Giving Thanks
Giving thanks in Carrier is a little bit more complicated than in English. How you say “thank you” depends on what you are giving thanks for, on how many people are giving thanks, and on how many are being thanked.
The simplest and most common way to express thanks is musi. This can be used by any number of people to any number of people. It tends to be used in relatively informal circumstances and when a lower degree of grattitude is expressed. musicho is a somewhat stronger version, equivalent to “thank you very much”.
In more formal circumstances and when it is desired to express more serious thanks, the verb give thanks may be used.
However, it is more common to use two other verbs, whose usage is more complicated. The following words, forms of “be good to so”, are used to give thanks for what someone has given you or what someone has done for you:
| snachailya | I thank you (1) |
| snachalhya | I thank you (2+) |
| nenachailya | We (2+) thank you (1) |
| nenachalhya | We (2+) thank you (2+) |
You will recognize the first and third forms as l-valence verbs with 2s subjects and the second and fourth forms as l-valence verbs with 2p subjects. This is surprising, since thanks are being given to “you”, not by “you”.
The reason is that these verbs literally mean something like “you have done me a favour”, so the subjects and objects are the reverse of what we expect on the basis of their English translations. This also explains why the subjects (of the English translations) distinguish “I” from “we (2+)”, when Carrier verbs normally distinguish 1s, 1d, and 1p. The reason is that there is no distinction between 1d and 1p for objects. The s of snachailya and snachalhya is the 1s object prefix. The ne of nenachailya and nenachalhya is the 1dp object marker.
The following words, forms of “be good to so in speech”, are used to give thanks for what someone has said. They could also be translated as “I appreciate what you said”, etc. Note that these are the appropriate words to use when saying “No, thank you”. Since you are refusing what is being offered to you, you are not giving thanks for receiving something. Rather, you are giving thanks for the offer.
| snachadindli | I thank you (1) |
| snachaduhdli | I thank you (2+) |
| nenachadindli | We (2+) thank you (1) |
| nenachaduhdli | We (2+) thank you (2+) |
be thankful and be thankful are related verbs that indicate that someone is thankful without directly expressing thanks to anyone in particular.
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