te lá:léms tl’ John

John’s house

Te lá:léms tl’ John means ‘John’s house’ (literally ‘the house of John’).

Pronunciation

• te sounds like tuh.
• lá:lém sounds like LA-lum (see here for more info).
• tl’ sounds like tl, except that the t is ‘popped’, by combining it with a catch in the throat (‘glottal stop’).

In this phrase, Elizabeth Herrling uses the English pronunciation for ‘John‘, which is common for bilingual speakers. Some speakers would also say like this: Chól.

Audio: Elizabeth Herrling

Structure

Here is a word-for-word translation for the phrase:

• te lá:lém-s tl’ John
• the house-of the John

Notes:

• The –s ending on the noun marks that it is possessed by an owner.  This –s is required.
• There are two words that roughly translate as English the:  te and tl’.  These are both required, even though we would not say the in the English translation (John’s house).
• tl’ is a very special form of the:  you only use tl’ before names, and only in a few structures (including this possessive structure).

Related Examples

Here are some examples of similar phrases:

• te sqwemá:ys tl’ Mary – Mary’s dog
• te méles tl’ Sue – Sue’s child
• te sqáqs tl’ John – John’s little brother