Grammar
There exist published grammars, a recent dictionary, and a corpus of published texts Sahaptin has a split ergative syntax with direct-inverse voicing and several applicative constructions.
The ergative case inflects 3rd person nominals only when the direct object is 1st or 2nd person (examples below are from the Umatilla dialect).
1) i-q̓ínu-šana yáka paanáy 3nom-see-asp bear 3acc.sg ‘the bear saw him’ 2) i-q̓ínu-šana=aš yáka-nThe direct-inverse contrast can be elicited with examples such as the following. In the inverse the transitive direct object is coreferential with the subject in the preceding clause.
Direct:
3) wínš i-q̓ínu-šana wapaanłá-an ku i-ʔíƛ̓iyawi-ya paanáy man 3nom-see-asp grizzly-acc and 3nom-kill-pst 3acc.sg ‘the man saw the grizzly and he killed it’Inverse:
4) wínš i-q̓ínu-šana wapaanłá-an ku pá-ʔiƛ̓iyawi-ya man 3nom-see-asp grizzly-acc and inv-kill-pst ‘the man saw the grizzly and it killed him’The inverse (marked by the verbal prefix pá-) retains its transitive status and a patient nominal is case marked accusative.
5) ku pá-ʔiƛ̓iyawi-ya wínš-na and inv-kill-pst man-acc ‘and it killed the man’ (= ‘and the man was killed by it’)A semantic inverse is also marked by the same verbal prefix pá-.
Direct:
6) q̓ínu-šana=maš see-asp=1sg/2sg ‘I saw you’Inverse:
7) pá-q̓inu-šana=nam inv-see-=2sg ‘you saw me’In Speech Act Participant (SAP) and 3rd person transitive involvement direction marking is as follows:
Direct:
8) á-q̓inu-šana=aš paanáy obv-see-asp=1sg 3sg.acc ‘I saw him/her/it’Inverse:
9) i-q̓ínu-šana=aš pRead more about this topic: Klickitat Dialect
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