Observation

pituau	s/he smokes	nipituan	I smoke
uniu	s/he gets up	nunin	I get up
kusseu	s/he fishes	tshikussen	you fish

The verbs above have stems ending in a, e, or i: pitua-, uni-, and kusse-. The final vowels a, i, e of these stems are (historically) long vowels. In this stem type, the stem vowel is always visible, regardless of the ending (plural, obviative, conjunct) that is added.

EXAMPLES OF AI VERBS WITH LONG a STEMS

mau	s/he cries	apu mat	s/he isn’t crying
pituau	s/he smokes	nipituan	I smoke
unitau	s/he loses it	nunitan	I lose it
aiamiau	s/he prays	nitaiamianan	we pray

EXAMPLES OF AI VERBS WITH LONG i STEMS

aieshkushiu	s/he is tired	nitaieskushin	I’m tired
uniu	s/he gets up	nunin	I get up
kashipiu	s/he stretches	tshikashipinan	we stretch
akushiu	s/he climbs	tshitakushin	you climb

EXAMPLES OF AI VERBS WITH LONG e STEMS

tueu	s/he plays ball	nituen	I play ball
kusseu	s/he fishes	tshikussen	you fish
neneu	s/he breathes	ninenenan	we breathe
ataueu	s/he goes shopping	tshitatauenau	you (pl) go shopping
pitutsheu	s/he goes inside	tshipitutshenan	we go inside

NOTES ON PRONUNCIATION

In the case of stems ending in long a (mau s/he cries, nipau s/he sleeps), there could be confusion with the 3rd person forms of stems ending in long u (ukaumau s/he is a mother) or au (nipau s/he gets married); however, in other person forms this confusion disappears: niman I cry, nukaumaun I am a mother, ninipaun I get married. Furthermore, the pronunciation of long vowel stems is clear for all speakers. For some speakers, e stems and many a stems present in oral speech the alternation a/e ([ntǝtussa:n] I work, [tusse:w] s/he works; [nǝnǝpa:n] I sleep [nǝpe:w], s/he sleeps); in the spelling, these conjugations have been regularized as with the dialects that have more regular forms (except in the conjugation of the relational, where the alternation remains for all dialects).