pilii hatuuta: The North Wind; lit. "the wind at the left hand". In giving directions or indicating locations, the Tepa align their surroundings with the east in front of them. Therefore, north is "at the left hand", south is "at the right hand" (sapii=ta), east is "to the face" (kitii=qu), and west is "in the back" (lekii=pu). Orthographically, the conjunction clitic =n is set off from the host word by a hyphen to distinguish it from words which happen to end in a na sal. Note that lenition applies within a conjoined phrase as if it were a single word.
esuhusa: There is no superlative in Tepa.
apisitette: Epistemic modality ("can", "able to") is expressed by a full verb in Tepa, with the "main" verb expressed in a subordinate clause.
ehusa nuqu: In comparative constructions, the standard of comparison is expressed as a postpositional phrase with the postposition =qu 'to'; the pivot is expressed as the subject of the clause.
pusii-n pusii: To express what in English is expressed by "more" + verb, Tepa conjoins two (or more) occurrences of the same verb. Thus, pusii-n pusii "the more he blew", or "he blew more and more".
neume: The demonstrative pronoun ne is coreferential in this case with the subject numaa 'the traveller', something which in English would be expressed with a reflexive pronoun.
luwaa: The use of the verb lua 'lie down' is idiomatic for giving up a task in failure.
qayyakke: admit; lit. "cause himself to say". The geminate grade of the verb has reflexive force here.
Go back to the introduction.