VTA Theme Suffix

Observation

ᒋᐧᐋᐱᒥᓐ᙮		chiwaapimin	you see me
ᒋᐧᐋᐱᒥᑎᓐ᙮		chiwaapimitin	I see you

The it in the second example above is called a theme suffix. The difference between these two examples is that the theme suffix -it appears in ᒋᐧᐋᐱᒥᑎᓐ chiwaapimitin ‘I see you’ and not in ᒋᐧᐋᐱᒥᓐ chiwaapimin ‘you see me’

There are three transitive animate theme suffixes, which follow the TA verb stem: -it, -aa ,and -ikw / -iku. it is used only when first persons (ᓃᔨ niiyi ‘I’, ᓃᔮᓐ niiyaan ‘we’) are actors and the second persons (ᒌᔨ chiiyi ‘you’, ᒌᔮᓂᐤ chiiyaaniu ‘we including you’, ᒌᔨᐧᐋᐤ chiiyiwaau ‘you all’) are goals. -aa and -ikw/-iku are used in all combinations with third persons.

Northern Dialect			English	Actor	Rank	Goal	Prefix		Theme Suffix
ᒋᐧᐋᐱᒥᓐ		chiwaapimin	you see me	2	>	1	ᒋ	chi	–
ᒋᐧᐋᐱᒥᑎᓐ		chiwaapimitin	I see you	1	>	2	ᒋ	chi	it
ᒋᐧᐋᐱᒥᓈᐧᐋᐤ		chiwaapiminaawaau	you all see me	2p	>	1	ᒋ	chi	–
ᒋᐧᐋᐱᒥᑎᓈᐧᐋᐤ		chiwaapimitinaawaau	I see you all	1	>	2p	ᒋ	chi	it
ᒋᐧᐋᐱᒥᓈᓐ		chiwaapiminaan	you see us	2(p)	>	1p	ᒋ	chi	–
ᒋᐧᐋᐱᒥᑎᓈᓐ		chiwaapimitinaan	we see you	1p	>	2(p)	ᒋ	chi	it
ᒋᐧᐋᐱᒫᐤ		chiwaapimaau	you see her	2	>	3	ᒋ	chi	aa
ᒋᐧᐋᐱᒥᒄ		chiwaapimikw	she sees you	3	>	2	ᒋ	chi	ikw
ᓂᐧᐋᐱᒫᐤ		niwaapimaau	I see her	1	>	3	ᓂ	ni	aa
ᓂᐧᐋᐱᒥᒄ		niwaapimikw	she sees me	3	>	1	ᓂ	ni	ikw
ᐧᐋᐱᒫᐤ		waapimaau	she sees him (the other)	3	>	3′	–		aa
ᐧᐋᐱᒥᑰ		waapimikuu	he (the other) sees her	3′	>	3	–		iku

[for the plural third persons combinations see the complete conjugation tables]

The theme suffix it appears in independent and conjunct verb forms. The theme suffixes aa and iku/ikw appear in the independent verb forms, but generally not in the conjunct forms.

Direct and Inverse in TA verbs

When the actor of a TA verb ranks higher than the goal on the person hierarchy, we can speak of a “direct” relationship. When the goal outranks the actor on the person hierarchy, then we speak of an “inverse” relationship. The theme suffix aa is thus also called the Direct suffix , while the theme suffixes it and iku/ikw are called the Inverse suffixes.