Polysynthetic Language 101

From the The 5 Minute Linguist, p. 49 ("How many Native American languages are there?" by Marianne Mithun).

The Mohawk word wa'tkenikahrá:ra'ne' , for example, means 'they saw it.' This word consists of several parts. The first is the factual prefix wa' -, which indicates that the speaker feels that this is a fact, that the event actually happened. It is usually translated as the past tense in English. The second part is the prefix t-, which indicates duality.. The third is the pronomial prefix keni- ('they'), but it is more specific than the English translation. It tells us that just two females were involved. The fourth part is an incoporated noun -kahr ('eye'). The core of the word is actually the verb root -r- 'be on.' Next is the suffix -a'n-, which means 'come to' or 'become.' Finally we have the suffix -e' , which tells us that the event happened all at once. The word thus means literally 'the girls came to be visually on it,' that is, 'their eyes fell upon it,' or 'they saw it.'

And I thought Mandarin was tough!