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Read through this section a couple of times. Don't really study it in detail or try to memorize anything--just read through it slowly. By the end of a second casual reading, you will notice that you can already pick out certain patterns or easily predict them. If you later study this section in detail for a third time, we are sure you will amaze yourself with your progress and understanding. When you get through it, be proud of your self because this is a high level overview--much harder than the first Lesson. But, it is only an overview--familiarity brings ease of understanding, as you'll soon see.
CREEK: Grammatical Structure Review: AN OVERVIEW: Part I
Do you see Ē and ē, that is, an "e" with a long mark over it? If not, you may see one the following in its place on these pages. A plain capital E in the middle of a word, a strange looking symbol or an umlauted e, that is, an ë (with two dots over it). Simply replace these with the appropriate long "e." Ē -or- ē. Some browsers do not display the long e well.
Creek sentence structure--cardinal rule:
Subject -- Object -- Verb
(S.O.V.)
There are no articles (the, a or an) in Creek. You must supply these in translation.
Creek Nouns: Nouns end in a vowel. In fact, most Creek words end in vowels in their dictionary form. Examples:
Estē / Person (this word has a plural form)
Cato or Catu / stone, rock, stones, rock
Cuko or Coko / house, houses
Pvtu, Patu or Pato / mushroom, mushrooms
Ohliketv / chairs, chairs
Efv / dog, dogs
This is their raw or naked form, the way they’re found in a dictionary. Many Creek words can be spelled more than one way—they are spelled as they are pronounced in different Muskogee speaking communities. Most nouns are both singular and plural in meaning. Only kinship terms, body parts and a few personal terms have plurals. Most Creek plurals are indicated within the sentence verbs or modifiers and not by the nouns.
Nouns used as the subject of a sentence will be marked with a final "-t" added only to the final word of the subject phrase. It is as if the "-t" is saying "That’s all there is of the subject, folks; the next words function as something else." The "-t" closes the subject. Remember, there are not articles in Creek, supply them in translation.
Ahat / A potato, … potato as a subject in a sentenceCatot / The stone, … stone as a subject in a sentence
Estēt / The person, … person as a subject in a sentence
Nouns used as the object of a sentence will be marked with a final "-n" added only to the last word of the object phrase. The "--n" closes the object portion of the sentence. Simple and practical grammar!
ahan / potato, … as an object in a sentencecaton / stone, … as an object in a sentence
cukon / house, … as the object in a sentence
English nouns are generally very narrow or specific in their defined meaning. Creek nouns are more like giant suitcases. Each noun usually packs a lot of meanings within itself. With additions, such as another letter, syllable, or particle, (prefix, suffix, affix, infix and so forth), Creek nouns expand into broad categories that greatly enrich the language’s internal "feel." At the same time, this gives fits to English speaking students who are taught to use words in a narrow specific focus. Put another way, English often has many words to narrowly define an action, idea or object, while Creek often uses one word to define more than one action, idea or object. Creek nouns provide a whole new way of seeing, understanding and dividing up the universe and your experiences within it. Each language is well suited for its own culture. Each does an adequate job fulfilling communication needs.
Words may have a narrow, broad or collective focus of use or meaning:
cuko or coko / housecuko or coko / house, building, structure, home, abode; that these are all man-made structures is the common feature.
estē / person
estē / person, someone, anyone, somebody, anybody; Estē also serves as the impersonal pronoun.
estvlkē* / people, humankind, humanity, mankind, nation, race
eto or ‘to / tree
eto or ‘to / tree, trees, wood, lumber
etvlkē* / forest, woods; eto + -vlkē, the collective plural
cepvnvlkē / all the boys, cepvnē + -vlkē, a collective plural
* -vlkē is the collective ending, implying a group, category or related collection of items
Modifiers, such as adjectives and adverbs, will usually end in a long "-ē," which can be represented by a capital "E" in email or typed pages. This ending is their dictionary form. When modifiers become part of compound words the long "ē" relaxes and becomes a simple short "e" sound not requiring the long mark above it. A final long "ē" becomes an "a" when describing a characteristic of the noun modified. This is demonstrated later in the text.
catē red / hvtkē whitepvfne quick, quickly, fast, swift / vculē old, elderly
hērē good, well, beautiful / yekcē strong, loud, bold
hērēko not good, bad, unacceptable / hvlwē high, (directional/locational)
"-eko-," often reduced to just "-k-," negates modifiers and verbs.
VERBS – quick look
Verbs in the dictionary will end with "-etv." This is their general or infinitive form that merely means to do whatever the verb is, that is, "to (verb)." The infinitive (dictionary form) is always simply stated as a neutral "to ______." Verbs denote actions or states of being. Changes to a verb are necessary to indicate who is doing the action and to whom or what it is done and sometimes, how it is accomplished. This is just like English--go, goes, gone, went, have, had, has, etc.
Pohetv / "to hear"
Ometv / "to be"
Lētketv / "to run" (one person or thing only)
Liketv / "to sit, to be" (one only)
Maketv / "to say, tell"
Hueretv / "to stand" "to exist" (one only)
Kerretv / "to know, learn"
yvhiketv / "to sing"
hompetv / "to eat" (general term)
Don't panic, but this is a good time to tell you that there are singular and plural infinitives in Creek -- they are so simply to recognize that we needn't even mention them here but we did anyway, now didn't we. When you find one, you'll know it, we're sure.
Drop the "-etv" from the verb and the stem/root will be left.
hec- see / huer – standpoh- hear / yvhik – sing
lik- sit / homp – eat, general term
lētk- run / pap – eat, use for specific named food
mak- say / kerr – know, learn
The "—ing" form of a Creek verb is as follows:
hecet – seeingpohet – hearing
liket – sitting
lētket – running
maket – saying
hueret – standing
All modifiers used as adjectives go after the noun they modify. Modifiers retain the long "--ē" ending if they are connected to the noun by a form of the verb "to be" and are equal to the noun such as in the sentence, "The dog is white." White, hvtkē in Creek, retains the "--ē." However, in "The white dog runs fast," white merely describes a characteristic of the dog that is also fast and running. Hvtkē would take an "--a" ending and become "hvtkat" as in "Efv hvtkat pvfnēn lētkes." Although this may seem a strange practice at first, it insures clarity of meaning in Creek.
efv hvtkē / white dogefv hvtkē yekcē / strong white dog
Cepvnē mahē / tall boy
aha catē / red potato
sutv holattē / blue sky
cetto pvfnē / fast snake
Modifiers used after nouns take the appropriate subject or object marker.
Efvt... / The dog... (subject of a sentence)Efv hvtkēt... / The white dog... (subject of a sentence)
Efv hvtkē yekcēt... / The strong white dog... (subject of a sentence)
efv hvtkē yekcēn... / …the strong white dog... (object of a sentence)
aha catēn... / …the red potato... (object of a sentence)
Essē lanē / green leaf, green leaves
Because verbs are last in Creek sentences, modifiers used as adverbs must come before verbs they modify. As adverbs, these modifiers also take an "-n" ending. Remember: verbs are last.
Yekcēn yvhikes / sings loudly, stronglyPvfnēn lētkes / runs quickly (fast, swiftly)
hērēn heces / sees well, views carefully, takes a fine look at
hērēn hecvs! / look well! (command or imperative form "-vs") one only
There are two types of Creek verbs called TYPE I and TYPE II respectively.
Type I verbs are active/action verbs. These energetic verbs change forms to tell you who is doing what to whom. They do this largely by adding pronoun endings They also embed tense (time) markers to let you know exactly when the action occurred or will occur. English does this by adding words to the verb phrase or other parts of the sentence.
OMETV "To Be" TYPE I verb. The "root/stem" is OM-- when "--etv" is dropped.
Omis / I am... / omēs (omēyēs) / we are...
Ometskes / you are (singular) / omatskes / you are (plural)...
Omes / s/he or it is... / omakes / they are...
Learn these following embedded pronoun endings. They are used with all TYPE I verbs. Why are these endings important? Well, they tell you who is doing the action of the verb. They repeat, that is, restate the subject of the sentence as a pronoun buried within the verb ending. This linguistic arrangement is much easier than English whose flexibility allows many different ways to convey the very same information. Creek presents the information with great clarity to those who know their endings.
--etskes / you are (one) … / --atskes / you all are …
--es / s/he or it is … / --akes / they are …
*ēs and "ēyēs" sound alike but "ēyēs” is best used when writing in order to insure the reader
understands that is it "we."
Some General Sentence patterns:
Simple Creek sentences can consist of one word, a verb, in which the subject and/or object are embedded or implied, in its ending. Study the following examples and note their endings.
Heces. / S/he sees. (observes, views) S/he sees it.Hecvs! / Look! See! (one only) "--vs" is the imperative form.
Hecis / I see. I view. I observe.
Lētkis. / I run. (one only)
Lētketskes. / You run. (one only)
Likvs! / Sit! (one only)
Yvhikes. / S/he sings.
Yvhikvres. / S/he will sing (infix -vre- for general future II tense).
Like Creek nouns, Creek verbs are very expandable through the use of particles. Let’s examine some "verbal expansions" based on the verb Hecetv "to see."
Tvkheces. S/he looks on the ground.
Akhecvs! Look in the water!
Ohhecvs! Look on it (upon, over it, above it or toward it)
Raheces. S/he looks back.
Eheces. S/he sees him/herself.
Eshecvs! Find it!
Etehecetv "to see each other"
Yehecetv "to come and see, to come and visit"
Hecicetv "to show" (cause someone to see, "-ic-" is a causative infix
Verbs always repeat the stated subject as an embedded pronoun. See verb endings above.Verbs (declarative) stating an action normally end with an "-s." These are TYPE I verbs.
Verbs (interrogative) asking a question usually end in a vowel: "--v? -tē? --o? or --a?"
Hecv? / S/he sees? Does s/he see? (observe? look?)
Lētketskv? / Do you run?
Yvhikvretē? / Will s/he sing?
The "-etē?" is the interrogative for the general or second future (II) tense
The "--v?" (sometimes written as "--a?") is used for the other tenses.
Second level sentences consists of a subject & verb or an object & verb. Subjects will be marked with a final "-t" and objects will be marked with the final "-n." The "-n" closes out (ends) the object word or phrase.
Canet lētkes. / John runs.
Canet lētkv? / Does John run?
Estonko? / How are you? How goes it? What’s happening with you?
Cepvnēt pohes. / A boy hears.
Naken yvhikvnkv? / What did s/he sing (-vnk- for recently such as 2 days ago)?
Noricetonko? / She's cooking, isn't she? "O" indicates a rhetorical question
Or, second level sentences may consist of an object & verb. Objects will be marked but with an "--n." Efvn heces. S/he sees a dog. (She, he and it are built into the verb)
Efvn hecetskv? / Do you see the dog?
Efvt hecv? / Does the dog see? (the dog, does it see?)
Efvt heces. / The dog sees, (does see).
Cepvnēn pohv? / Does s/he hear the boy?
Cepvnēn pohvnkv? / Did s/he hear the boy (in recent days)?
Ehe,cepvnn pohvnnks. / Yes, we recently heard the boy.
Third level (full form) sentences contain a subject, object and verb.
Canet efv hvtkēn heces. / John sees the white dog.
Melet efvn heces. / Mary sees the dog. (Mary, she sees)
Efvt Melen heces. / The dog sees Mary. (The dog, it sees)
Efv hvtkēt Melen heces. / The white dog sees Mary.
Efvt Melen pohvnks / The dog heard Mary (recently).
Note the changes in the verb endings below
Canet efvn hecet os. (or) / John is seeing a dog. (contraction of omes)Canet efvn hecet omes. / John is seeing (observing) a dog.
Melet yvhiketvn yvhiket os. / Mary is singing a song.
Lētket omv? / Is s/he running? "Omv?" (question form)
Henka, lētket os. / Yes sir, she is running. Yes, she runs.
Efvt fonen hompet omv? / Is the dog eating a bone? (or bones)
Efvt fonen hompv? / Does the dog eat bones? (or bone)
If sentences included a main verb and an auxiliary (helping) verb, the helped main verb will end with "-t" and procede the helping verb that will be final in the sentence. The final declarative verb (one that makes a statement) will end with "-s" and an interrogative verb (one that asks a question) will end with a vowel: "-v? -te? -o? or a?" and occasionally, a question will in with "-onko?" if it is a rhetorical question not really requiring an actual answer.