ON THE NORTH-WESTERX TRIBES OF CANADA. 



The verb with negative is treated in the same manner : 

 tata'kEn skEnu'Q, / am not nclc. Sec. 



The conditional mode is characterised by the prefix a- and the suffix -?«. 

 tcu'ktcen, to finish eating ( = to finish with jnonth). 



atcu'ktcEnuEn, if I finish eating. 

 atcii'ktcEnuQ, if thou finishcst eating. 

 atcu'ktcEnus, if he finishes eating. 

 atcu'ktcEnut, if we finish eating. 

 atcu'ktEnup, if ye finish eating. 

 atcuktcu'ktcEnus, If theij finish eating. 



The nsgative conditional present is formed in the following way : 



atE'mOs(ta)kEn skEnu'Q, if I am not siclt,. 

 atE'mos(ta)ka skEnu'Q, if thou art not sick, 

 atE'mos(ta)k skEnu'Qs, if he is not sick. 

 atE'moskakt skEnu'Q, if wc are not sick. 

 atE'moskap skEnu'Q, if >/e are not sick. 

 atE'mos(ta)ks kEnkEnu'Qs, if they are not sick. 



The negative conditional past : 



taskEta'kEn skEnu'Q, if 1 had not leen sick. 



The interrogative is formed by the suffix -En : 



G59 



kEnu'QkEnEn, am I sick? 

 kEnu'Qkoan, art thou sick? 

 kEnu'QEn, is he sick ? 



kEnu'QktEn, arc we sick ? 

 kEnu'Qp'En, are ye sick ? 

 kEnkEnu'QEn, are they sick ? 



A periphrastic interrogative is formed by the dubitative particle ska : 



skaka skEnu'Q, perliajjs thou art sick. skagap skEnu'Q, perhaps yc are sick. 



skaak skEnu'Qs, perha'ps he is sick. 



It will be noticed that wherever the verb appears witli an adverb or a particle it 

 has the prefix s-, which makes verbal nouns, and that the third person has the 

 suffix -s, which corresponds to the possessive pronoun. These forms are therefore 

 identical with possessive nominal forms. 



Teansitive Verb. 

 The transitive verb incorporates the pronominal object as follows : 



to see. 



UU 2 



