23.7 Age
Models
| 1) | ȻȽ SX̱EN¸I¸EṈ¸S Ȼ EN¸ S¸ÁLEW̱? | ‘How old are you?’ |
| 2) | ȻȽ SX̱EN¸I¸EṈ¸S Ȼ S¸ÁLEW̱S ȻSE N¸ ṈENE¸? | ‘How old is your child?’ |
| 3) | QIN SW̱ SĆELÁNEṈ? | ‘How old are you?’ |
| 4) | QIN SĆELÁNEṈ ȻSE EN¸ ṈENE¸? | ‘How old is your child?’ |
| 5) | QIN SĆELÁNEṈ TŦE EN¸ S¸ÁȽE ¸E TI¸Á TEṈEW̱? | ‘How old are you?’ |
| 6) | OPEN SEN I¸ ȻS ȽKÁĆES SĆELÁNEṈ. | ‘I’m fifteen years old.’ |
| 7) | OPEN SEN I¸ ȽKÁĆES SĆELÁNEṈ. | ‘I’m fifteen years old.’ |
| 8) | OPEN SEN SĆELÁNEṈ I¸ ȽKÁĆES . | ‘I’m fifteen years old.’ |
| 9) | ȽW̱ȽŚÁ¸ SEN. | ‘I’m thirty.’ |
| 10) | KIYL¸EṈ ȻSE NE SILE¸ LE¸. | ‘My late grandfather was ancient.’ |
‣ 1 There are several ways of asking how old someone is. Models 1 and 2 are the most complex, but there is some good grammar to be learned here, so we will break it down into its components in the next four points.
‣ 2 Models 1 and 2 begin with one of the time prefixes that are covered in §24. The prefix here is ȻȽ, which means basically ‘already.’
‣ 3 The next word is the crucial word of models 1 and 2 is SX̱EN¸I¸EṈ¸, which is a question word that means ‘how, what way.’ For example, if you just said SX̱EN¸I¸EṈ¸ SW̱ ȻEĆÁ? you would be asking ‘How are you?’ This question word is covered in detail in §28. In models 1 and 4 SX̱EN¸I¸EṈ¸ has the ‑S, third person possessive suffix. So SX̱EN¸I¸EṈ¸S might be literally translated ‘what way is it.’
‣ 4 After SX̱EN¸I¸EṈ¸S, model 1 has the Ȼ clause (§12.6) Ȼ EN¸ S¸ÁLEW̱. This has the Ȼ that introduces this type of subordinate clause, then EN¸, the second person possessive ‘your,’ and finally S¸ÁLEW̱. This word usually means ‘old’ or ‘elder’ or ‘adult.’ When it has the possessive on it as it does here, it is best translated as ‘age.’ This clause could be translated literally as ‘that is your age.’
‣ 5 Now we can take each of those parts and put them together:
ȻȽ SX̱EN¸I¸EṈ¸S Ȼ EN¸ S¸ÁLEW̱?
already what way is it your age
The fluent English translation of this is, of course, ‘How old are you?’
‣ 6 Model 2 is asking about the age of someone else, so the Ȼ clause does not have the second person ‘your’ prefix. It has the third person ‑S suffix, so the Ȼ clause is Ȼ S¸ÁLEW̱S ‘that is his/her age.’ Then model 2 ends with the noun phrase ȻSE EN¸ ṈENE¸ ‘your child (not now visible).’
‣ 7 Putting all the pieces together for model 2 gives us:
ȻȽ SX̱EN¸I¸EṈ¸S Ȼ S¸ÁLEW̱S ȻSE EN¸ ṈENE¸?
already what way is it his/her age your child
The fluent English translation of this is, of course, ‘How old is your child?’
‣ 8 The way of asking about age shown in models 1 and 2 was used by the oldest native speakers of SENĆOŦEN, but models 3 and 4 show a simpler way, that is just as good, grammatically.
‣ 9 Models 3 and 4 begin with the question word QIN ‘how much’ or ‘how many’, which was introduced in §21.3. The other important word in these models is SĆELÁNEṈ ‘year.’ Model 3, QIN SW̱ SĆELÁNEṈ? is literally ‘You are how many years?’ And model 4, QIN SĆELÁNEṈ ȻSE EN¸ ṈENE¸? is literally ‘Your child is how many years?’
‣ 10 Note that the pronoun subject SW̱ in model 3 follows the first word, as usual.
‣ 11 Model 5 is another way that the oldest SENĆOŦEN speakers used to ask about age. This one begins the same as model 4 with QIN SĆELÁNEṈ ‘how many years.’ Here the subject is TŦE EN¸ S¸ÁȽE E TI¸Á TEṈEW̱. This noun phrase has two new words: ÁȽE ‘be here’ and TEṈEW̱ ‘land.’
‣ 12 Here we will look at that noun phrase in model 5:
TŦE EN¸ S¸ÁȽE ¸E TI¸Á TEṈEW̱.
article your be here prep this land
So we can see that model 5 literally means ‘Your being here on this land is how many years?’ And this means ‘How many years have you been on earth?’ And that is basically ‘How old are you?’
‣ 13 Models 6, 7, 8, and 9 show ways of answering questions about age. Models 6 and 7 show the usual way of expressing your own age. They differ only in that model 6 has the nonparticular article ȻS, which often goes with numbers 11 to 19. Model 7 shows that this article is not necessary here.
‣ 14 Model 9 shows that you need not include the word SĆELÁNEṈ. You can just use the number as the main verb of your answer. This is just as in English where you can say ‘I’m thirty years old’ or just ‘I’m thirty’ meaning the same thing.
‣ 15 Model 10 has a word that is used only of very old people whose exact age is unknown. The closest English translation for this word KIYL¸EṈ is ‘ancient.’
 | ȻȽ SX̱EN¸I¸EṈ¸S Ȼ EN¸ S¸ÁLEW̱? | ‘How old are you?’ |
 | OPEN SEN I¸ ȻS DXEṈ SĆELÁNEṈ. | ‘I’m sixteen years old.’ |
| ĆEN¸TÁṈ LE¸ I¸ TES ¸E TI¸Á W̱JOȽEȽP. | ‘When did you get to Tsartlip?’ |
| TÁĆEL SEN ¸E Ȼ NE SȽIW̱ SĆELÁNEṈ. | ‘I got here when I was three years old.’ |
| 23.7A. Translate each into English. 1. QIN SĆELÁNEṈ ŦE ṈENE¸S? 2. ȻȽ SX̱EN¸I¸EṈ¸S Ȼ S¸ÁLEW̱S TI¸Á EN¸ ṈENE¸? 3. ȽIW̱ SĆI¸ÁNEṈ. 4. SNÁJEU¸EĆ SEN I¸ Ȼ SNEȾE¸. | 23.7B. Translate each into SENĆOŦEN. 1. I’m twenty-two years old. 2. How old is your cat? 3. It flew when it was one year old. 4. Are you eighteen? |