Observation

minu	s/he drinks	tshimin	you drink
shiueńu	s/he is hungry	nishiueń	I’m hungry

The verbs above have a stem ending in n or ń.

Some instances of n are pronounced [l] in Pessamit and Mashteuiatsh. These are indicated with ń here and in the dictionary, but this notation is not used in standard spelling.

EXAMPLES OF AI VERBS WITH n OR ń STEMS

unishinu	s/he is lost	nunishiniti	I’m lost
pishinu	s/he has something in her/his eye	tshipishin	you have something in your eye
utapanu	s/he has a vehicle	nutapannan	we have a vehicle
kaukuenu	s/he frowns	eka kaukueni!	don’t frown!
puńu	s/he gives up	eka puńi!	don’t give up!
kupańu	s/he falls	kupańńua	s/he (obv) falls
ashtuńu	s/he makes a canoe	nitashtuńnan	we are making a canoe
unipańu	s/he makes a mistake	unipańipan	s/he made a mistake

NOTES ON SPELLING

After a stem ending in n or ń, the ending of the 1st and 2nd singular persons of the Independent Indicative Present (which would be just -n) is assimilated or deleted; on the other hand, when endings begin with an n or ń, as in the obviative and in the 1st and 2nd plural persons of the Independent Indicative Present (-ńua, -nan, -nau), there are two n‘s, that of the stem and that of the ending: nimin+n=nimin I drink it; nimin+nan=niminnan we drink it; min+ńua=minńua s/he (obv) drinks it. In the Mamit dialect, the two n‘s are not always pronounced; it is therefore necessary to consult the conjugation guide to know when two n‘s are needed. Among AI verbs with ń stems are verbs ending with the morpheme -pań- (e.g. kupańu s/he falls); several of these verbs have an equivalent II verb with the stem -pańi- (e.g. kupańu it falls).