Not able to… Cannot…
See also “Able to…” and “Able to if”.
For negative conditional ability, take the Immediate
Tense stem and add “Ꮭ” and use prefix “ᏴᎦ-”
Note: ᏴᎦ combines with an ᎢᏥ to become ᏴᎨᏥ, combines with other Ꭲ’s
to become ᏴᎦ-, combines with an Ꭰ sound to become ᏴᎬ-, and combines
with an Ꭴ sound to become ᏴᎫ-.
Examples:
- Ꮭ ᏴᎦᏥᏁᎩ “I cannot speak.” “I cannot speak if…”
- Ꮭ ᏴᎦᎯᏁᎩ “You cannot speak.” “You cannot speak if…”
- Ꮭ ᏴᎬᏂᏁᎩ “They cannot speak.” “They cannot speak if…”
While “Ꮭ” is commonly used with this prefix combination, its
use is not required.
Cherokee Messenger (CM), pg 111