A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

e) “You’ll be given beads.
d) This is what they used to do long ago.”
e) I was hesitant isa.
f) I was foolish.
g) I was small.
h) But I wanted the beads badly, so she covered me with a shawl.’
Here, a little girl, Naawakamigookwe, is urged to beg for beads and was even told what
to say at the entrance of the wigwams. Reflecting upon this at the telling of this story,
she reveals that she was hesitant at the time in (83e), and accents this statement with isa.
In (83f-g), she even goes on to give justification for her hesitation, i.e. that she was
foolish and small. Underlyingly, there are two dispositions at play in this story: that of
her aunts who want her (a little girl) to go around to all the wigwams to beg for beads,
and the little girl’s hesitancy due to her childish nature and size. While the propositional
content in (83e-g) forms the basis of her disposition, the use of isa allows her obvious
difference in perspective, i.e. that a little girl would have the fortitude to go around
begging for beads. It allows her to show that her disposition is contrary to their
disposition, reinforcing her disposition against that of her aunts. In short, isa allows the
speaker to project the attitude: I obviously could not do such a thing, contrary to what
they think.
The proposition challenging feature of isa can be seen in the following exchange,
found from a story in a related dialect, i.e. Nett Lake dialect. In this story, two brothers
who are still in their mother’s womb are fighting over who will be the first to be born.
One says that he will be, and the other challenges him with a remark accented by isa.
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