ḴȺ¸YES is used in the adverbial prepositional phrase ¸E TI¸Á ḴȺ¸YES, the meaning is usually ‘these days, nowadays, lately.’ This is a very common phrase.
‣ 12 When ḴȺ¸YES is used as a noun as in model 9 its meaning is ‘the current one.’ This often is translated ‘the one in office’ or ‘the current style.’
‣ 13 Just as with HIŦ ‘long time’ and ȻȽHIŦ ‘long time ago,’ adding ȻȽ to ḴȺ¸YES to get ȻȽḴȺ¸YES makes a word meaning ‘short time ago.’
‣ 14 New vocabulary (with the stressed vowel underlined):
YOŦ ‘always’
HIŦ ‘long time’
ȻȽHIŦ ‘long time ago’
ĆEN¸TÁṈ ‘sometime’
ḴȺ¸YES ‘short time, recent’
LÁ¸E ‘be there’
 | YÁ¸ E SW̱ QUYEȻ ¸E ȻSE U¸ ĆEN¸TÁṈ OL¸? | ‘Do you go fishing sometimes?’ |
 | YOŦ SEN U¸ QUYEȻ. | ‘I fish all the time.’ |
| SU¸Á¸ SEN Ȼ EN¸ SYÁ¸ QUYEȻ. | ‘I’ll go along when you go fishing.’ |
| ÍY¸. YÁ¸ ȽTE SE¸ ȻE ȻÁĆELES. | ‘Good. We’ll go tomorrow.’ |
| 23.3A. Translate each into English. 1. NEḴEṈ SEN¸E ȻSE U¸ ĆEN¸TÁṈ OL¸. 2. YOŦ SW̱ U¸ NEĆEṈ. 3. QENNEW̱ LE¸ SEN ¸E ȻSE ȻȽHIŦ. 4. EWENE NE TÁLE ¸E TI¸A ḴȺ¸YES. | 23.3B. Translate each into SENĆOŦEN. 1. My child always cries. 2. Did you jump three times? 3. You saw me a long time ago. 4. Our dog runs away sometimes. |