Observation

nateu

s/he goes to meet up with him/her

tshinashin

you go to meet up with me

The stem of these verbs alternates between t and sh: for example, the verb nateu has a stem that sometimes ends in t, sometimes in sh as in tshinashin.

A verb like minuateu s/he likes him/her, it (anim) is conjugated with a stem that sometimes ends in sh: tshiminuashin you like me, sometimes in t: tshiminuatitin I like you. The dictionary form has a t: minuateu. Another example is mueshtateu s/he misses him/her: nimueshtatau I miss him/her, apu mueshtashit s/he does not miss me.

The form of the stem with sh is used in the following cases:

• With all local direct forms in the Independent, the Conjunct and the Imperative (2s-1s, 2p-1s, 2s-1p, 2p-1p).

tshipushukashin	you greet me
tshipushukashinau	you (pl) greet me
tshipushukashinan	you greet us or you (pl) greet us
apu pushukashin	you don’t greet me
apu pushukashieku	you (pl) don’t greet me
apu pushukashiat	you don’t greet us or you (pl) don’t greet us
pushukashi!	greet me!
pushukashiku	(you pl) greet me!
pushukashinan!	greet us! or (you pl) greet us!

• In the Conjunct, in addition to local direct forms, with mixed inverse forms having as complement a 1^st person singular or plural exclusive and a 3^rd person, singular or plural, non-obviative or obviative subject (3s-1s, 3p-1s, 4-1s, 3s-1p, 3p-1p, 4-1p.)

apu mińuashit	s/he doesn’t like me
apu mińuashiht	they don’t like me
apu mińuashińiti	s/he [his/her brother/sister] doesn’t like me
apu mińuashimit	s/he doesn’t like us (exclusive)
apu mińuashimiht	they don’t like us (exclusive)
apu mińuashimiht	s/he [his/her brother/sister] doesn’t like us (exclusive)

• In the Imperative Indicative Present, in addition to local direct forms, with mixed forms where the subject is the 2^nd person singular and the complement is the 3^rd person non-obviative (2s-3s, 2s-3p).

pushukash!	greet him/her!
pushukashit!	greet them!

• In the Imperative Indicative Future and the Imperative Indirect, only with local direct forms.

piminushikan	make me something to eat [later]!
piminushitsheku	(you pl) make me something to eat [later]!
piminushime	make me something to eat [before I arrive]
piminushinanime	make us something to eat [before I arrive]
piminushimeku	(you pl) make me something to eat [before I arrive]

For the rest of the TA conjugations, the stem form ending in -t is used; the majority of forms for this stem end in -t.

TA VERBS WITH STEMS ENDING IN t (alternating with sh)

putateu	s/he blows on him/her	niputatau	I blow on him/her
mińuateu	s/he likes him/her	tshimińuatitinau	I like you (pl)
nateu	s/he goes to meet him/her	tshinashin	you go to meet me
puateu	s/he dreams of him/her	nipuatati	I dream of him/her
kushteu	s/he is afraid of him/her	apu kushin	you are not afraid of me
kututeu	s/he makes a fire for him/her	tshe kutushiat	you (pl) will make us a fire
nakateu	s/he passes him/her	apu nakashit	s/he doesn’t pass me
tepuateu	s/he shouts at him/her	eka tepuashi!	don’t shout at me!
piminuteu	s/he cooks for him/her	tshipiminutau	you cook for him/her
mueshtateu	s/he misses him/her	nimueshtatauat	I miss them
aiashikuateu	s/he scolds him/her	aiashikuash!	scold him/her!
iamekateu	s/he says goodbye to him/her	tshitiamekashinan	you say goodbye to us
ueuepiteu	s/he rocks him/her	ueuepiteku!	rock him/her!
mińuashpiteu	s/he dresses him/her nicely	nimińuashpitati	I dressed him/her nicely
pushukateu	s/he greets him/her	apu pushukashimit	s/he didn’t greet us

NOTES ON SPELLING

With local inverse forms, the sequence -tit- is pronounced [-ht-] by Lower North Shore speakers: for example, in tshimińuatitin I like you [t∫ǝmǝnwa:htn], tshimińuatitinan we like you or we like you (pl) [t∫ǝmǝnwa:htna:n], tshimińuatitininau I like you (pl) [t∫ǝmǝnwa:htna:w]. For these speakers, it’s important to remember to write the syllable replaced by [ht]. With mixed and non-local inverse forms, it is important to be aware of the phenomenon of vowel harmonisationLINGUISTICS: Vowel harmonisation (or vowel assimilation) is a “change undergone by a phoneme due to contact with a neighbouring phoneme”. (Dubois et al. 2012. Le dictionnaire de linguistique et des sciences du langage. Larousse, p. 55.) In the example given in the text, ku influences the short vowel preceding it, which is pronounced [u]. See more on this in Short Vowels: a and i pronounced u before Cu Cᵘ for the sequences -iku and –iku: nimińuatiku [nǝmǝnwa:tukw] s/he likes me, mińuatiku [mǝnwa:tuku] s/he (obv) likes me.