Glossary

A word that always appears with nouns in natural speech and indicates which noun the speaker might be talking about. They correspond to “this,” “that,” “these,” and “those” in English.

A single word (or sound), phrase, or short sentence that speakers use to express an emotion. All interjections (see below) are a type of exclamation.

A word, short phrase, or sentence that expresses an idea or feeling that cannot be interpreted by the meanings of the individual words in the phrase.
For example, “gwinzįį nàa gòo'e'” is said to express “Goodbye” or “Farewell, however, the literal translations is “May good things go where you go.”

A noun that can't be separated from its possessor in natural speech. These are usually body parts and words for family members (a.k.a. kinship terms). In this dictionary, as much as possible, inalienable nouns that can belong to humans are presented with the first person singular possessive form as the headword (e.g., shahan ‘my mother’). Inalienable nouns that primarily belong to animals are presented with the third person indefinite possessive form as the headword (e.g., ch'ijì' ‘its antler’). Additional possessive forms (your, his/her, our, etc..) are included in each entry as inflected forms.

An exclamatory word (or sound) that speakers use to express a strong or sudden emotion. They are grammatically independent from the words around them.

These verbs, though usually translated with the English present progressive tense, indicate that the action or state of being is ongoing or uncompleted. Imperfective verbs can be used to talk about present or past events (e.g., both ‘I am walking’ and ‘I was walking’).

A verb that is grammatically treated like a noun. For example, “ch'adantł'oo” which literally translates to and can be used as a verb to mean “s/he is writing”, but can also be used as a noun to refer to “a writer” or “a clerk”.

A verb and a modifier (like an adverb) that is grammatically treated like a noun. For example, “” which literally translates to something like “s/he is searching for fish” but can be used as a noun meaning “fisherman”.

A noun and a modifier (like a demonstrative, an adjective, or another noun) that describes or gives more information about that noun. For example, “ch'izhìn t'èe” meaning “eagle feather”.