Relative time Adverbs of time

9.18 u-ni goŋtɕo makpa ŋø-ki ŋinjaa tsheŋkor that-ABL late.afternoon son-in-law side-GEN relatives … khajet di … TE52 plural DEF ‘Then in late afternoon all relatives of the son-in-law...’ They have finished eating together and late afternoon refers to the same day. 9.19 t ɕik ŋeʈʈo thaŋ tɕik goŋtɕo nam one in.morning and one in.the evening darkness rø-tsøt-la set-na puu go-ken bet. become-amount-DAT kill-NFNT1 offer have.to-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘You have to slaughter and offer one in the morning and another in the evening at sunset.’

9.2.2 Relative time

The following time adverbs refer to time relative to ‘now’. Table 9.6. Relative time adverbs nam-la ak ‘ever, never’ nam nam-la ak ‘ever, never’ ha ‘now’ ha-tsøt ‘now, about this time’ huntohontahanta ‘now, at the moment’ daŋ-hariŋ ‘in these days’ thiŋsaŋ ‘at the present time’ nempet naaŋ ‘in future’ khattsiŋ’hattsiŋ ‘a few weeks ago’ khattsaŋ ‘a few days ago, recently’ naniŋ ɕiniŋ ‘a few years ago’ d ʑatak ‘suddenly, right away’ ɕartɕak ‘immediately’ ɕari ‘suddenly’ ʈak ‘suddenly, immediately’ tok ‘immediately, right away’ el-laa ‘earlier, before’ en- ɕuk-la ‘at first’ tiŋ-laa ‘afterwards, later’ tiŋ-ɕuk-la ‘last’ ɕuk-la ‘finally, in the end’ thaŋpuu ‘in the beginning, first’ go-maa ‘first, at first’ Some grammatical PPs may be used as time adverbs. There is a derivational and inflectional suffix - laa which may be attached to adverbs or postpositions. The following examples illustrate this. 9 .20 ŋa el-laa saar-la ɖo-ken. 1SG before-ADVZR city-DAT go-NMLZ;CONJ ‘I go to the city ahead of others.’ 9 .21 ŋa en-ɕuk-la saar-la ɖo-ken. 1SG ahead-end-DAT city-DAT go-NMLZ;CONJ ‘I go first to the city.’ Or: ‘I will go to the city ahead of all others.’ 9.22 hi-ni tiŋ-laa khalʏ-la roo-raŋ this-ABL behind-ADVZR slowly-DAT 3SG-self ʈhak ɖo-ken bet. TE49 become.healed go-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘Then afterwards he himself will slowly become healed.’ Speaker is telling how the village healers treat sick people. The next example illustrates how the quantifier thopaa, which typically modifies a noun, can be used as a time adverb. 9.23 mi su na-na ak thopaa t ɕik thuk man who be.sick-NFNT1 INCLN fair.amount INDF until gur-na døk-ken bet. TE49 put.up-NFNT1 stay-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘Any man who becomes sick stays putting up with it for a while.’ 9.24 thaŋpuu doole tɕik thaŋ khirik tɕik in.beginning monkey INDF and pheasant INDF ʈho-pu dʑap-a bet. TE16 bond.friend-M1 VBZR-NMLZ;Q AUX ‘A long time ago a monkey and a pheasant performed a ritual of becoming bond friends.’ This is a setting for the whole story; thaŋpuu refers to a time long ago. 9.25 u-la go-maa phumu di nam t ɕøt go-ken bet. TE65 that-DAT head-ADJVZR girl DEF darkness cut have.to-NMLZ;CONJ AUX ‘At first one has to investigate the girl.’ Speaker tells about the marriage customs of Lhomis.

9.2.3 Aspectual adverbs