832 BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 40 



Use of the Possessed Noun as Subject of a Verb 



An independent verb with the possessed noun of the third person 

 used as the subject changes the form of its pronominal ending from 

 -w"- to -niwAn'^ in the singular and from -^Ag^ to -niwa^ in the plural. 

 The change is one of concord between the subject and the verb. 



utAnemd'hemA^n^ pyd'mwA^n^ his dog comes 

 utAnemoJie'mwdwA^n^ pyd'niwA^n^ their dog comes 

 utAnemd'hema^''^ p^a'niwa^'* his dogs come 

 utAnemohe'mwdwa^''^ pva'niwa^'* their dogs come 



The next set of examples are of the independent transitive verb. 

 It is to be noted that the change of the pronominal ending concerns 

 only the one representing the subject; the one standing for the 

 object remains the same. 



utAneTYhd'hemfiA^'n} wd''pAmamwA'n^ ma' 'hwdwA^n^ his dog looked at 

 the wolf (a in wd''pAmnniwA^n^ is an objective sign, and refers 

 to ma''hwdWA^n% the object of the verb) 



utAnemd'hema^'^ wd'pAmdniwsi'"^ ma'^Tiwdwa''^ his dogs watched 

 the wolves 



If the object of the verb become in turn the subject of a dependent 

 clause, it will still keep its objective form; but its verb will be of the 

 dependent group. The object of the main verb will be represented 

 as subject of the dependent verb by -nitci (ni in -nitci is the same as 

 ni in -niwAn^). As in the case of the independent verb, so in that of 

 the dependent verb, the sign of the object is unmodified. 



utAnemo'hemA'^n^wdpAmdmw A^n^ ine'niwA^n^ dne'sdm\& ma'^Jiwd- 

 WA^n^ his dog looked at the man who was killing the wolf 

 (a in dne/shniHc^ refers to ma'^hwdwA^ni, the object that was 

 killed; and Tiitci in the same verb refers to ine'niwA^n\ the 

 subject who did the killing; the verb is of the conjunctive 

 mode) . 



If the verb of the possessed subject contain a dependent clause 

 with object, it will keep the singular -niwAn% even though the 

 possessed subject be plural. 



utAnemdhe'mwdwsi^''* wd''pAmdjiiwA\\' ma'^TiwdWA^n^ d'pemine- 

 '^Tca'^wdniHc^ Tco'Tco' cdTiA^n^ their dogs looked at the wolf chasing 

 the pig 



utAnemohe'm'wdwa'^'^ wd'pAmdniwA^n'^ ma'^hwdwa^'^ d'pemine- 

 'Tca'^wdniHc^ Jco'lcd'cdJia^'^ their dogs watched the wolves chas- 

 ing the pigs 

 §34 



