A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE ...

The uncle’s initial utterance to his niece after finding out that the turtles were stolen is
accented by the cluster sa naa.
(129) sa naa (Kegg 1991:90-91)
a) “Mii sa naa akina ingiw mikinaakwag, gaawiin awiiya,” ikido, ikido
DP DM DM all those turtles not someone he says he says
mii a’aw inzhishenh.
DP that my uncle
b) “Awegwenag naa.
I don’t know who they are DM
c) Wenda-gichi-mamaangizidewag naa ingiw.
they have very big feet DM those
d) Mii iidog naa gaa-izhi-niigoshkamowaad i'iw waasechigan,” ikido…
that DUB DM then they broke it that window say
a) ‘“All [sa naa] those turtles are gone,” my uncle said.
b) “I don’t know what they are [naa].
c) They [naa] have really big feet.
d) They must [naa] have broken the window,” he said…’
The utterance in (129a) is a resultant expression shown by the speaker’s use of sa. In
essence, he appears to have given up trying to figure out who stole the turtles and finally
states to his niece that they are now gone. The girl’s uncle uses naa, apparently as a
hedge, since he is unable to account for what happened, i.e. like saying somehow or
another. In other words, with the use of sa naa in this example, the uncle is essentially
saying to his niece after having done an inspection, but still not able to figure out who
stole the turtles, all those turtles are finally gone. Note that the remaining three
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