θú zagabyán ‘he (is an) interpreter’; tóðalîn làgà nadó là Ɂathi (,) shâun Ɂùdù ‘from the month of tóðalîn to the month of nadó (is) the cold season’; hóu lúhá (,) lúgâumbê ‘that person (is) a good person (emphatic)’.
Interrogative Sentences, 43–45
43. Narrative and equational sentences have special interrogative forms. These forms consist of a narrative or equational statement followed by one of the interrogative particles ‑lâ, or ‑lê.
44. In narrative questions before ‑lâ or ‑lê the final particle ‑té is replaced by ‑θa‑; ‑mé and ‑pí are replaced by the atonic forms ‑ma- and ‑pa‑; ‑yè and ‑kè remain unchanged:
θwâdé ‘(he) went’: θwâðalâ ‘did (he) go?’: bégóu θwâðalê ‘where did (he) go?’; θwâmé ‘(he) will go’: θwâmalâ ‘will (he) go?’: bédò θwâmalê ‘when will (he) go?’; θwâbí ‘(he) has gone’: θwâbalâ ‘has (he) gone?’; nâ léyèlâ ‘do (you) understand?’; houkkèlâ ‘is (it) so?’
45. In equational questions ‑lâ or ‑lê is added to the equational statement:
θú zagabyán ‘he (is an) interpreter’: θú zagabyánlâ ‘(is) he (an) interpreter?’: zagabyán béhmálê ‘where (is there an) interpreter?’; tóðalîn làgà nadó là Ɂathí (,) shâun Ɂùdùlâ ‘(is it) the cold season from the month of tóðalîn to the month of nadó?’
Negative Sentences, 46–49
46. A negative narrative statement consists of a narrative statement in which the negative particle ma- is prefixed to the head verb (80), less often to a subordinate verb (81)[1] in a verb phrase (79), and the final particle (36) is replaced by the negative final particle ‑phû:
θwâdé, θwâmé, θwâbí ‘(he) goes, went, will go; has gone’: maθwâbû ‘(he) does not go, did not go, will not go, has not gone’; myîn sî θwâdé ‘(he) went riding a horse’: myîn masî θwábû[2] ‘(he) went not riding a horse’.
47. A negative imperative sentence consists of an imperative sentence in which the negative particle ma- is prefixed to the head verb (80), less often to a subordinate verb (81)[3] in a verb phrase (79), and the negative final particle ‑nè is added at the end:
θwâ ‘go’: maθwânè ‘do not go’; myîn sî θwâ ‘go riding a horse’; myîn sî maθwânè: myîn masî θwânè[4] ‘do not go riding a horse’.
48. A negative equational sentence consists of an equational statement plus mahoupphû ‘it is not so’. This type of sentence may be considered a negative narrative sentence, since houtté is itself a verb expression (79, 36):
θú zagabyán mahoupphû ‘he is not an interpreter’; hóu lúhá (,) lugâun mahoupphû ‘that person is not good’.
49. A negative question consists of a negative narrative sentence or of a negative equational sentence plus interrogative particle ‑lâ or ‑lê (43):
maθwâbû ‘(he) did not go’: maθwâbûlâ ‘did (he) not go?’; θú zagabyán mahoupphûlâ ‘is he not an interpreter?’
Before the interrogative particle ‑lê, the negative final particle ‑phû (46) is replaced by ‑θa- (cf. 44):
