A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

going to eat, as independent order inflection: giga-wiisinimin; or as conjunct order
inflection within a mii-clause: mii ji-wiisiniyang. While the basic proposition is the
same for both these statements, the mii-clause mii ji-wiisiniyang is the stronger statement
of the two and carries heightened emotional load, having the interpretation ‘now we’re
going to for sure!’. Given the amount of excitement that existed in killing the duck, and
the amount of time and effort that was invested in preparing it for cleaning, the use of sha
naa here is felicitous.
Recall also that sha also had a feeling of eliciting pity from interlocutors, e.g. ingii-
wiindamawaa sha ‘I told her’ (getting after herself and eliciting pity from interlocutors).
This sort of pity-invoking usage is also seen with sha naa as well, where speakers feel
left out and want others to include them. The use of sha naa in the following examples
provided by my consultants are equivalent to the use of rising tone in English over the
first personal pronoun I and the final word, i.e. English pity invoking tone.
(124) sha naa
(a) Niwii-odaabii’iwe sha naa.
I want to drive DM DM
‘I wanna drive.’
b) Niwii-namadab sha naa.
I want to site DM DM
‘I want to sit.’
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