Lesson 7 — Grammatical Topic — Two ways of saying "to have" in Samala  

Samala uses two different expressions as equivalents of English "have." I'm married
swil ha ktalik
You've learned one already:  the combination of a possessed noun plus  s–wil "there is."
s–wil ha k–talik   "I'm married"
      literally "there exists my wife"
         
This expression is basically interchangeable with the –i form: puwayani  
  k–talik–i   "I'm married, I have a wife" you have earrings, you're wearing earrings
      literally "I'm wifed"
  p–suwayan–i >   puwayani   "you have earrings, you're wearing earrings"
      literally "you are earringed" the two of them have a child
iitni
  s-i-itn-i > iitni "the two of them have a child/children,"
      literally "they two are childed, have child[ren]"
Here's another example, showing that it's easy to use either of these constructions with a variety of nouns.
  s–wil ha k–antk "I have a friend" — literally "there exists my friend" I have a friend
  k–antk–i "I have a friend" — literally "I am friended"
kantki
Specifying number
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The –i form doesn't tell you anything about singular or plural with the noun:  with  puwayani "you have earrings," the translation only assumes that it means two earrings.
The Samala verb form  sitni could mean "he/she has a child" or "he/she has children." he has a child she has children it has young
In fact, it could also mean "he/she/it has young," because  itn  doesn't mean just
"child," but "offspring" — human or animal.
You could use  sitni to describe any of these images.

If you wanted to specify plural, which form would you use?		  sitni
The expression with  s–wil is the only one that lets you specify a number.
s–wil ha –i–itn–wun >   "they two have children"  
     swil ha iitnwun literally “exist their children”  
You could use the plural suffix –wun,   the two of them have children
swil ha iitnwun
s–wil ha –i–itn–wun >   "they two have children"
     swil ha iitnwun literally “exist their children”
or spell out a number,    
  s–wil ikom ha –i–itn “they two have two children”
    literally “exist two their [dual] children”
or perhaps use a quantifier such as  waha "many." they two have many children
swil waha ha iitn
  s–wil waha ha –i–itn “they two have many children”  
    literally “exist many their [dual] children”
         
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