26.3. ‘Be here,’ ‘be there,’ and ‘be where’
Models
| 1) | LÁ¸E ŦE NE TÁN. | ‘My mother is there.’ |
| 2) | ÁȽE ŦE NE TÁN. | ‘My mother is here.’ |
| 3) | LÁ¸E ŦE NE TÁN ¸E ȻSE ŚW̱IMÁLE. | ‘My mother is at the store.’ |
| 4) | NE ŚW̱LÁ¸E LE¸. | ‘It’s where I was.’ |
| 5) | ŚW̱LÁ¸ES ŦE NE TÁN. | ‘It’s where my mother is.’ |
| 6) | NE ŚW̱¸ÁȽE | ‘It’s where I am.’ |
| 7) | ŚW̱¸ÁȽE ȽTE | ‘It’s where we are.’ |
‣ 1 Like TES and TÁĆEL, LÁ¸E ‘be there’ and ÁȽE ‘be here’ are very common words. They are two of the many location verbs in SENĆOŦEN.
‣ 2 LÁ¸E and ÁȽE can be used in sentences like those in models 1 and 2 or in sentences with a pronoun subject like LÁ¸E LE¸ SEN ‘I was there’ or ÁȽE ȽTE ‘We’re here.’
‣ 3 LÁ¸E and ÁȽE can also be used, as in model 3, to indicate a specific location. Here are two more sentences that show the pattern:
LÁ¸E TŦE EN¸ LECLI ¸E TŦE LETÁM. ‘Your key is on the table.’
there article your key prep the table
ÁȽE SEN ¸E TŦE SÁSU¸. ‘I’m here at the beach.’
here I prep the beach
‣ 4 Models 4, 5, 6, and 7 show LÁ¸E and ÁȽE with the prefix ŚW̱‑. This prefix is used in several grammatical constructions and will be seen in other sections (§38.1, §55). It basically adds a meaning ‘reason for,’ ‘thing for,’ or, in this case ‘place where.’
‣ 5 The ŚW̱‑ prefix makes the word a noun that can take the possessive prefixes and suffixes. Note that the subjects of the model sentences 4 through 7 are marked by the possessive. In model 5, the subject is third person, TŦE NE TÁN, so ŚW̱LÁ¸E takes the ‑S, third person possessive suffix.
‣ 6 The English translations of models 4 through 7 contain the word ‘where.’ Note that this is a completely different ‘where’ from the question word covered in §25.
‣ 7 The words ŚW̱LÁ¸E and ŚW̱¸ÁȽE are used in other situation where English uses ‘where.’ This type of use is in what is called a relative clause. Relative clauses are covered in detail in §47. For now, just study these examples:
OX̱ SEN ¸E TŦE ŚW̱LÁ¸ES Ȼ S¸ITETS. ‘I went to where they slept.’
go to I prep art there where Ȼ their sleep
ÁȽE LE¸ SEN ¸E TŦE ŚW̱¸ÁȽE ȽTE. ‘I was here where we are.’
here past I prep art here where our
SDȺ¸YES ȻSE ŚW̱LÁ¸ES ȻSE Á¸LEṈS LE¸. ‘Pender is where his house was.’
Pender art there where art his house past
‣ 8 Vocabulary (with stressed vowel in red):
LETÁM ‘table’
SÁSU¸ ‘beach’
 | EXIN OĆE ȻSE NE SKEM¸EL¸? | ‘Where is my paddle?’ |
 | LÁ¸E ¸E TŦE ŚW̱LÁ¸ES TŦE EN¸ SNEW̱EȽ | ‘It’s there where your canoe is.’ |
| EWE TÁ S LÁ¸E. | ‘But it isn’t there.’ |
| NIȽ ŚW̱LÁ¸ES Ȼ NE SQENNEW̱. | ‘That’s where I saw it.’ |
| 26.3A. Translate each into English. 1. LÁ¸E E ȻSE EN¸ MAN? 2. EWENE ÁȽE. 3. OX̱ SEN LÁ¸E ¸E TŦE Á¸LEṈ. 4. TÁĆEL ȽTE ÁȽE ¸E Ȼ ŚW̱¸ÁȽE TŦE Á¸LEṈ ȽTE. | 26.3B. Translate each into SENĆOŦEN. 1. I will be here tomorrow. 2. Did you see where he ran? 3. I know where your cat is. 4. My cat is not here. |