Mingo Mini-Lesson (8)


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Lost Arrow :: Part I, Sentence 3

Ne' nae te'wêtö shô teukwëtææ'ö ne' kaiôni ukwényô hutênút.
He was never lonely because he had a song for company.


ne'  ::  clause marker particle

Here again we see ne' in its familiar slot at the very beginning of the sentence.


nae  ::  mild emphasis particle

This is one of a number of particles that can be used to add a little emphasis, or a little oomph, to a sentence.  It's often not translated directly, since it is used more often than words like "indeed", "really" and "actually" are used in English, even those these are probably the closest translations available.  Its typical location is as the second word in the clause or sentence, frequently after ne'.

Ne' nae Edith yeyásö.  --  Her name is Edith.


te'wêtö  ::  never

This word is composed of: te'- Negative prefix, wêtö "when".  Literally, this word means "not when", but is equivalent to "never" in English.


shô  ::  just, simply

This is another particle that often goes untranslated in English.  Its closest English equivalent is "just" or "simply".  It typically modifies the word that comes before it, so here the phrase te'wêtö shô could be
translated as "just never, simply never".


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