4. Who Does What

What You’ll Learn

This lesson teaches the two most important sentence endings:

• -el, the doer ending (ergative);
• -es, the main noun or receiver ending (absolutive);
• how Early Hick marks sentence jobs with endings instead of English word order.

The Doer Ending -el

When one person or thing does an action to another person or thing, the doer gets -el.

materok-el 'al-es venitar
handler-DOER person-RECEIVER burden-UP
"The handler carries the person."

materok means “handler” or “boatman.” The ending -el tells you the handler is the one doing the action.

The Main Noun Ending -es

The ending -es marks the main noun of a simple sentence. In a sentence with a doer and a receiver, it marks the receiver.

'al-es
person-MAIN

'ales barak'er
person-MAIN walk-ACTION
"The person walks."

In English class terms, this is unusual. English usually treats “the person” in “the person walks” like a subject. Early Hick marks it with the same ending used for a receiver. The technical term is absolutive.

How to Read the Endings

Ending	Plain name	Formal name	Job in the sentence
-el	doer ending	ergative	the one doing an action to something
-es	main/receiver ending	absolutive	the simple main noun or the receiver

Try It

In the sentence below, who is the doer and who is the receiver?

materok-el rismater-es ward'er
handler-DOER reed.boat-RECEIVER guide-ACTION

Pop quiz Answer

The doer is materok-el, “the handler.” The receiver is rismater-es, “the reed boat.”

A natural English translation is:

"The handler guides the reed boat."

Reference Note

For the technical version, see Ergative-Absolutive Alignment.