4.5. Feminine articles: ŦE and ȻŦE
Models
| 1) | YÁ¸ ŦE SMÍYEŦ. | ‘The/that doe goes.’ |
| 2) | YÁ¸ ȻŦE SMÍYEŦ. | ‘The doe (not now visible) goes.’ |
| 3) | YÁ¸ LE¸ ŦE SMÍYEŦ. | ‘The/that doe went.’ |
| 4) | YÁ¸ LE¸ ȻŦE SMÍYEŦ. | ‘The (not now visible) doe went.’ |
| 5) | YÁ¸ SE¸ ŦE SMÍYEŦ. | ‘The/that doe will go.’ |
| 6) | YÁ¸ SE¸ ȻŦE SMÍYEŦ. | ‘The (not now visible) doe will go.’ |
| 7) | YÁ¸ E LE¸ ŦE SMÍYEŦ? | ‘Did the/that doe go?’ |
| 8) | YÁ¸ E LE¸ ȻŦE SMÍYEŦ? | ‘Did the (not now visible) doe go?’ |
‣ 1 This section introduces two new articles: ŦE, the feminine form of TŦE, and ȻŦE, the feminine form of ȻSE.
‣ 2 Notice that TŦE SMÍYEŦ means ‘the deer’ and ŦE SMÍYEŦ means ‘the doe.’ In SENĆOŦEN, the noun stays the same but the article differs.
‣ 3 Notice also that ȻSE SMÍYEŦ means ‘the (not now visible) deer’ and ȻŦE SMÍYEŦ means ‘the (not now visible) doe.’
‣ 4 These are not as common as the other articles. The feminine form of the article is not required. It is only used where it is needed to avoid confusion.
‣ 5 If you have studied some European language, like Spanish, French, or German, you know that the feminine article is always required with a feminine noun. SENĆOŦEN is different from those languages in this respect.
‣ 6 One situation in which the feminine article is commonly used is with certain words for relatives. For example, the SENĆOŦEN word for ‘aunt’ is the same as the word for ‘uncle’: SÁĆS. If you want to make sure that the listener understands that you mean ‘aunt,’ use the feminine article, ŦE SÁĆS.
‣ 7 Another situation in which the feminine article is often used is with words referring to items owned or associated with a woman or a girl. A phrase like ŦE Á¸LEṈ refers to a house owned or lived in by a woman or a girl.
‣ 8 A feminine article can sometimes even be used to refer to the smaller of a pair of males. For example, if you see two deer with antlers (obviously both male), you can use ŦE SMÍYEŦ to refer to the smaller of the two.
‣ 9 It is important to remember that, while ŦE and ȻŦE mark ‘feminine,’ TŦE and ȻSE do not necessarily mark ‘masculine.’ The nonfeminine articles TŦE and ȻSE are simply neutral with respect to gender.
‣ 10 The two model sentences 5 and 6 have SE¸ the ‘future’ maker. These are given for illustration purposes and are grammatical, but native speakers feel that these are somewhat strange. You will remember from §2.2 that SE¸ implies that the speaker has reasonably sure knowledge that some future event will happen. What makes these two sentences strange is that you cannot usually be reasonably sure what a deer is going to do.
 | EMNI¸EṈ¸ E LE¸ SW̱? | ‘Did you go hunting?’ |
 | YÁ¸ SEN. | ‘I went.’ |
| QENNEW̱ E LE¸ SW̱? | ‘Did you see it?’ |
| QENNEW̱ LE¸ SEN ȻŦE SMÍYEŦ. | ‘I saw the doe.’ |
| 4.5A. Translate each of the following into English. 1. ȻENÁṈET E SW̱ ŦE PUS? 2. YÁ¸ LE¸ ȻŦE SMÍYEŦ. 3. QENET SEN TŦE SMÍYEŦ. 4. ȽÁU¸ ŦE KÁ¸ṈI¸. 5. W̱ITEṈ E ŦE SMÍYEŦ? 6. ITET ŦE SÁĆS. 7. ȻÁ¸ET SEN SE¸ ŦE SḴAXE¸. 8. SÁ¸ET E SW̱ ȻŦE SNEW̱EȽ? 9. NEḴEṈ SE¸ ȻSE SMÍYEŦ. | 4.5B. Translate each of the following into SENĆOŦEN using the feminine articles where appropriate. 1. The young woman will get dressed. 2. He is going to cut the deer. 3. The young man jumped. 4. Do you know the young woman? 5. Is the young man going to cry? 6. The young woman dove. 7. The doe sleeps. 8. The young woman walked. 9. Did the deer run away? |
| 4.5C. Write ten new SENĆOŦEN sentences with noun phrases using the feminine articles. | |