Possession indicates close assoication with a person (our mother), animal (his dog), place (your village), or ownership/use of a thing (my snowshoes).

The possessor is indicated by either a proper noun (such as a person's name) or a possessive pronoun (my, your, his/her, our, their, etc.).

Possessed nouns fall into the categories of inherently possessed nouns (e.g. relatives and body parts) and non-inherently possessed nouns (all nouns that are not inherently possessed).

POSSESSION IS INDICATED BY A PROPER NOUN

When the possessor is indicated by a proper noun, such as a person's name, -a or -'a is attached as a suffix to the possessed person, animal, place, or thing. Consider the following examples:

Dena’ina: Mary hał’a (ghał+’a)

• Mary = possessor noun
• hał = possessed noun meaning backpack, h changes to gh when it is the initial sound in a word
• -'a is a suffix that indicates possession and is attached to the possessed noun, in this case her backpack (note: the apostrophe (') does not indicate ownership as in English, but represents a glottal stop (see sound system).

English equivalent: Mary’s backpack

• 's is a suffix that indicates possession and is attached to the possessor, in this case Mary.
• Mary = possessor noun
• backpack = possessed noun

The possessive suffix ('a) cannot be applied to all nouns. A complete list has not yet been made. If the suffix 'a cannot be added to indicate possession, one of the prefixes described in the section below can be used instead.

POSSESSION IS INDICATED BY A POSSESSIVE PRONOUN

A possessive pronoun is attached as a prefix to the possessed noun. Consider the following examples:

Dena'ina: beq'ildu (be+qenq'a)

• be = possessive pronoun meaning his/her, indicating the possessor of the attached possessed noun
• qenq'a = possessed noun meaning house

English equivalent: her house

• her = possessive pronoun indicating the possessor of the following noun
• house = possessed noun

In English possession with pronouns involves two words such as "my snowshoes." In Dena'ina possession with pronouns becomes one word, "shlugech'" (sh+lugech') or "my gloves."

When adding sh- (meaning my) to a word that begins with ł, s, sh, x, or h (voiceless fricatives, see "Dena'ina Consonants") the sound changes to its voiced counterpart; l, z, zh, or gh.

For example dog is łika so following the rule "my dog" is shlik'a, not shłik'a (the ł changes to l).

In English the possessive pronouns "his" and "her" are different words (as described above). In Dena'ina the prefix "be-" stands for both "his" and "her" and you would know the difference from the context of the sentence.

INHERENT POSSESSION

Some Dena'ina words consist of a prefix and a root that must occur together as one word and are called inherently possessed words. Words for relatives and body parts are common inherently possessed forms. Consider the following examples:

Dena'ina: shunkda (sh+unkda)

• sh- = possessive pronoun meaning my, indicating the possessor of the attached possessed root.
• -unkda= possessed root meaning "mother"

English equivalent: my mother

• my = possessive pronoun indicating the possessor of the following noun
• mother = possessed noun

Relatives

Body Parts

Note: the root cannot be said by itself to refer to a relative. The root must be preceeded by an attached possessive pronoun.

In English possession with pronouns involves two words such as "my father." In Dena'ina possession with pronouns becomes one word, "shtukta" (sh+tukta) or "my father."

When adding sh- (meaning my) to a word that begins with ł, s, sh, x, or h (voiceless fricatives, see "Dena'ina Consonants") the sound changes to its voiced counterpart; l, z, zh, or gh.

For example dog is łika so following the rule "my dog" is shlik'a, not shłik'a (the ł changes to l).

In English the possessive pronouns "his" and "her" are different words (as above). In Dena'ina the prefix "be-" stands for both "his" and "her" and you would know the difference from the context of the sentence.