Grammar
Independent Indirect (#05)
| ᒧᐧᐃᓱᑎᒃ᙮ | muwisutik. | S/he is picking berries in the distance. |
The Independent indirect conjugation is used to describe events or actions that are perceived at a distance. Usually, the speaker is not a aware that the event is happening, s/he finds out indirectly or after the fact.
In the following example, the story teller is describing a seal hunt, trying to get closer to a seal quite far away on the ice, and how his friend scared away the seal by not crawling on the ice along with him. He just described how the seal disappeared from view while he was crawling towards it, thinking that his friend was crawling as well:
| ᐅᑖᐦ ᐋ ᐄᔑ ᒌᐧᐋᑳᐳᐧᐃᔮᓐ ᐅᑖᐦ ᓈᐦ ᐋ ᐃᔨᐦᑖᑦ, ᓈᔥᑎᔨᒡ ᒧᔖ ᐹᒋ ᓃᐳᐧᐄᑎᒃ᙮ |
| utâh â îshi chîwâkâpuwiyân utâh nâh â iyihtât, nâshtiyich mushâ pâchi nîpuwiitik. |
| (CD03Track02CouncilofElders2002 00043) |
| When I turned around to where he was (i.e my friend) , there he was, just standing in the distance in full view. |
Forms like this can combine with the past preverb ᒌᐦ chiih, but not with future preverbs:
| ᑳ ᐧᑳᐱᒑᐧᐃᒡ ᒌᐦ ᒧᐧᐃᓱᑎᒃ ᓈᑖᐦ᙮ |
| kaa kwaapichaawich chiih muwisutik naataah. |
| When I went for water, she was picking berries in the distance. |
Link to Conjugation Tables