Let’s consider two sentences from previous lessons to review the suffixes that mark the default and past tense.
- Niama cuyu hetela/The woman eats fish.
- Qisaco iqeco ayesileco cupaco vlipalaco eyo isiticocobacare quenema hebila/She ate dirt, mud, tree leaves, pine bark, broken pottery and other very bad things.
Let us look more carefully at the last word of each sentence:
he-te-la ‘she eats’
he-bi-la ‘she ate’
In these examples, the verb he is the first part, and the last part is the -la declarative. The other suffix is the tense marker. The first example has the suffix -te to mark that the woman “eats” and the second example has the suffix -bi to indicate that a woman ate.
Now match the Timucua sentence with the correct English translation. Note the tense suffixes used.
Clicl on the Timucua phrases to hear them spoken.
| 1. Caqi viro niocobila. | a. This child sees an alligator. |
| 2. Efacarema niocomotela. | b. The dog ate meat. |
| 3. Gatoma cuyu hehauela. | c. The dogs are running. |
| 4. Efama gato enebitila. | d. This woman knows the word/language |
| 5. Caqi niama hebuano nahiabotela. | e. The dog did not see the cat. |
| 6. Caqi pequata itori enetela. | f. The elders hated the cats. |
| 7. Naribuoma gatocarema yo manibomobila. | g. This man ran. |
| 8. Efama soba hebila. | h. The cat will eat fish. |