Mingo Mini-Lesson (10)


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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, ne' is occurring in the middle of the sentence.  Its job here is to mark where one clause ends and the next begins.  The first clause in this sentence was the one that told us "he was never lonely".  The second clause tells us "because he had a song for company".  The clause marker particle ne' is serving as a lynchpin, linking the two clauses together into a single, complete sentence.


kaiôni  ::  the reason why is; because

This is a word that clarifies the relationship between the two clauses; it tells us that the first clause happened "because of", or "on account of" the second clause.  The word kaiôni is actually a verb, composed of three parts: ka- "it", -i- "matter, issue", -ôni "makes".  Literally, "it makes the matter". [Notice how we have here again another case of noun incorporation, with the noun -i- "matter, issue" being tucked inside the verb "make"].

We will typically find it together with the clause-marker particle ne'.


ukwényô  ::  it's possible; can

This is one of the most common and useful words in Mingo.  Literally, ukwényô is a verb meaning "it is possible".  However, it is more often used in a way similar to the word "can" in English.


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