Attn: Dhegiholics.

[Catherine Rudin/HU/AC/WSC]

>Emmaline explained the word athe'
>as meaning you must have done something, and even offered an example
>of her own.  If someone tells you they were trying to get a hold of
>you at ten o'clock the previous morning, you can tell them:
>
>     AzhaN' athe'.
>     I must have been sleeping.

What a great example!  This is really nice.  The homophony of the predicted
second person dhathe with the "eat" stem is unfortunate and likely a
confusing factor.  I wonder if you would have more luck with "we" forms (we
must all have been sleeping -- aNzhaN aNthe?? -- when you knocked on our
door this morning)?  Or second person with a non-eating verb (dhazhaN
dhathe??), though second person forms often seem hard to elicit.

>I think I got acceptance when I tried athe' with 2nd and 3rd person
>forms, but I'm not quite sure, as we were possibly at the point of
>confusion by then.

Hmm... this does look like it might be a simple particle of some kind.
Alas -- much less interesting than a conjugated evidential, though still
kind of cool...  Do try Mrs. Sanchez again, with a different verb, when
she's feeling fresh.   I haven't had a chance to ask any speakers any of
these myself yet, but hope to before too long.

Catherine