So far you've seen examples of nouns with ha when they re
not at the beginning of the sentence. |
| In traditional English grammar there is a distinction between
"common nouns" and "proper nouns." |
| Proper nouns are the name of a person or place or entity and
they're capitalized in English. |
| Samala introduces proper nouns with
hi when they're not first in the sentence. |
 |
|
 |
 –expe
hi lisa |
"Lisa is singing" |
 |
| |
s–axutiwil hi xwan |
"Juan is talking" |
| |
s–we
hi toni |
"Tony/Toni is asleep" |
expe
hi lisa |
| |
no–s– wn
hi leni |
"Lenny will cut it" |
|
swe
hi toni |
| Placing a proper noun as the first
element in the sentence gives it a certain emphasis, but then hi
doesn't introduce it. To emphasize the subject of the first sentence
here, you would say |
| |
lisa ha –expe |
"Lisa is singing" |
|
|
The ha that introduces
–expe
looks like the article ma/ha, but it functions
more as a connector between the noun and the verb that follows. Future lessons
will cover this topic.
|
| Traditional narratives use hi
to introduce beings who are specific characters rather than regular
animals, so there's an important difference between these two sentences: |
 |
 |
| |
s–iwon ha xuxaw |
"a coyote howls" |
| |
s–axutiwil–wa
hi xuxaw > |
"Coyote spoke" |
| |
axutiwiliwa
hi xuxaw |
|
siwon ha xuxaw
|
|
| In the story of Woodpecker and the flood,
Woodpecker is a character rather than just a bird. So the narrative says: |
|
| |
–mi
hi maqutikok |
"Woodpecker cries" |
|
 |
| |
s–mxxn
hi maqutikok |
"Woodpecker is hungry" |
|
| If this had meant just the bird, the phrase
would have been |
| |
s–mxxn
ha maqutikok |
"a/the woodpecker is hungry" |
|
mi
hi maqutikok |
