Description:

The term 'tiena' refers to gratitude and thankfulness.

Verb:

As a verb, 'tiena' has an argument structure that is strange for English speakers and requires attention. Tiena is a happat verb of giving, but the meaning is close to 'make thankful' than 'to thank'. It takes an ergative subject which is the thing for which one is thankful, and an absolutive object which is the thankful one, and a dative indirect object, which is the person to whom thanks are given.

So to say something like 'I thanked him for the coffee', you would say:

Ja kaffe hanne tiena we ija sy.
The(ERG) coffee give(NP.PF) thank I(ABS) the(DAT) sir.

This comes across just like 'I have thanked him for the coffee', but functions more like 'the coffee made me thankful to him'.

Tiena can be used in a set phrase for 'thank you' as 'we hap tiena' or just 'hap tiena'.

Noun:

As a noun, 'tiena' means thankfulness or gratitude.

Modifier:

As a modifier, 'tienas' means 'grateful' - another way of expressing gratitude besides the set phrase 'we hap tiena' is to say 'we se an tienas', 'I am thankful'. This form might be used to take about a genenral state of gratitude as opposed to an immediate response to a beneficial action. In the adverbial sense of 'thankfully', it is often used as a sentence level modifier to indicate overall gratitude for the condition stated.