Syntax of Lakhota Sentence from "Lakota Eyapaha"
Clive Bloomfield
cbloom at ozemail.com.au
Wed Jun 13 19:23:16 UTC 2007
Greetings folks, I've been content to remain in "deep lurk mode" here
for a quite a while, but now at last curiosity has got the better of
me again!
I was wondering if any Lakhota scholar, or knowledgable person here
could explain the syntactical construction of the following
interesting sentence from "Lakota Eyapaha", by Ivan STARR (Lakota
Books, Kendall Park, N.J., 1996. Page 27)? (Especially the second
part of the sentence "enclosed" by "iNs^e....eyas^")
"Oecun was^te kecamin iNs^e iwaNblakahe eyas^." [ /OéchuN was^té
kechámiN iNs^é iwáNblakahe éyas^/ ]
The translation supplied on Page 29, (presumably done by the author
himself), reads :
"I'VE BEEN STUDYING THIS PROBLEM AND FROM MY OBSERVATIONS I THINK IT
CAN BE DONE EASILY."
Just to make myself clear, I have no problem at all with "free"
translations, or with Lakhota Word-Order of conjunctions, or in
subordinate clauses. Also, the construction of : "oéchuN was^té
kechámiN" [="I think/thought that it is/was easy to do/easily done."]
is 100% familiar to me.
I am also familiar enough with the conjunction (or is it an adverb?)
"iNs^é" (meaning here, one supposes, something like "in fact/indeed/
actually"), as well as the 1stPersonSing form of the verb :
"iwáNyaNkA" [="look at; examine carefully/research; compare"] with
added "Progressive" aspectual suffix : "haN/he".
What puzzles me somewhat is exactly how "éyas^" is operating there.
What meaning, precisely, does "éyas^" add to that sentence? Is it an
adversative conjunction? Does it link up with "iNs^é", to form a sort
of "concessive complex" (so to speak) meaning "even though/
although"? Might it perhaps convey some idea of Indefiniteness?
Any observations would be appreciated.
Toksha akhe,
Clive Bloomfield.
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