A grammar of Pite Saami, 2014

13 Basic clauses
However, no other examples of such constructions are found in the corpus, and
this constituent ordering may be due to this phrase being a common expression
and non-productive lexicalized structure calqued from the Swedish expression
tack ska du ha! (literally ‘thanks you shall have!’).
The adverb dále ‘now’ is common in imperative clauses, and is frequently abbreviated
to dál, as in (60).
(60) årren
årre-n
dál
dál
sleep-du.imp now
‘Go to sleep now!’
[pit110518a.06m55s]e
13.4 Clauses in the potential mood
Aside from featuring a finite verb inflected for the potential mood 16 by the -tj
suffix, clauses in the potential mood generally lack an overt subject argument, as
in (61) and (62).
(61) nå hålåv, vuolgetjip del
nå hålå-v vuolge-tji-p del
well say-1sg.prs go-pot-1pl obviously
‘Well then I say we really should probably go.’
(62) nä, virtitjav
nä virti-tja-v
nuollat
nuolla-t
no must-pot-1sg undress-inf
‘Oh no, I’ll probably have to take off some clothes.’
[pit090702.013]
[pit090519.029]
However, as the clause in (63) makes clear, it is possible to have an overt subject
argument.
(63) jus sån
jus sån
if
vuosjatja
vuosja-tj-a
3sg.nom prepare.coffee-pot-3sg
‘If he will perhaps make coffee.’
káfav
káfa-v
coffee-acc.sg
[pit110404.269]e
With this in mind, clauses in the potential mood do not differ syntactically from
declarative clauses.
16 Cf. §8.1.3.2 on the usage and the morphology of the potential mood.
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