Cherokee Grammar "go" Suffix (ega) 4z1vi

Grammar Lesson: “Go” One of the first concepts that students find frustrating in Cherokee is that the idea of “going” has so many different forms and ideas to it. It seems as if there‟s no pattern or reasoning to expressing this idea. While that‟s not the case, there is something to the idea that “going” is a much different idea in Cherokee than it is in English. There are also several different processes at work here which also makes things confusing. To break this down, we‟re going to go into the general concept of “going” and then I‟m going to show the basic pattern on how “going” is often used and expressed. First off, we need to identify what we mean by “going.” In English, “going” can be used to present the idea of travelling from one place to another (“I‟m going to the store”), and it‟s also used to indicate an action that will begin in the future (“I‟m going to be working”), or to indicate an action that is about to occur (“I‟m going to put your lights out”). The point is that English uses “go” in various different ways, and these forms often have very different meanings. In Cherokee, “go” is specifically associated with movement – “going” from one place to another. The other contexts that the word is used in English do not apply to Cherokee. It is in this specific context and association that we will look at the idea of “going” in Cherokee. The basic difficulty in Cherokee regarding understanding “going” is that Cherokee uses different verbs and different forms to express what is often expressed in English as one. You can use several forms to indicate “going” in Cherokee: /gega/ „I am going‟, /wijigati/ „I‟m going in that direction‟, /widvgedoli/ „I‟m going there (and coming back)‟. It‟s not necessary to learn how to say all of the forms, but it is important to recognize them. You don‟t need to know the grammar to use the basic form /gega/ „I am going.‟ Just know that if you “went” you can say /ji-gena/ „I went‟ (if it‟s been in the last few hours) or /j-agwenvsv‟i/ „I went‟ (if it‟s been before then). And if you will be going, you can say /dagesi/ „I will be going‟ or /widvgedoli/ „I am going (and coming back)‟. The form /widvgedoli/ is actually a different verb, but it‟s very common in Cherokee as a form to indicate “going” to a place and then returning. Yet it‟s not that simple because in many cases you don‟t hear the verb /ega/ „S/he is going,” at least not by itself. This is where Cherokee really shows itself as the language it is. What often happens in Cherokee is that if where you are “going” is indicated by another verb, then you use THAT verb with “going” in some form attached to it. This is almost the opposite of English. So let‟s look at this so you can see some examples. „I am going to work‟ – English sentence that is based on “going.” /Dagilvhwisdanel-ega/ „I am going to work‟ with “working” as primary verb. [But more literally, „I am working-going‟] „I am going fishing‟ – English sentence that is again based on “going” as the main verb. /Gasuhn-ega/ „I am going fishing‟ with “fishing” as the primary verb given. [But more literally, „I am fishing-going‟] In both cases, we put the base form of the verb “going,” which is /ega/ on another verb. This other verb will be the action you are “going to do.” In Cherokee, the rule will be to use /-ega/ attached to the end of the verb that is the “action.” I say /ega/ but you will need to match the tense of the verbs together - /ega/ is for present tense actions. If you are doing the action in the future or have done it in the past or do it repetitively (habitual), then you have to use the future, past, or habitual tense form of /ega/. Rather than explain more about this, it‟s better seen in specific examples. 1

/-ega/: Going – Present Tense Form (“Going” Now) dagilvwisdanel-ega „I am going to work‟ jino‟alidol-ega „I am going hunting‟ gadawo‟-ega „I am going swimming‟ akihwas-ega „I am going to buy it‟ galisdayvhn-ega „I am going to eat‟ degadehloqwa‟-ega „I am going to school‟ aksvhl-ega „I am going to bed‟ /-vsv‟i/: Went – Remote Past Tense (“Going” in the Past) dagilvwisdanel-vsv‟i „I went to work‟ aginohalidol-vsv‟i „I went hunting‟ agwadowo-vsv‟i „I went to bathe‟ akihwas-vsv‟i „I went to buy‟ agwalsdayvhn-vsv‟i „I went to eat‟ dagwadehloqwa‟-vsv‟i „I went to school‟ aksvhl-vsv‟i „I went to bed‟ /-uga/: Went – Immediate Past Tense (“Going” in the Past) dagilvwisdanel-uga „I went to work‟ jino‟alidol-uga „I went hunting‟ gadowo‟-uga „I went to bathe‟ akihwas-uga „I went to buy‟ galisdayvhn-uga „I went to eat‟ degadeloqwa‟-uga „I went to school‟ aksvhl-uga „I went to bed‟ /-esi/: Will Go – Future Tense (“Going” in the Future) dodvgilvwisdanel-esi „I will go to work‟ ; „I will be going to work‟ dajino‟alidol-esi „I will go hunting‟ ; „I will be going to hunt‟ dagadowo-esi „I will go bathe‟ dvkihwas-esi „I will go buy‟ dagalisdayvhn-esi „I will go eat‟ dodagadeloqwa‟-esi „I will go to school‟ dvksvhl-esi „I will go to bed‟ 2

/-ego‟i/: Go – Habitual Tense (“Going” Habitually) dagilvwisdanel-ego‟i „I go to work‟ jinohalidol-ego‟i „I go hunting‟ gadawo‟-ego‟i „I go swim‟ akihwas-ego‟i „I go buy‟ galisdayvhn-ego‟i „I go eat‟ degadeloqwa‟-ego‟i „I go to school‟ aksvhl-ego‟i „I go to bed‟ But there‟s another catch to this process. The verb, that is your action verb, used in expressing this idea is a SPECIFIC form of the verb. This form is what is called the “completive.” You don‟t have to necessarily know what that means, but rather just know that this is the form seen on the verb when expressing the idea in the Remote Past, Future Command, and Future Completive. To better grasp this specific idea, let‟s look at one verb, the verb “working.” With the verb “working,” let‟s first look at it without using /ega/ yet, and see how it patterns it out in the various tenses. Present Tense:

/dagilvhwisdaneha/ „I am working‟ (right now)

Progressive Past:

/dagilvhwisdanehv‟i/ „I was working‟

Habitual:

/dagilvhwisdaneho‟i/ „I work‟

Progressive Future:

/dagilvhwisdanehesdi/ „I will be working‟

Immediate Command:

/dijalvhwisdasi/ „You work!‟

Immediate Past:

/dejalvhwisdasi/ „You just worked‟

Remote Past:

/dagilvhwisdanelv‟i/ „I worked‟

Future Command:

/dejalvhwisdanelv‟i/ „You work!‟ (later)

Future Completive:

/dodvgilvhwisdaneli/ „I will work‟

Infinitive:

/digilvhwisdanhdi/ „for me to work‟

Notice how some of these forms are closely related to some of the other forms, but not to the others. For example, look at the Progressive Past, Progressive Future, and Habitual forms for this verb. The only difference between them is the ending (the Present Tense is also close to these three forms, but this is not a pattern you can expect when dealing with other verbs so it is not included in this discussion). So the “base” form for the verb in those three tenses is /dagilvhwisdaneh-/, and to make it Progressive Past you put /-v‟i/, Progressive Future /-esdi/, and Habitual /-o‟i/. This basic pattern holds true for all verbs in Cherokee – the three tense forms of Progressive Past, Progressive Future, and Habitual are created from the same verb base. But this is not the base that forms the one used with “going.” Instead, we need to look at three other forms. These are the ones that are the Remote Past, the Future Command, and the Future Completive. So let‟s just look at these three together. 3

Remote Past - /dagilvhwisdanel-v‟i/ „I worked‟ Future Command - /dagilvhwisdanel-v‟i/ „Let me work‟ (later) Future Completive - /dodvgilvhwisdanel-i/ „I will work‟ It‟s easy to see how the Remote Past and Future Command are related (in this specific verb, they are identical). But the Future Completive looks different – it has /dodv-/ on the front which is not the same as /dagi-/. This is because the Future Completive uses another prefix, in this case /da-/. But two other things are going on with this form as well. For one, it “moves” the /d-/ (which is a “plural marker” that is required on this verb, but on other verbs, it is used when the object of the sentence becomes pluralized to more than one thing) from directly in front of /agi-/ to the VERY front. As part of this process (and something that happens on ALL verbs that use plurals in the Future Completive), /d-/ becomes /do-/. The second thing that happens is that the future prefix /da-/ that is used partially merges with the pronoun prefix /agi-/ which means “I” to create /d-v-gi-/. This is a basic idea in Cherokee – anytime /a/ and /a/ come together, you get the single sound /v/. So /a/ + /a/ = /v/. Thus /do-d-v-gi-lvhwisdanel-i/. In of applying the concept of “going” on verbs, most of that information is not necessary in making the construction. What is important is to know what the verb “base” is on the specific verb you want to use. So if we look at that idea, then we only need to know where to find the “end” of the verb. In all three forms, the form that you see common to all of them is /-lvhwisdanel-/. This is our verb base, and it is the one used when attaching “going” in whatever tense needed. In putting all of this together then, we take our verb “working” with its base form of /-lvhwisdanel-/ and put whatever other pieces we need to make it indicate WHO (the pronoun prefix) and WHEN (the tense, which is provided by the verb “go” since it comes at the end). Present:

/dagilvhwisdanel-ega/ „I am going to work‟

Habitual:

/dagilvhwisdanel-ego‟i/ „I go to work‟

Remote Past:

/dagilvhwisdanel-vsv‟i/ „I went to work‟

Future Completive:

/dodvgilvhwisdanel-esi/ „I will be going to work‟

Immediate Past:

/dagilvhwisdanel-uga/ „I just went to work‟

Immediate Command:

/digilvhwisdanel-uga/ „Let me go to work‟

Progressive Past:

/dagilvhwisdanel-egv‟i/ „I was going to work‟

Infinitive:

/digilvhwisdanel-vsdi agwaduli/ „I want to go to work‟

As these forms indicate, this concept can be expressed in any tense. You just have to know the proper “suffix” form for “going” that applies. This “suffix” form will change based on the time frame (the “tense”) you are expressing. And you need to know any specific “rules” that apply to the tense you are using – for example, note that the Immediate Command Tense and the Infinitive Tense have /di-/ on the front instead of /da-/. This is because on these two forms, you always have /di-/ as the plural marker. The final piece I will provide are the suffix forms for “going” in the range of usable tenses. These are the same ones given above, but with no verb as the base. 4

/-ega/ „going‟ – Present Tense, derived from /ega/ /-ego‟i/ „going‟ – Habitual Tense, derived from /ego‟i/ /-vsv‟i/ „going‟ – Remote Past Tense, derived from /-envsv‟i/ as in /agw-envsv‟i/ „I went‟ /-esi/ „going‟ – Future Completive Tense, derived from /-esi/ as in /da-g-esi/ „I will go‟ /-uga/ „going‟ – Immediate Past Tense, derivation of /ega/ /-uga/ „going‟ – Immediate Command Tense, derived from /ega/ /-egv‟i/ „going‟ – Progressive Past Tense, derived from /egv‟i/ /-vsdi/ „going‟ – Infinitive Tense, derived from /-envsdi/ as in /agw-envsdi/ „for me to go‟ Note there is NO Progressive Future Tense listed (the form that would end in /-esdi/). The verb “going” does not actually have that specific tense form. However, since the Future Completive Tense carries this concept, the Progressive Future is not needed.

The final note when dealing with this concept deals with the forms used in expressions involving clauses such as “when.” The processes involved in creating and understanding these specific concepts will be outlined here, but the explanation will be relatively brief since these ideas involve certain elements (namely the construction of clause forms) that do not fall within the areas intended for this specific lesson. This concerns statements such as “When I go to town, I get dressed up.” To see this process, a set of examples best illustrate the patterns which can then be explained. Digaduhv yagwena, gajanvsgo‟i. „When I go to town, I get dressed up‟

Yudawo‟ena, aliyesustgisgo‟i. „When he goes swimming, he takes his ring off‟

Amayi yusuhnena gahljotv waya‟o‟i. „When he goes fishing, he lives in a tent‟

Udodagwada alasgalisgo‟i yulasgalvhena. „He plays ball all day when he goes playing ball‟

What we find in the forms above is the use of the pre-pronominal prefix /yi-/ on the Completive Past Tense verb form (Completive Aspect Stem) with the suffix „going‟ /-ena/ used in place of the tense suffix /-v‟i/. The first form of /yagwena/ does not qualify as part of the process under review because the entire verb itself is „go‟ and is not an attached suffix form. The other forms, though, qualify as „when-going‟ suffix patterned forms on Habitual Tense expressions. /y-udawo-ena/ „When he goes swimming‟

/y-usuhn-ena/ „When he goes fishing‟

The pattern then is to use the Past Tense Verb form in the Completive Aspect Stem, apply the prepronominal prefix /yi-/ (or just /y-/) to it, and then finally put the „go‟ suffix form /-ena/ on the verb (where /-ena/ replaces the tense suffix /-v‟i/ marker). /-ena/ is the ending of the verb „going‟ found on the Immediate Command Tense form as in the statement „Go outside‟ /Doyi didla hwena/. If you had wondered why the Immediate Command Tense form of the verb listed earlier in this lesson used /-uga/ instead of the expected form of /-ena/, this is why. The form /-ena/ is reserved for constructions of this type. Forms for the process in past tense constructions follow the same pattern so tense does not factor into the suffix of /-ena/ being used, but past tense forms do not use the /yi-/ pre-pronominal suffix. 5

Gahlgwogi iyani‟i saloli degajilv aginohalena. Utsgwisdi anijadi dagi‟yvhv‟i aksuhnena. „I killed seven squirrels when I went hunting‟ „I caught a lot of fish when I went fishing‟ Finally, future tense “when-going” constructions also follow this same pattern in of the use of the /-ena/ suffix and the use of the Completive Aspect Stem Verb form, but on future tense expressions the pronominal prefix markers will be the same as those found on the verb in its Present Tense form. Ko‟usv gasuhnena, utsgwisdi anijadi deji‟yvhv‟i. „When I go fishing tonight, I will catch a lot of fish‟ Sinale gesesdi dagilvhwisdanelena, doyu dagiyawegesdidv. „When I go to work tomorrow, I am going to be so tired‟ There are other concepts related to these forms, but those ideas fall outside the specific scope of this lesson and will be addressed at a later date in a different lesson.

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