Southern Athabascan Grammar - Verbs

Verbs

The key element in Southern Athabaskan languages is the verb, and it is notoriously complex. Verbs are composed of a stem to which inflectional and/or derivational prefixes are added. Every verb must have at least one prefix. The prefixes are affixed to the verb in a specified order.

The Southern Athabaskan verb can be sectioned into different morphological components. The verb stem is composed of an abstract root and an often fused suffix. The stem together with a classifier prefix (and sometimes other thematic prefixes) make up the verb theme. The theme is then combined with derivational prefixes which in turn make up the verb base. Finally, inflectional prefixes (which Young & Morgan call "paradigmatic prefixes") are affixed to the base—producing a complete verb. This is represented schematically in the table below:

John Cremony, an Army officer during the 1860s, wrote about the Apache language: "The word tats-an means dead in Apache; but they never employ it when speaking of a dead friend, but say of him that he is yah-ik-tee, which means he is not present- that he is wanting. If one goes to an Apache camp and inquires for him during his absence, the visitor is answered that he is yah-ik-tee, or gone elsewhere. This usage, when speaking of dead friends, is not so much due to delicacy and regret for their loss as to their superstitious fears of the dead, for they entertain an implicit belief in ghosts and spirits, although I could never trace the causes for their credence. In alluding to an animal destroyed in the chase, so soon as the mortal blow is given they exclaim, yah-tats-an, now it is dead; but if it should only be wounded, and rise again, it is said, tats-an-see-dah, it is not dead." (Cremony, John Carey. 1868. Life Among the Apaches. Page 240.)