37.2. Lexical suffixes in compounds
Models
| 1) | IȽENÁU¸TW̱ | ‘restaurant, dining room' |
| 2) | SX̱ELI¸IȽĆ | ‘willow tree’ |
| 3) | ŚTELEHÁLE | ‘purse’ |
| 4) | W̱¸EJSENTEN | ‘door mat’ |
| 5) | S¸ILEḴSEN | ‘point of land’ |
| 6) | SENĆOŦEN SEN. | ‘I speak SENĆOŦEN.’ |
‣ 1 In these models, the lexical suffix is not referring to the object of the verb. In these examples, the lexical suffix combines with the root to form a compound word with a new meaning. In English, compound words like ‘blackboard’ are formed using two roots ‘black’ and ‘board.’ There are no root compound words in SENĆOŦEN.
‣ 2 Model 1 combines the root IȽEN ‘eat’ with the suffix ‑ÁU¸TW̱ ‘house, building, room.’ An ‘eat-house’ is a ‘restaurant’ or any place where food is regularly served. Whenever you find a word ending in ‑ÁU¸TW̱ it almost always refers to some kind of building or room.
‣ 3 Model 2 is based on the root X̱OLE¸ ‘to reef net.’ This has the ‑IȽĆ ‘plant’ suffix, so ‘willow’ is ‘reef net-plant.’ Reef nets were traditionally built from twine made of willow bark. (SX̱OLE is the noun ‘reef net.’)
‣ 4 The third model has the root TÁLE ‘money.’ The ‘container’ suffix ‑HÁLE, and the Ś‑ prefix meaning ‘thing for’ (§26.3, §38.1, §55) give us ‘thing for-money-container,’ which is just what a purse is.
‣ 5 Note that the ‘container’ suffix listed above (p. 223) has several variants. The variant shown in model 3 has the H, which comes from H insertion as described in point 19 of the Notes on Pronunciation. The root TÁLE ends in a vowel, so the H is inserted to keep the E of root separate from the Á of the suffix.
‣ 6 Model 4 has two lexical suffixes. It is not uncommon for two lexical suffixes to occur in a word. The first suffix is ‑SEN ‘foot,’ and the second is ‑TEN ‘instrument, tool.’ The root is ÁJ /ʔeč̕/ ‘wipe,’ with the vowel reduced because stress is on the suffix (see point 7 in Notes on Pronunciation). The W̱‑ at the beginning is the ‘location’ prefix. So what model 4 breaks down to is:
W̱‑¸EJ‑SEN‑TEN ‘door mat’
location-wipe-foot-tool
‣ 7 Model 5 is an example of a number of words in SENĆOŦEN that have an identifiable lexical suffix, but an unidentifiable root. Here the root is IL /ʔil/, which seems to have a vague meaning of something like ‘side.’ The suffix, however, is clearly the ‘nose’ suffix ‑EḴSEN.
‣ 8 In model 5, the basic meaning of the suffix is ‘nose.’ This is an example of the typical extended meaning lexical suffixes can have. The ‘nose’ meaning extends to something shaped like a nose, like a point of land.
‣ 9 Model 6 is another example of how the basic meaning of a suffix is extended. The basic meaning of ‑OŦEN is ‘mouth.’ In this word the meaning extends to something that comes out of the mouth—language. See point 7 in the Notes on Pronunciation for a description of how the stem SÁNEĆ reduces to SENĆ in this word.
‣ 10 This is just a small sample of SENĆOŦEN words like this. You can find many more in the dictionary.
 | SENĆOŦEN E SW̱? | ‘Do you speak Saanich?’ |
 | EWE SEN S SENĆOŦEN. | ‘I don’t speak Saanich.’ |
| ḴÍYEXḴIN¸EṈ SW̱. SENĆOŦEN SW̱ KE! | ‘You’re lying. You do speak Saanich!’ |
| U¸ HÍ OL¸ U¸ ṮEṮUṮE¸. | ‘Only a little bit.’ |
37.2A. Figure out what these words with lexical suffixes mean. The root for each is given as a clue. Some of these are tricky. You can check the dictionary, but try to make a serious guess before you do. | |
| 1. SEMSEMÁ¸ÁLE (SEMSEM͸E ‘bee’) | 5. ĆḴEḴSEN (ĆEḴ ‘big’) |
| 2. EMETÁU¸TW̱ (EMET ‘sit’) | 6. SȽEMW̱OLȻET (SȽEMEW̱ ‘rain’) |
| 3. SȾOM¸E¸Ḱ (SȾOM¸ ‘bone’) | 7. ŚTELEHOLES (TÁLE ‘money’) |
| 4. ÁPELSHIȽĆ (ÁPELS ‘apple’) | 8. SṮĆOŦEN (ṮEĆ ‘under’) |
37.2B. Use the SENĆOŦEN dictionary to find five other words with lexical suffixes. | |