Grammar Lesson: Go One of the first concepts that students find frustrating in Cherokee is that the idea of going

has so many different forms and ideas to it. It seems as if theres no pattern or reasoning to expressing this idea. While thats not the case, there is something to the idea that going is a much different idea in Cherokee than it is in English. There are also several different processes at work here which also makes things confusing. To break this down, were going to go into the general concept of going and then Im going to show the basic pattern on how going is often used and expressed. First off, we need to identify what we mean by going. In English, going can be used to present the idea of travelling from one place to another (Im going to the store), and its also used to indicate an action that will begin in the future (Im going to be working), or to indicate an action that is about to occur (Im going to put your lights out). The point is that English uses go in various different ways, and these forms often have very different meanings. In Cherokee, go is specifically associated with movement going from one place to another. The other contexts that the word is used in English do not apply to Cherokee. It is in this specific context and association that we will look at the idea of going in Cherokee. The basic difficulty in Cherokee regarding understanding going is that Cherokee uses different verbs and different forms to express what is often expressed in English as one. You can use several forms to indicate going in Cherokee: /gega/ I am going, /wijigati/ Im going in that direction, /widvgedoli/ Im going there (and coming back). Its not necessary to learn how to say all of the forms, but it is important to recognize them. You dont need to know the grammar to use the basic form /gega/ I am going. Just know that if you went you can say /ji-gena/ I went (if its been in the last few hours) or /j-agwenvsvi/ I went (if its been before then). And if you will be going, you can say /dagesi/ I will be going or /widvgedoli/ I am going (and coming back). The form /widvgedoli/ is actually a different verb, but its very common in Cherokee as a form to indicate going to a place and then returning. Yet its not that simple because in many cases you dont hear the verb /ega/ S/he is going, at least not by itself. This is where Cherokee really shows itself as the language it is. What often happens in Cherokee is that if where you are going is indicated by another verb, then you use THAT verb with going in some form attached to it. This is almost the opposite of English. So lets look at this so you can see some examples. I am going to work English sentence that is based on going. /Dagilvhwisdanel-ega/ I am going to work with working as primary verb. [But more literally, I am working-going] I am going fishing English sentence that is again based on going as the main verb. /Gasuhn-ega/ I am going fishing with fishing as the primary verb given. [But more literally, I am fishing-going] In both cases, we put the base form of the verb going, which is /ega/ on another verb. This other verb will be the action you are going to do. In Cherokee, the rule will be to use /-ega/ attached to the end of the verb that is the action. I say /ega/ but you will need to match the tense of the verbs together - /ega/ is for present tense actions. If you are doing the action in the future or have done it in the past or do it repetitively (habitual), then you have to use the future, past, or habitual tense form of /ega/. Rather than explain more about this, its better seen in specific examples. 1

/-ega/: Going Present Tense Form (Going Now) dagilvwisdanel-ega I am going to work jinoalidol-ega I am going hunting gadawo-ega I am going swimming akihwas-ega I am going to buy it galisdayvhn-ega I am going to eat degadehloqwa-ega I am going to school aksvhl-ega I am going to bed /-vsvi/: Went Remote Past Tense (Going in the Past) dagilvwisdanel-vsvi I went to work aginohalidol-vsvi I went hunting agwadowo-vsvi I went to bathe akihwas-vsvi I went to buy agwalsdayvhn-vsvi I went to eat dagwadehloqwa-vsvi I went to school aksvhl-vsvi I went to bed /-uga/: Went Immediate Past Tense (Going in the Past) dagilvwisdanel-uga I went to work jinoalidol-uga I went hunting gadowo-uga I went to bathe akihwas-uga I went to buy galisdayvhn-uga I went to eat degadeloqwa-uga I went to school aksvhl-uga I went to bed /-esi/: Will Go Future Tense (Going in the Future) dodvgilvwisdanel-esi I will go to work ; I will be going to work dajinoalidol-esi I will go hunting ; I will be going to hunt dagadowo-esi I will go bathe dvkihwas-esi I will go buy dagalisdayvhn-esi I will go eat dodagadeloqwa-esi I will go to school dvksvhl-esi I will go to bed 2

/-egoi/: Go Habitual Tense (Going Habitually) dagilvwisdanel-egoi I go to work jinohalidol-egoi I go hunting gadawo-egoi I go swim akihwas-egoi I go buy galisdayvhn-egoi I go eat degadeloqwa-egoi I go to school aksvhl-egoi I go to bed But theres another catch to this process. The verb, that is your action verb, used in expressing this idea is a SPECIFIC form of the verb. This form is what is called the completive. You dont have to necessarily know what that means, but rather just know that this is the form seen on the verb when expressing the idea in the Remote Past, Future Command, and Future Completive. To better grasp this specific idea, lets look at one verb, the verb working. With the verb working, lets first look at it without using /ega/ yet, and see how it patterns it out in the various tenses. Present Tense: Progressive Past: Habitual: Progressive Future: Immediate Command: Immediate Past: Remote Past: Future Command: Future Completive: Infinitive: /dagilvhwisdaneha/ I am working (right now) /dagilvhwisdanehvi/ I was working /dagilvhwisdanehoi/ I work /dagilvhwisdanehesdi/ I will be working /dijalvhwisdasi/ You work! /dejalvhwisdasi/ You just worked /dagilvhwisdanelvi/ I worked /dejalvhwisdanelvi/ You work! (later) /dodvgilvhwisdaneli/ I will work /digilvhwisdanhdi/ for me to work

Notice how some of these forms are closely related to some of the other forms, but not to the others. For example, look at the Progressive Past, Progressive Future, and Habitual forms for this verb. The only difference between them is the ending (the Present Tense is also close to these three forms, but this is not a pattern you can expect when dealing with other verbs so it is not included in this discussion). So the base form for the verb in those three tenses is /dagilvhwisdaneh-/, and to make it Progressive Past you put /-vi/, Progressive Future /-esdi/, and Habitual /-oi/. This basic pattern holds true for all verbs in Cherokee the three tense forms of Progressive Past, Progressive Future, and Habitual are created from the same verb base. But this is not the base that forms the one used with going. Instead, we need to look at three other forms. These are the ones that are the Remote Past, the Future Command, and the Future Completive. So lets just look at these three together. 3

Remote Past - /dagilvhwisdanel-vi/ I worked Future Command - /dagilvhwisdanel-vi/ Let me work (later) Future Completive - /dodvgilvhwisdanel-i/ I will work Its easy to see how the Remote Past and Future Command are related (in this specific verb, they are identical). But the Future Completive looks different it has /dodv-/ on the front which is not the same as /dagi-/. This is because the Future Completive uses another prefix, in this case /da-/. But two other things are going on with this form as well. For one, it moves the /d-/ (which is a plural marker that is required on this verb, but on other verbs, it is used when the object of the sentence becomes pluralized to more than one thing) from directly in front of /agi-/ to the VERY front. As part of this process (and something that happens on ALL verbs that use plurals in the Future Completive), /d-/ becomes /do-/. The second thing that happens is that the future prefix /da-/ that is used partially merges with the pronoun prefix /agi-/ which means I to create /d-v-gi-/. This is a basic idea in Cherokee anytime /a/ and /a/ come together, you get the single sound /v/. So /a/ + /a/ = /v/. Thus /do-d-v-gi-lvhwisdanel-i/. In terms of applying the concept of going on verbs, most of that information is not necessary in making the construction. What is important is to know what the verb base is on the specific verb you want to use. So if we look at that idea, then we only need to know where to find the end of the verb. In all three forms, the form that you see common to all of them is /-lvhwisdanel-/. This is our verb base, and it is the one used when attaching going in whatever tense needed. In putting all of this together then, we take our verb working with its base form of /-lvhwisdanel-/ and put whatever other pieces we need to make it indicate WHO (the pronoun prefix) and WHEN (the tense, which is provided by the verb go since it comes at the end). Present: Habitual: Remote Past: Future Completive: Immediate Past: Immediate Command: Progressive Past: Infinitive: /dagilvhwisdanel-ega/ I am going to work /dagilvhwisdanel-egoi/ I go to work /dagilvhwisdanel-vsvi/ I went to work /dodvgilvhwisdanel-esi/ I will be going to work /dagilvhwisdanel-uga/ I just went to work /digilvhwisdanel-uga/ Let me go to work /dagilvhwisdanel-egvi/ I was going to work /digilvhwisdanel-vsdi agwaduli/ I want to go to work

As these forms indicate, this concept can be expressed in any tense. You just have to know the proper suffix form for going that applies. This suffix form will change based on the time frame (the tense) you are expressing. And you need to know any specific rules that apply to the tense you are using for example, note that the Immediate Command Tense and the Infinitive Tense have /di-/ on the front instead of /da-/. This is because on these two forms, you always have /di-/ as the plural marker. The final piece I will provide are the suffix forms for going in the range of usable tenses. These are the same ones given above, but with no verb as the base. 4

/-ega/ going Present Tense, derived from /ega/ /-egoi/ going Habitual Tense, derived from /egoi/ /-vsvi/ going Remote Past Tense, derived from /-envsvi/ as in /agw-envsvi/ I went /-esi/ going Future Completive Tense, derived from /-esi/ as in /da-g-esi/ I will go /-uga/ going Immediate Past Tense, derivation of /ega/ /-uga/ going Immediate Command Tense, derived from /ega/ /-egvi/ going Progressive Past Tense, derived from /egvi/ /-vsdi/ going Infinitive Tense, derived from /-envsdi/ as in /agw-envsdi/ for me to go Note there is NO Progressive Future Tense listed (the form that would end in /-esdi/). The verb going does not actually have that specific tense form. However, since the Future Completive Tense carries this concept, the Progressive Future is not needed.

The final note when dealing with this concept deals with the forms used in expressions involving clauses such as when. The processes involved in creating and understanding these specific concepts will be outlined here, but the explanation will be relatively brief since these ideas involve certain elements (namely the construction of clause forms) that do not fall within the areas intended for this specific lesson. This concerns statements such as When I go to town, I get dressed up. To see this process, a set of examples best illustrate the patterns which can then be explained. Digaduhv yagwena, gajanvsgoi. When I go to town, I get dressed up Amayi yusuhnena gahljotv wayaoi. When he goes fishing, he lives in a tent Yudawoena, aliyesustgisgoi. When he goes swimming, he takes his ring off Udodagwada alasgalisgoi yulasgalvhena. He plays ball all day when he goes playing ball

What we find in the forms above is the use of the pre-pronominal prefix /yi-/ on the Completive Past Tense verb form (Completive Aspect Stem) with the suffix going /-ena/ used in place of the tense suffix /-vi/. The first form of /yagwena/ does not qualify as part of the process under review because the entire verb itself is go and is not an attached suffix form. The other forms, though, qualify as when-going suffix patterned forms on Habitual Tense expressions. /y-udawo-ena/ When he goes swimming /y-usuhn-ena/ When he goes fishing The pattern then is to use the Past Tense Verb form in the Completive Aspect Stem, apply the prepronominal prefix /yi-/ (or just /y-/) to it, and then finally put the go suffix form /-ena/ on the verb (where /-ena/ replaces the tense suffix /-vi/ marker). /-ena/ is the ending of the verb going found on the Immediate Command Tense form as in the statement Go outside /Doyi didla hwena/. If you had wondered why the Immediate Command Tense form of the verb listed earlier in this lesson used /-uga/ instead of the expected form of /-ena/, this is why. The form /-ena/ is reserved for constructions of this type. Forms for the process in past tense constructions follow the same pattern so tense does not factor into the suffix of /-ena/ being used, but past tense forms do not use the /yi-/ pre-pronominal suffix. 5

Gahlgwogi iyanii saloli degajilv aginohalena. Utsgwisdi anijadi dagiyvhvi aksuhnena. I killed seven squirrels when I went hunting I caught a lot of fish when I went fishing Finally, future tense when-going constructions also follow this same pattern in terms of the use of the /-ena/ suffix and the use of the Completive Aspect Stem Verb form, but on future tense expressions the pronominal prefix markers will be the same as those found on the verb in its Present Tense form. Kousv gasuhnena, utsgwisdi anijadi dejiyvhvi. When I go fishing tonight, I will catch a lot of fish Sinale gesesdi dagilvhwisdanelena, doyu dagiyawegesdidv. When I go to work tomorrow, I am going to be so tired There are other concepts related to these forms, but those ideas fall outside the specific scope of this lesson and will be addressed at a later date in a different lesson.