'he told me'

[Linda A Cumberland]

The whole -ki-/kici thing has been giving me fits, too.  There are three
verbs in the set:

oyaka		to tell, announce
		   omnaka	'I tell, announce'
		   oyaka	'he tells, announces'

okiyaka		to tell someone
		   owemnaka	'I told him'
		   omakiyaka	'he told me'  (dat. pros: ma-/ni)

okiciyaka	to tell someone about something (else)
		   owecimnaka	'I told him about it'
		   omiciyaka    'he told me about it' (mici-/nici)

Okiciyaka is really more like 'he told me it for me', so John's suggestion
of second data is on target.  I don't have examples of the forms you give,
Shannon, but I like your two test sentences and I will phone my primary
consultant to elicit them from her to see if I get the same responses.

Here is my most straightforward example of okiciyaka:

mas?apha s^ten ochicimnakiNkta	'when he calls, I'll tell you'

So I guess I should say, mas?awakipha s^ten ochicimnakiNkta ('when I call
her, I'll tell you about it')!

Linda



On Wed, 21 Aug 2002, Shannon West wrote:

> For the Assiniboine of 'he told me', I've got omagiyaga and omijiyaga. I
> recognize the rule g --> j / i_, but why is the i there in the first place?
> Is there a difference in these two forms that I'm not seeing? Linda, do you
> get both forms too?
>
> I have this pair but I don't have a clue what to do with it.
>
> John buza waNz^i hiNhaN opetuN (z^e) omagiyaga
> John told me he bought a cat last night (he = John)
>
> John buza waN'z^i 'hiNhaN opetuN (z^e) omijiyaga
> He told me John bought a cat last night (same reading as English he != John)
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Shannon
>
>
>