Editing Tlingit language (section)

====Focus particles====

The focus particles follow the left periphery ("forephrase" per Leer) of a sentence. The Naish-Story term for them is "post-marginals". Many of them may be suffixed with a demonstrative (''-yá'', ''-hé'', ''-wé'', ''-yú''), and they may also be combined with the interrogative (''-gé''). Focus particles are stylistically written as separate words, but phonetically, they may be indivisible from the preceding utterance.

* ''sá'' — wh-question
* ''gé'' — dubitative, unlikelihood, "perhaps", "maybe, "it would seem..."
* ''á'' — focus
* ''ágé'' — interrogative (< ''á'' + ''gé'')
* ''ásé'' — discovery, understanding of previously unclear information, "oh, so..."
* ''ásgé'' — second hand information, "I hear...", "they say..." (< ''ásé'' + ''gé'')
* ''khu.aa'' — contrastive, "however"
* ''xháa'' – softening, "you see"
* ''shágdéi'' — dubitative, likelihood, "perhaps", "probably"
* ''dágáa'' — emphatic assertion, "indeed", "for sure"
* ''shéi'' — mild surprise
* ''gwáa'', ''gu.áa'' — strong surprise
* ''gwshéi'', ''gushéi'' — rhetorical interrogative, request for corroboration, "I wonder", "perhaps"
* ''óosh'' — hypothetical, "as if", "even if", "if only"

The combination of the focus ''á'' with the demonstratives gives the frequently used particles ''áyá'' and ''áwé'', and the less common ''áhé'' and ''áyú''. Combination of the interrogative ''ágé'' with the demonstratives gives the confirmative particles ''ákwé'' and ''ákyá'' (''ák-hé'' and ''ákyú'' are uncommon), used to elicit a yes/no response from the listener.

The interrogative ''ágé'' also usually contracts to ''ág'' before ''tsú'' "also": ''ág tsú'' "also?" < ''ágé'' + ''tsú''.

The particle ''sá'' is obligatory in forming [[Interrogative word|wh-question]] phrases. It can be combined with a demonstrative, the dubitative, the rhetorical interrogative, and the emphatic assertion:

* ''sáwé'' (< ''sá'' + ''áwé''), ''sáyá'', ... — focused question, "... is that?"
* ''sgé'' (< ''sá'' + ''gé'') — dubitative question, "maybe?", "perhaps?"
* ''ságwshéi'' — "I wonder?"
* ''sdágáa'' (< ''sá'' + ''dágáa'') — "(what) on earth?", "really?"