Second Level Hausa: Grammar in Action

SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES Second Level Hausa: Grammar in Action Second Level Hausa: Grammar in Action G...

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SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES

Second Level Hausa: Grammar in Action

Second Level Hausa: Grammar in Action Graham Furniss Senior Lecturer in Hausa, School of Oriental and African Studies SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 1991

Published by the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” © Graham Furniss 1991 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Furniss, Graham Second level Hausa: grammar in action. I. Title 493.7282421 ISBN 0-203-99014-5 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0 7286 0182 6 (Print Edition)

Table of Contents

Preface

1.

x

Note for students

xii

Abbreviations

xiv

Introduction to the Syntax of the Simple Sentence

3

1.1.

Neutral sentences

3

1.2.

Verbal and non-verbal sentences

4

1.3.

Classificatory criteria

4

The Nominal Phrase

9

The simple NP

9

2. 2.1. 2.1.1.

The constituents of the simple NP

11

2.1.2.

Noun

11

2.1.3.

Pronoun

12

2.1.4.

Quantifier

14

2.1.5.

Ideophone

15

2.1.6.

Unitary adjective

16

2.1.7.

Reduplicated adjective

18

2.1.8.

Adjectival phrase

18

2.1.9.

Adjectival complex

19

2.1.10.

Relative clause

20

2.1.11.

Specifier

21

2.1.12.

Referential

23

2.1.13.

Diminutive

23

2.1.14.

Isolator

24

vii

2.1.15.

Genitival complex

25

2.1.16.

Adverbial constituents of the NP

27

2.1.17.

Simple adverb

27

2.1.18.

Adverbial compound

29

2.1.19.

Adverbial complex

30

2.1.20.

Adverbial phrase

32

2.2.

Appositional and conjoined NPs

34

2.3.

Order of pre-head modifiers and of post-head modifiers

36

2.3.1.

Order of pre-head modifiers

37

2.3.2.

Order of post-head adverbial modifiers

37

2.3.3.

Order of post-head non-adverbial modifiers

40

2.3.4.

Order of all post-head modifiers

40

3.

The Verbal Phrase

45

3.1.

The verbal complex

47

3.2.

Verb form

47

3.2.1. 3.3.

The Grades of the Hausa verb (schematic) The verb Grades

48 50

3.3.1.

Grade 1

50

3.3.2.

Grade 2

52

3.3.3.

Grade 3

53

3.3.4.

Grade 4

54

3.3.5.

Grade 5

55

3.3.6.

Grade 6

57

3.3.7.

Grade 7

58

4. 4.1.

Syntactic Verb Classes

65

Introduction to the relationship between a verb and its grammatical dependents

65

4.1.1.

Complement, direct object and oblique object

66

4.1.2.

Indirect object

68

4.1.2.1.

Form of the indirect object

68

viii

4.1.2.2.

D forms of verbs

69

4.1.2.3.

Syntax and the indirect object

71

4.1.2.4.

Meanings of the indirect object

72

4.2.

Transitive verbs

74

4.2.1.

Simple transitives

74

4.2.2.

Auxiliary/indeterminate verbs with restricted objects

75

4.2.3.

Two-object verbs

78

4.3.

Intransitive Verbs

82

4.3.1.

Simple intransitives

82

4.3.2.

Intransitive verbs operating with a following complement

83

4.3.3.

Sociative verbs

87

4.3.3.1.

Intransitive sociative verbs

87

4.3.3.2.

Transitive sociative verbs

89

4.3.3.3.

Phrasal sociative constructions

90

4.4.

Introduction to verbs operating dependent VP complements or objects

92

4.4.1.

Dependent sentences

92

4.4.2.

Verbal and non-verbal sentences

93

4.4.3.

Tense/aspect systems in dependent sentences

94

4.5.

Verbs operating with dependent VPs

97

4.5.1.

Verbs allowing NP or VP objects or both at once

97

4.5.2.

Verbs regularly operating a general system aspect in the dependent sentence

97

4.5.2.1. 4.5.3. 4.5.4. 4.5.5.

Verbs taking kân plus a general system aspect

102

Verbs regularly operating a general system aspect or subjunctive in a dependent sentence

103

Verbs normally operating with a subjunctive in a dependent sentence

105

Verbs that operate with a following dà or yaddà plus a relative system aspect

109

ix

4.6. 4.6.1.

Coordinate sentences Catenative constructions: two or more closely linked coordinate verbs

112 113

Bibliography

115

Index of verbs

117

Preface

This course book is the product of teaching Hausa at SOAS for some years and is the text for a course called Hausa II(A) taught in the second year of undergraduate degrees involving Hausa in the University of London. Both for grammatical discussion and for exemplification the text draws extensively upon the unpublished doctoral thesis (University of London, 1969) of M.K.M.Galadanci, The Simple Nominal Phrase in Hausa and upon the teaching of F.W.Parsons and D.W.Arnott concerning the operation of the verbal system in Hausa. I am grateful to Kabir Galadanci for permission to quote from his doctoral thesis and to Freddie Parsons and David Arnott for permission to reproduce material taken from notes taken in their classes. Examples are also drawn from the writings of Sulaiman Ibrahim Katsina, Abubakar Imam, Bello Kagara among others, and from current Hausa newspapers and contemporary broadcasts of the Hausa Service of the BBC World Service. I owe a particular debt of gratitude to Paul Newman and Joe McIntyre for their careful and constructive criticism of an earlier version of this text and to my colleagues Philip Jaggar and Owen Wright for their helpful comments on the organization and presentation of this material. I would also like to express my gratitude to the School of Oriental and African Studies for its support in the publication of this book. It can be a perilous business producing a ‘second level textbook’ when it is unclear what is expected from the student before approaching such material. I have assumed that students will have worked through Spoken Hausa by J Ronayne Cowan and Russell G. Schuh and that they are now looking to strike a balance, even if uneasy, between the improvement of competence on the one hand and the examination of grammatical structures as part of the intellectual training expected within a university on the other. Improvement of competence is proposed by the provision of new vocabulary set within sentence patterns that provide frameworks for the student’s own generation of language. Practice to internalise such patterns is provided by the traditional means of translation and composition exercises. The intellectual training is provided, I fervently hope, by the requirement that students examine critically in class these proposed patterns and generalizations and that they tackle inconsistencies, inelegancies, over-simplifications, inaccuracies, with a view to improving such grammatical descriptions. I am grateful to students of Hausa at SOAS over the

xi

last four or five years who have been the source of much useful criticism, particularly Alison Blair, Nicholas Awde, Melanie Green, Randall Smith, Anna Debska, Sarah Coxson and Mark Brogden. While I have tried to set out this text in such a way that it is clear and comprehensible to a student of Hausa, I am well aware that, in practice, it may satisfy neither the scholar who is familiar with the real complexities of the features briefly sketched out here nor the student who is looking for a potted introduction to the language as a whole. To them I can only say that my aims are limited, limited to that key area in learning any language, the operation of verbs and their immediate dependents.

Note for students

These explanatory notes are intended to be used in class in conjunction with exercises, the reading of texts, translation into and out of Hausa, and essay-writing in Hausa, some of which activities are part of the SOAS courses, Hausa II(A) and II(B). The grammatical framework is presented with a small number of examples; it is for you to build up your own collection of further examples from your reading, from Spoken Hausa by Cowan and Schuh, and from other books such as Teach Yourself Hausa by Kraft and Kirk-Greene, and from discussion in class. You will need to have beside you An English-Hausa Dictionary by Roxana Ma Newman and the Modern Hausa-English Dictionary compiled under the direction of Paul and Roxana Newman at the Centre for the Study of Nigerian Languages, Kano. The theme of the year’s work is the operation of verbs in Hausa and the syntax of the simple sentence. The bulk of the first term is devoted to the analysis of nominal phrases in Hausa, this leads on in the second and third terms to the discussion of verbs and the way they operate in simple sentences. As you work through the book in class, you will find sections in italics that are for you to translate and have marked by the teacher. A small number of footnotes provide the meanings of words you may not find in the dictionary and with which you may not yet be familiar. Note, when you come to translate in section 2 (the nominal phrase), that the examples given in italics may well not be fully-formed sentences containing a verb; the exercises in that part of the book are intended particularly to demonstrate the way in which nominal phrases operate. An alphabetical index of Hausa verbs referred to in the text is to be found at the back of the book with page numbers to help you find information on how a particular verb can be used. This index groups the Grades of a particular verb in order that you can see how they interrelate; it runs the risk of grouping under a ‘common stem’ forms that may well be etymologically unrelated. For ease of cross-reference in learning the verbs listed here we have run that risk. Verbal noun forms have generally not been appended to the index, make your own list as you progress through the book. Tone and vowel lengths are marked in the body of the text but not in italicized sections. You must become familiar with Hausa as it is usually written in Nigeria and Niger; that is, without tone and, in Nigeria, without length marks. The system of marking with which you are

xiii

familiar from Spoken Hausa is again used here except that a falling tone is not additionally marked with a macron (indicating a long vowel). All falling tones are on long vowels or closed syllables. Note: A raised asterisk (*) before a Hausa sentence or phrase indicates that such a construction is ungrammatical.

Abbreviations

adj. adv. cpd. cl. cx. dem. dest. d.o. eff. f. gen. id. ind. intrans. Kats. lit. m. phr. pl. poss. quant. redupl. rel. rel. comp. ref. sh. sim.

adjective adverb compound clause complex demonstrative destination direct object efferential feminine genitive ideophone independent intransitive Katsina literally masculine phrase plural possessive quantifier reduplicated relative relative completive referential short simple

xv

sing. soc. s.o. s.th. subj. trans. uni. vb. v.n. vs. W.

singular sociative someone something subjunctive transitive unitary verb verbal noun versus western

xvi

Part 1

2

1. Introduction to the Syntax of the Simple Sentence

The term simple is used for sentences containing no subordinate or co-ordinate sentences though they may contain embedded sentences, i.e. sentences embedded within a nominal phrase (NP). Syntax is the term given to the relationships between different constituents of the sentence. A neutral verbal sentence in Hausa is made up of a combination of elements in the following order: Subject

Verb

Object(s)

Complement(s)

Adjunct(s)

Items are designated as S or O in terms of their relation to the verb. C is so designated in relation to either V or S or O. Adjuncts relate either to the verb or to the whole entity comprising S V (O) (C). A verbal sentence obligatorily contains a verb and a subject, other items are optional: S

V

O Indirect

(y-) Audù

Audù

yā zō yā nā kāwō nā kāwō sukà yā tàfi dà

makà

C

A

Direct

gàrmā (Ø) direct object understood, deleted gàrī dà jìjjifi kàrensà 1.1. Neutral sentences

A neutralsentence implies that no change has been made in the underlying order of the sentence; such change normally involves left-shifting some item(s), thereby emphasizing it/them:

4 SECOND LEVEL HAUSA: GRAMMAR IN ACTION

Notes: Emphatic left-shifting has its own rules that will be dealt with in a later course. n- or y- in brackets in the above examples is an indication that the subject element is contained within the person/aspect marker in the column marked V. 1.2. Verbal and non-verbal sentences A verbal sentence is contrasted with a non-verbal sentence and these two classes of sentence will be considered later in section 4.4.2. 1.3. Classificatory criteria In this course we will start by looking at the different items that can stand in S, O, C, or A position and the restrictions that verbs place on the nature of the items standing to their right. The analysis of simple sentences will involve two different kinds of labelling. First, there are labels descriptive of the role of an item in a particular phrase or sentence, e.g. subject, object, head of a nominal phrase, pre-head modifier; these terms describe the function in the sentence. Second, there are labels describing the nature of the word, e.g. adjective, noun, adverb; or group of words, e.g. nominal phrase, adverbial complex, etc. Thus in a sentence: yā zō jiyà jiyà is in syntactic terms an adjunct and in descriptive terms an adverb and in general terms an adverb in adjunct position.

SYNTAX OF THE SIMPLE SENTENCE 5

It is important to keep clear the distinction between these two dimensions of description since we will be seeing, on occasion, the same item functioning in entirely different ways, e.g. à ya wani ‘a box in my room is missing’ is an adverbial complex functioning as a modifier of , the head of the whole phrase is the subject of the the nominal phrase . verb On the other hand, in: ya yi barcī wani ‘a monkey went to sleep in my room’ the same adverbial complex is functioning as an adjunct to ya yi barcī, describing where the monkey slept. Before we look at the verb and the way in which the blocks of the sentence are put together, we need to look at the kinds of block that go to build a sentence. Whether in subject, object or complement position in the sentence we deal primarily in terms of nominal phrases (NPs).

6

Part 2

8

2. The Nominal Phrase

The bulk of the following discussion is drawn from the unpublished Ph.D. thesis of M.K.M.Galadanci, University of London, 1969, entitled, The Simple Nominal Phrase in Hausa. 2.1. The simple NP In the presentation that follows words are listed under descriptive headings such as noun, adjective, adverb, etc. But in Hausa words can often function in more than one such category. There has long been discussion as to whether a word such as bàbba should be called a noun, an adjective, or as Parsons would call it, an adjectival noun. The problem arises because the word can act as an adjective taking its gender and number from the noun that it modifies:

nā sàyi ‘I bought a big gown’

MOD bàbbar

H

or it can stand as the head of a nominal phrase and therefore its lexically specified gender and number, as with a noun, determine the gender and number of modifiers: MOD nā sàyi wata ‘I bought a green big one’

H bàbba

MOD kōrìyā

In the first example the word bàbba is behaving as an adjective and in the second it is behaving as a noun. For Hausa the best way to treat such problems would seem to be to consider whether the word can act only as head or modifier, or can act as both head and modifier.


Not only can some words operate as head or modifier within an NP, they may also perform a variety of functions within a sentence. For example, the word gālìbī ‘majority’ can function as a noun: sun dāwō gālìbin ‘the majority of people have returned’ or as an adverb: gālìbī na kàn gan sù à ‘usually I see them at the market’. Compare also some of the uses of the word duk/dukà, which, from its meaning, you would expect to see classified as quantifier (see 2.1.4. below),

The nominal phrase (NP) is analysed in terms of head (H) and modifier(s) (M). Modifiers are either in pre-head or post-head position. The only obligatory item in an NP is a head. Modifiers can be added to or deleted from an NP, but no modifier can stand without an associated head. The simple NP is contrasted with appositional and conjoined NPs (see 2.2.). The simple NP has one main head: MOD

H

MOD

CONSTITUENTS OF THE NOMINAL PHRASE

11

2.1.1. The constituents of the simple NP 2.1.2. Noun Nouns can stand only as the head of a nominal phrase, not as modifier. The primary distinction is between dynamic and non-dynamic nouns. , , and can Dynamicnouns can be preceded by auxiliary verbs, e.g. ’. Dynamic nouns are of two types: operate in the frame ‘… (i) verbal, i.e. based on a verb stem, which can be either weak or strong (= and non-wā; see Cowan and Schuh) when no object follows, are Weakverbal nouns, with suffix . feminine gender: fitôwarsà, dāwôwar, Strong verbal nouns are not predictable in shape from the form of the , nōmā, , , related verb; the majority are masculine: e.g. , , hàngē, sô, yî, cî, yankā, , sàyē, nēmā, . , , sàukā, , Some strong verbal nouns are feminine:e.g. . , (ii) non-verbal,i.e. not based on a verb stem, e.g. barcī, There is a distinctive plural noun form often implying ‘a variety of’, that is derived from verb stems: gin gyārsātci

gìne-gìne

cìye-cìye

Non-dynamic nouns are not normally preceded by auxiliary verbs, unless the verb yi has been deleted. Non-dynamic nouns are of five types: abstract proper collective mass common

girmā, hankàlī, kyâu, Audù, Jāmùs, Ingìlà governing either a singular or a plural concord: they govern only a singular concord: madarā , , ,

,

Compound nouns are invariable and indivisible; the first element in the compound can be:


noun verb

1,

, 3,

4,

, taurin kâi, dōkìn Allàh2 5, 6,

zumāmì7, kàu-dà-bàra8, adjective farar wutā9, jinī10 11 ideophone banzā

Compound nouns operate only as Head in an NP. Translate: farashin man petur yana wahal da mutane yanzu. 1 yawa suka biyo ta wannan hanya. 2 ’Yan gudun hijira masu 3 Mun sayi wasu sabbin kan sarki a gidan waya. ya diro daga sama ya jefa bom . 4 Jirgin saman na Jumhuriyar Soviet wanda aka kammala jiya 5 Taron duniya ta nemi ta hana shi ragamar mulki. 6 Majalisar -littafi mai launi iri iri ne ya shigo ta taga. 7. Malam2.1.3. Pronoun Apart from the direct object, indirect object and disjunctive sets of pronouns, there are also: Interrogative pronouns

1

whooping cough praying mantis 3 crockery 4 unwashable material 5 lit. precede pegging, protection 6 lily-trotter 7 sugar-ant 8 protective charm 9 sulphur 10 unpopularity 11 fool’s gold 2

masculine feminine ___ ______ _______ __ wànnē? wàccē?

plural su su


13

Indefinite pronouns wānè

wancè

su wānè (m.) su wancè (f.)

Note: These pronouns operate only as Head in an NP. Possessive pronouns

The short-form possessivepronouns (-n/-rkà, kì, etc.) are suffixed to the noun they modify and thus can only stand as post-head modifiers. The long-form possessives, however, can function as pre-head modifier, as Head or as post-head modifier in an NP. When used as a pre-head modifier a referential (see 2.1.12. below) is required suffixed to the head. Look at the following examples:

Translate: 1 Su me kuka saya a kasuwa yau? 2 Su wa suka zo tare da ku daga gari? za su cimma cikakkiyar yarjejeniya? 3 nan duka wacce za ta fuskanci matsaloli ta fannin 4 Daga cikin diplomasiyya wajen aiwatar1 da wannan shiri? ? Shi da kuka gani. 5 Wanne mata biri har wutsiya.2 6 Ku bi ta wajen wancen nan taku ku 7 Su wanenmu suka dawo . 8 Su wane nan tsaye; wane da jaki; wanne cikinsu?

Translate: 1 I’ll never forget what’s-’is-name. 2 Of all these programmes which do you prefer?

1 2

put into effect biri har wutsiya—tell the whole story


3 I saw so-and-so at the market but I didn’t speak to her. 4 Which ones did you forget at home?

2.1.4. Quantifier numerals: ukù, àshìrin dà bakwài, etc.; including sometimes a unit indicator which is commonly used when the head noun is a mass or collective noun. While gùdā functions with countable nouns, appropriate units (sacks, bundles, cans, bakwài, hatsī bùhū etc.) occur with other nouns, e.g. gùdā bakwài, turmī , mùtûm ukù, farar bakwài, karā kâi bakwài, gwangwanī . ,dà , dà dāmācan only be modified by a referential (2.1.12.) or an , dà , adverb of degree (2.1.17.), e.g. lìttàttàfai wasu sōjōjī dà dāman gàske. , or can Note: This quantifier can act as a nominal modifier, , gàjērē , and in such circumstances can modify an adjective, farī dà ; in such circumstances this constitutes a usage be substituted by ainùn or as an adverb of degree. distributive : ukù ukù ‘three each’, biyu biyu ‘two each’; these can only be nan dà akà rarràbā musù, biyu biyûn modified by a referential, e.g. ukù ukù ba. bà mù ji interrogative: nawà? Quantifiers can operate as head or as post-head modifiers in an NP. Translate: 1 Sanadiyyar mutuwar mutane har guda shidda. 2 Sojan gwamnati maitan da hamsin. 3 Bikin cika shekaru ashirin da biyar cif cif. da sassan biyu ke da su. (Note how 4 Musayar dubban fursunonin dubbai is used) 5 A Amirka kuwa hukuma tana kashe kimanin dolla milyan goma kowace ’yan ta’addan1 a sassa dabam dabam na duniya. shekara don 6 Hukumar harkokin waje na Amirka ta nuna cewa daga cikin dukan haredaga cikin biyar ana kai su ne kan haren da ake kaiwa, kimanin kashi wuraren da Amirka ta mallaka.

1

terrorism


15

7 Sau nawa jami’in 1 ya zo nan London don a yi shawara kan mutanen da aka yi garkuwa2 da su a Lebanon? biyar. 8 Ya yi sanadin mutuwar mutane fiye da

Translate: 1 Fifteen per cent of cars on the road have tyres that are not in good order. 2 You will get seven books each and I will get all the rest. 3 How many terrorists were killed when the police opened fire? 4 There are quite a few houses in our area that have not been repaired. 5 A very great many people live to celebrate their seventieth birthday. 2.1.5. Ideophone Some ideophones can function equally adverbially or within a NP: wurîn yā cìka ‘the place was chockfull’ maràsā wurin zamā sukà jirā shì ‘masses of people with nowhere to sit waited for him’ , rirìs, cur, tik, sumul also farat, tuburàn, tìnkis-tìnkis, bìrjik, but more usually they behave very much like adverbs (see Section 2.1.17.). Within an NP ideophones often operate as part of an adjectival phrase: tak ya cê zâi bā nì bùhū gùdā ‘he said he would give me justone sack’ , zir. also: fat, sùkùtum, garandàn, wur, rak, fil, While some ideophones can operate as head or as post-head modifier in an NP, , fìu, shar, cur, many ideophones can only occur as post-head modifiers: , shàràf, sùkùtum, tuburàn.

1 2

a representative take hostage


Translate: 1 Kantuna1 kuma rufe suke ana kuma zaman . da dafaffen 2 Za ka ga masu sayar da kayayyaki bakin titi, kamar su rogo da tarkace-tarkace; ban da kantuna da kes-kes birjik ko’ina. ne —mai laushi da yawa kamar na 3 Haka kuma gashin kanta Larabawa. nan sun fara wayewa da cewa hanya 4 Kuma yawancin talakawan da mu daga wannan halaka: ita ce ta muhimmin guda ce tak za ta juyin gurguzu.2 Translate: 1 The place was packed with people. 2 The leaves were bright green and the fruit a vivid red. 3 He’s a raving nutcase. 4 I bought three brand new shiny bright spoons. 5 I’m plum tuckered out. 2.1.6. Unitary adjective agential magùjī, mahàukàcī, mahaukacìyā, mahàukàtā, participial bùgaggē, dàfaffiyā, simple bàbba, kōrìyā, derived from abstract nouns (of sensory quality) zurfī zùzzurfar rījìyā/rījìyā zùzzurfā rījiyōyī/nījiyōyī kyâu kyàkkyāwan àbù taurī tàttauran augmentative adjectives (3 types): i. (m.) fankamī, (f.) fankamā, (pl.) fankam-fànkàm fankamar hanyā/hanyā fankamā , (f.) fankamēmìyā, (pl.) fankam-fànkàm ii. (m.)

fankamēmìyar hanyā/hanyā fankamēmìyā iii. (m.) fànkankàmī, (f.) fànkankàmā, (pl.) fankam-fànkàm

1 2

pl. of kanti socialism


17

fànkankàmar hanyā/hanyā fànkankàmā diminutive adjectives: , (f.) , (pl.) sirī-sirī/ (m.) (m.) mītsītsī, (f.) mītsītsìyā, (pl.) mitsī-mitsī Unitary adjectives and reduplicated adjectives (2.1.7. below) can function as pre-head modifiers, as heads and as post-head modifiers. Note the behaviour of agential adjectives: If the verbal base is intransitive then it can act as a pre-head modifier: magùjin

, mahàukàcin kàrē, marìgàyin sarkī, matsanancìyar

.

If the verbal base is transitive then in some cases it cannot act as a pre-head modifier: *

mùtûm.

However there are other cases where two readings are possible: matàimàkin secretary’.

, ‘the secretary’s assistant’ or‘the assistant

cf. also: —mabìyin sarkī; masànin mālàmī—masànin mabìyin —magùjin . magùjin

;

Translate: 1 Muka tarad da wani shikinkimin yaro a hanya yau. 2 Manyan bindigogi na kai hari daga nesa. 3 Mu kam ba daga wata wulakantacciyar kabila muka fito ba. 4 Ga matacciyar1 akwiya a bakin hanya. bai ce ko uffan ba. 5 Babban 6 Kandamemiyar2 ambaliyar ruwa ita ce bala’in da ya gama da su. daji ba a san inda suka shiga ba. 7 Suka ta taga. 8 Wani siririn mutum ya

Translate: 1 2

related to the two verbs, mutu/mace, ‘to die’ abundant (of fluids)


1 I found tiny little bits3 in my cup of tea when I finished it. 2 I wanted to buy a green gown but they had already sold out. 3 It was a very pleasing1 story you told the other day. 4 A big fish in a little pond. 2.1.7. Reduplicated adjective mânya-mânya, 2.1.8. Adjectival phrase

Usually the adjectival phrase forms a close nexus, i.e. nothing can come between the elements of the phrase; however a discontinuous form is sometimes possible:

An adjectival phrase can operate as head or as post-head modifier in an NP. Translate: kuma ya 1 cikin dare. 2 Ya ce karya tattalin arzikin mata matsaloli manya ainun.

tashi daga tankin da ya fashe har can zai

Translate: 1 I saw a dead dog on the road. 2 Chicken fried2 in peanut oil is best.

3

tsaki (sing.)

1

mai see vb. soya

2

da gwamnati ta hanyar labta


19

3 Left-handed people play better at tennis. 4 I tripped on a huge nail hidden under some rags. 2.1.9. Adjectival complex

An adjectival complex can operate as head or as post-head modifier in an NP. Translate: 1 Mai aiko ma BBC labari da ke halartar wannan taro. mai kula da manyan makarantu. 2 Tsohon Ministan Ilmin soji ta mai kula da harkokin 3 Wakilin majalisar waje. 4 Su masu goyon bayan wata jam’iyyar siyasar gurguzu ne. 1 suka 2 shi game da matakan da ya 5 Masu ra’ayin baya bayan nan. taron shi ne shugaba Mengistu Haile 6 Mutum mai Mariam. 7 Kujerin kushin mai wurin zaman mutum uku, dardumomi3 masu hoton .4 8 Tara mai tsananin gaske.

Translate: 1 A very unpopular person she is. 2 Where is the person who owns the silver one ?

1

conservative, reactionary to challenge 3 rugs 4 peacocks 2


3 Who owns these? 4 Audu the mango seller is very upset. 2.1.10. Relative clause Relative clauses are sentences embedded within an NP. They are generally of two kinds: with antecedent

wandà, waddà (also waccè),

…

Such relative clauses with antecedent wandà can operate as head or as post-head modifier in an NP. If operating as head they cannot operate with a pre-head modifier. with antecedent

NP-

dà…

Look at the following sentence for a representation of the notion of embedding:

Translate: 1 Wanda ka gani nan. 2 Wanda ya zo mai jaki. ga gwamnati wadda ta yi sanadiyyar hawan Mrs 3 Zanga-zangar nuna Aquino kan karagar mulki. 4 Yankin tsaron kan nan da ke hannun sojan Isra’ila.


21

5 Wani sansani na baraden Hezbollah Iran ke mara wa baya.1 6 Kwamitin sulhu na majalisar duniya ya ce ya kamata kwamitin da wutar ya samu jirgin saman da kuma zai lura da shirin tsagaita jirgin sama mai saukar ungulu, sannan kuma da wasu jiragen ruwan za su rinka sintiri 2 a wasu muhimman yankunan da ke mashigar Shatt al Arab ko kuma kusa da ita.

Translate: 1 The conservatives that swept to power at the last election. 2 The helicopter that was the cause of the mid-air collision. 3 The people who say that economic sanctions will not work. 4 Supporters of President Marcos who are even now trying to attend the meeting. 2.1.11. Specifier interrogative

wànè

? wàcè

?

yârā?

The interrogative specifier operates only as a pre-head modifier in an NP. indefinite

wani, wata,

The indefinite specifier can operate as head or as pre-head modifier. If this specifier is used as a pre-head modifier then in post-head position, if required, the long genitive is used the long possessive is used

wani wani

na Audù nākà

Similarly, if the indefinite specifier is used in pre-head position then, usually, with a following relative clause the referential is not added to the head: wani mutûm dà mukà ganī à ‘a man that we saw on the road’

1 2

to support to patrol, act as sentry


cf. dà mukà ganī à ‘(the) people we saw on the road’ demonstrative long form wànnan/wannàn (m. and f.), wàncan/wancàn (m.), wàccan/waccàn (f.),

;

The long form demonstrative can function as pre-head, as head or as post-head modifier. short form

-n/-r

nân (following a low tone), nàn (following a high tone) cân (following a low tone) càn (following a high tone)

The short-form demonstrative, being suffixed, operates only as an immediate post-head modifier in an NP. Translate: 1 Wasu tafiye-tafiye. Masar. 2 Wani ayari na musamman na sojan . 3 Wasu da dama daga cikin jama 'ar yankin suka fara 4 Wannan gagarumin aiki. 5 An sami wata kwakkwarar sanarwar nuna goyon bayan Mr Gorbachev daga majalisar mulkin , Mr Alexander Yakovlev, wanda ya wani wa wani taron jam’iyyar cewa ma’aikata a tsarin ’yan idan suka sami wani kashi daga cikin kayayyakin gurguzu za su fi da suke samarwa. ya yi 6 A wannan makon kuma wani babban jami'i a majalisar mulkin cewa sake tsarin tattalin arzikin zai haddasa mummunan . rashin aiki a 7 Sai an sami wani na kirki daga cikin masu ilmi, wani na kirki daga cikin jinin mulki, wani na kirki daga cikin masu dukiya, ko kuma wani daga , to irinsu cikin talakawan da Allah ya sa ya waye, kuma ba shida ne ke waye wa talakawa kai. wannan wayewar kan ne na talakawa 8 Sabo da ma a dakushe a kuma nan suke ta zuga wutar siyasar bambance-bambancen azzaluman kabila, addini, da jiha.


23

Translate: 1 Some will come and some will go. 2 Which representative has been chosen by the socialist party? 3 Some of the employees are prepared to work harder. 4 This anti-government demonstration will only inflame internal divisions inside the country. 2.1.12. Referential littāfìn, bùhûn, mōtàr, rīgâr kwâf In Hausa a referential ending is commonly added to a noun to indicate ‘the book, etc.,’ previously referred to in the context of speech. Where the noun ends in a is employed after the noun to which it consonant the independent referential refers. This latter form may be distanced from the noun to which it refers by mài hankàlī . another modifier, e.g. Translate: 1 Zangar-zangar ta makon jiya. da ke hannunsa. 2 Gurnet 1 zai sadu da wakilai daga 3 Zuwa an jima a yau kuma sakatare janar Polisario domin sasanta rikicin da Morocco da kuma suke yi a game da yankin yammacin Sahara. ne kawai aka 4 Duk abin da aka yi sai in ga cewa dai a babban birnin yi shi. Amma mu nan yankunan karkara ba a yi mana wani abu ba sai abin da ya zama dole. Wannan ma a manyan yankunan karkarar ke nan. Mu a ai sai abubuwan da muka yi da kanmu. nan

2.1.13. Diminutive ’yar/’yan

1

grenade

bìncìkē ‘a minor investigation’, ’yar sàndā ‘a small sàndā ‘policeman’, ’yar stick’ cf. the compound nouns bìncìkē ‘investigator’ sàndā ‘policewoman’, Audù ‘Audu’s son’ cf. also the genitival complex


The diminutive operates only as a pre-head modifier in an NP. The diminutive can also operate inside a verbal piece standing between the person/aspect marker and the verb: zân mun

yi dà shī san shì

‘I will have a little word with him’ ‘we know him a little’

Translate and differentiate the uses of

in the following:

1 Wasu ’yan tambayoyi. gajeren labari mai . 2 Wani jam’iyyar mai ra’ayin kawo sauyi. 3 ’yan tawayen Eritriya. 4 kara. l 5 Suka ba Bansuwai Naira ashirin shi ma ya 6 Wata ’yar mota ce ya saya. 7 A makeken 2 filin saukar jiragen saman nan na Roberts da ke can Margibi wasan suka hallara don aka yi wannan shagali inda magoya bayan na ta Liberia. dai su tarbi ’yan wasan 8 Ba wanda bai san cewa a cikin ’yan watannin nan harkokin tattalin arzikin da na mulki sai suke. Translate: 1 He’s a very popular politician. 2 He’s a politician’s son. 3 Read this amazing little book if you’ve got the time. 4 In these last few days I’ve started to feel a little better.

2.1.14. Isolator (used usually in conjunction with a referential) littāfìn ‘the other book’ The isolator can operate as head or as pre-head modifier in an NP. Translate:

1 2

splash out, spend very large


25

1 Ya yi fatar bala’i ga jam’iyyar da suke jin sunanta. jam’iyyar masu ra’ayin ne, 2 Kodayake dai firaministan Isra’ila, shirin da cewa shirme ne kawai, to amma kuma ya ce shi ya kira wannan wata babbar barazana 3 ce ga Isra’ila. . 3 Ke za ki zo da wannan keken ni sai in hau jaridar ta fi wannan da zambo. 4

Translate: 1 Don’t take this one, take the other one. 2 The other exchange of goods was more profitable. 3 The other gown I prefer. 2.1.15. Genitival complex We said under 2.1. that the simple nominal phrase has one main head. However, it is perfectly possible to have subsidiary NPs, each with its own head, nesting inside the main NP. This nesting is done by the use of the linker in either its long or its short form: na long—NP

NP

na Audù

NP

littāfìn Audù

ta -n short—NP -r The long form can operate as head or as post-head modifier in an NP. This use of the linker is to be distinguished from the use of the same markers where an adjective precedes a nominal: bàbbar ‘a big nail’ gùtsùrarren gōrò ‘a broken off piece of colanut’ Nested NPs can make a string of not inconsiderable length:

3

threat


Translate: 1 Kamfanin dillancin labaran ta Congo. 2 Kwamitin tsara harkokin tattalin arziki na 3 Yajin aiki na kwana biyar. 4 Yankin nan na Ogaden na kan iyakarsu. matan . 5 Shugabar

.


27

6 Wata tawagar1 jami’an jaridar nan ta jam’iyyar kwaminis ta Tarayyar Soviet watau Pravda. na yankin yamma ta kogin Jordan. 7 Albashin dukan Iran. 8 Sha warwari cikin sirri da aka yi da jami’in

Translate: 1 The Organization of African Unity. 2 The former minister of transport 3 The late leader of the Chinese communist party. 4 The secretary general of the union of secondary school students. 2.1.16. Adverbial constituents of the NP There follows a series of items that function often in adjunct position in the sentence but which can also modify the head of a nominal phrase. Here we are concerned with their function in the NP. 2.1.17. Simple adverb

1

team, group


The adverb of degree and the reduplicated adverb operate only as post-head modifiers. It is possible, though unusual in most cases, for other adverbs to stand as the head of an NP. When adverbs do stand as the head of a nominal phrase they are functioning as ‘nouns’ and therefore operate gender. A considerable number operate as feminine nouns when they stand as the subject of a sentence: ta Allàh cē gàba tā fi bāya sànnu bā hanà

‘tomorrow is in Allah’s hands’ ‘there is more in front than behind’ ‘slow but certain’

However, when such ‘adverbial nouns’ are combined with the linker to make ‘adverbial compounds’ (see Section 2.1.18.) then the linker is masculine: gàban Audù bāyan gàrī

‘forward of Audu’ ‘the far side of town’

Note also that when an adverbial component in a sentence is left-shifted for focus emphasis then, if nē/cē/nē is used after the focused element, then the masculine nē is employed regardless of the gender of the ‘adverbial noun’: zā sù zō sukà tàfi gàba sukà sànnu-sànnu bi

‘tomorrow they will arrive’ ‘forward they went’ ‘slowly they went along beside the river’

Some adverbs can function in more than one category:

Adverbs as heads do not normally operate with a pre-head modifier. Translate: dabam-dabam. 1 Wakilan 2 Amfanin bana mai yawan gaske. 3 Suka ziyarci cibiyoyi iri-iri inda ake rarraba kayan agaji.


29

4 Mutumin . wajen. 5 Can waje ga talabijin, ga firij a 6 Kaya barkatai muka gani a bakin titi. 7 Za mu kawo muku labaran duniya dalla-dalla. 8 Mota birkice suka tarar can cikin daji. 9 Paul Wilkinson ya nuna cewa hanyar kurum da za a bi don yin maganin da taimakon ’yan ta’adda ita ce a toshe hanyoyin da suke samun makamai. Amirka. 10 Mutum bakwai kurum ’yan Translate: 1 Tomorrow is another day. 2 One by one the birds came to the birdtable. 3 Never-ending work is what he gives us. 2.1.18. Adverbial compound A number of the simple adverbs are derivable from nouns, often body parts such , bā yā, gìndī, or other common nouns such as nīsā ‘distance’ or wàjē ‘the as outside’. These adverbs can combine with an NP to create a closely knit phrase, a compound: cikin gàrī gìndin bāyan kân

rānā

‘in town’ ‘beside the river’ ‘at the base of the tree’ ‘after nightfall’ ‘on a horse’

and they can be locative, temporal or of manner. An adverbial compound can act as head or as a post-head modifier in an NP. Translate: da ba sa 1 Wasu tashe-tashen hankula da ake fama da su tsakanin ga maciji da juna.1 2 Yunwa tana da kirari haka: “Tsumangiyar kan hanya, yaro, babba.” ne ke zanga-zanga, kuma ’yan sanda ma na can 3 Sai aka ce da ni ai bakin kasuwa suna harba barkonon tsohuwa.2 4 Suna cikin tafiya sai suka yi ta harbi; sai kawai na ji sun same ni a cinya, ba. Allah ya taimake ni bai Amal ta ce ta nemi baradenta a koina cikin yankin su zauna cikin 5 shiri.


6 Babban kai tsakanin dukkan nahiyar Afirka. 7 A lokacin da aka harbe ni ma akwai wani mai tallan mangwaro wanda ya dawo kenan daga sarin mangwaro daga Jengre; yana gindin rimin nan suka harsashin ya fito ta . same shi suka harbe shi a ya bakin kogi. 8.

Translate: 1 I sat down at the base of the wall. 2 The cat in the hat is the story he chose from the children’s library. 3 The box under the bed is completely empty as far as I know. 4 A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. 2.1.19. Adverbial complex In the case of the adverbial compound the first item in the phrase is derived essentially from a noun. The term adverbial complex distinguishes expressions introduced by a ‘true’ preposition that would appear not to be derived from an underlying noun: The adverbial complex consists of a ‘preposition’+NP or adverbial The prepositions are: à, dàgà, dà, (bâ), ta, ì/yà, gà/gàrē

1 2

lit. they don’t say, ‘look out for the snake’ to each other, detest each other. tear-gas


Adverbial complexes operate only as post-head modifiers. Translate: 1 Ma’aikata a hukumar samar da wutar lantarki da samar da ruwan sha.

31


2 Kafofin1 samun labarai daga tsibirin Zanzibar. 3 Shugaba Chissano ya yi jawabi, hankalinsa a tashe, jiya da safe. 4 Wasu daga cikin basussukan da ake binta. nan kullum sai fahimta suke cewa irin 5 Talakawa a koina cikin wannan zaman zalunci na ’yan jari-hujja2 ba zai kai mu koina ba sai halaka. gwabza i wannan tsakanin Ethiopia da Somalia 6 Ba a ba. 7 Sai dai wallahi ni ban san yayinda ’yan sanda suka iske mu a wurin ba, domin ina can ina sauraron wayar da abokina ke yi. Sai da suka gitta titin ne muka ga alamar biyowarsu ta lungun nan muka ji harbi. Translate: 1 Take a leaf out of his book. 2 Sources in the office of the President have refused to confirm or deny the reports. 3 A story like this one is hard to believe. 4 Some of the people were there when it happened.

2.1.20. Adverbial phrase The adverbial phrase is a tightly bound combination of adverbials made up of a unitary adverb (which can be locative, temporal or stative) plus simple adverb adverbial compound adverbial complex (either dàgà…or dà…) a second adverbial phrase it is indivisible normally the second part is more specific than the first normally both are of the same category, but locative can be followed by manner.

1 2

sources capitalism


33

An adverbial phrase may also be made up of two adverbial complexes:

Translate: 1 Ga daga cikin abin da ya ce. 2 ’Yan ta’adda can a sassa dabam-dabam na duniya ne ake neman a . 3 Jibi war haka za a tattauna yawan yin fashin1 jiragen sama da kashe jama’a da suke yi. sai suka alkawarin ganin za su hana hakan 4 Can daga faruwa.

1

hijacking


5 Mutum da mashi muka gani yana bin bakin titin nan da ke arewancin unguwa. 6 Can yamma yamma ta bushe. Translate: 1 There in the shop I was confronted by a huge shiny black snake. 2 Yesterday at seven he left for the office and was never seen again. 3 I saw a man carrying a bag and a woman with an umbrella slung over her shoulder. 4 Right at the end they sang a song before the leadership left the meeting. Composition: Write 20–25 lines in Hausa on one of the following, making as much use as possible, within reason, of the structures you have encountered in this section. 1 You witnessed a fight in the market. What happened and who was responsible? 2 On your birthday you win a thousand pounds. What are you going to do with it? 3 There was a demonstration by students against the policies of President X. Describe their complaints and what happened during the demonstration. 2.2. Appositional and conjoined NPs The appositionalNP is made up of two or more NPs, each standing in apposition to the other:


35

Translate: 1 Ministan ilmin Najeriya Alhaji Jibril Aminu. Musulmi ’yan .1 2 3 Mutane ashirin fararen hula suka halaka. 4 Mai martaba Sir Ahmadu Bello Sardaunan Sakkwato. 5 Su Audu samari matasa. 6 Farfesa Ayo Bamgbose mawallafin littattafai da dama.

Translate: 1 The Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr Andrei Gromyko. 2 Audu the butcher. 3 Mr de Cuellar secretary of the United Nations. The conjoinedNP is made up of a series of independent NPs linked by dà or kō:

Translate: 1 Da idanunsu su ga cigaban da aka samu a fannonin siyasa da sha’anin sha’anin tattalin arziki da yarjejeniyar sulhun da aka rayuwa da a baya-bayan nan1 tsakanin Somalia da Ethiopia. It is also possible for a sentence to stand as an NP: bà sù zō ba

1

dà ya ji ita ta

—guerilla warfare

masà râi.


lit. ‘they didn’t come (their not coming) that he heard about, it upset him.’ Examine the structure of the following: 1 Sun gama sun bar mu ba ta dame ni ba. ba ta tsorata shi ba. 2 Za su gaya wa ’yan gadi da kake

Translate: 1 Ba zai dawo mana da nasa littafin. nan mai launi iri iri na gani a kasuwa. 2 Nasa 3 Suka maido da mota tasa sai da aka kai su gaban alkali. 4 Bindigogi bakwai aka tarar cikin ramin da wani ya gina a bakin hanya. . 5 Na ga bakwai amma ba wanda na 6 Wani mai gashin bakin tsiya ya taka wutsiyar kumurci. ya shigo gari ya zauna ba wanda ya haifi 7 Tun sa’ad da wani namiji cikin unguwar nan. 2.3. Order of pre-head modifiers and of post-head modifiers The maximum number of pre- or post-head modifiers found together is four. Therefore the largest possible simple NP would consist of: 4 pre-head modifiers+Head+4 post-head modifiers All pre-head modifiers are non-adverbial.

1

recently


37

2.3.1. Order of pre-head modifiers

Note also, however, the operation of kusan and duk(à): duk wata bàbbar makarantā zā à ta ‘any and every large school will be closed’ hàmsin kusan dukàn ‘nearly all the leaders of the fifty countries’ duk wani mùtûm kō wata dà akà ‘any and every man or woman who is arrested’ Translate: 1 Na tambaye shi ya tara mini tsofaffin duka maza da mata. a hannu ya tarad da samari uku 2 Yaron nan mai a bakin kasuwa. 3 Na je gidan wani malami wanda ake ce masa Daula neman bayanin littafin da aka ba ni kwanan baya. allura a cikin akwatin nan da ta ba ni. 4 Har na sami wata ’yar mutumin ne ya tsallake katanga kowa yana gani. 5 ma wuya sabo da yawan cara da 6 Nasa zakaran ne nake nema in yake yi. 2.3.2. Order of post-head adverbial modifiers

Head

1 simple adv.

2 adv. compound

3 adv. complex

1 3 hakà dàgà Màidugùri wata ‘a truck like this from Maiduguri full of cattle’

4

4 adv. phrase(s)


1

3 4 hakà hakà ‘some boxes like these in Audu’s room over there under the bed’ 1 2 4 wani gidā hakà ‘such a kind of house on the east road faced with cement’ Note: Generally, where two adverbial modifiers of the same category co-occur, i.e. two temporal or two locative, then the second is more specific than the first. In fact it is more usual for two adverbial items of the same category not to cooccur except occasionally with statives, e.g. dà dà wani mùtûm ‘a man with a sword slung over his shoulder and carrying a spear’ dà kâi wata màcè zàune à ‘a woman sitting on a chair with her head covered’ Rarely do the same type of adverbial (complex, compound, phrase) co-occur except occasionally complexes of different categories:

2.3.3. Order of post-head non-adverbial modifiers

CONSTITUENTS OF THE NOMINAL PHRASE 39


dàgà Lēgàs Locative cx. ‘people from Lagos with colanuts and things’ yà wannàn Equative cx. ‘a huge person like this at Audu’s house’

dà kāyan gōrò Sociative cx.

à gidan Audù Locative cx.

Generally non-adverbial modifiers precede adverbial modifiers in post-head position. Relative clauses (with antecedent wandà, etc.) occur normally in final position.

2.3.4. Order of all post-head modifiers

CONSTITUENTS OF THE NOMINAL PHRASE 41


Translate: 1 Gonar Audu i wannan a Kano da ya saya bara. . 2 Wata laima tawa ya wannan ta 3 Buhunhuna uku uku cike da shinkafa. 4 Wane nan kusa da mu ya iya. jarida na nan Birtaniya mai suna Gareth Powell wanda bai 5 Wani da komowa daga can ba. 6 Wani jami’in ma’aikatar kula da wayar wa jama’a kai a birnin Beijing. 7 Gonaki manya-manya nesa da gari. 8 Fatake mutum biyar da jakunansu sun zo. 9 Wani dokin sukuwa na sayarwa nasa managarci ainun. nan mai feshin wuta da ake kira napalm. 10 Bom auka wa 11 Wannan shi ne na baya-bayan nan a cikin jerin bala ‘in da ya China. 12 Harkokin zirga-zirgar ababen hawa da na hanyoyin sadarwa suka tsaya cik. kyautata dangantaka 13 Wani muhimmin mataki na baya-bayan nan a biyu wanda aka fara tun watanni biyu da rabi da suka tsakanin wuce. Note: Adverbial modifiers occur more freely after verbal dynamic nouns. Dynamic nouns as heads can be followed by clauses other than the relative; adverbial and non-adverbial modifiers occur together less frequently than do sequences of one category or the other. Translate: 1 A major catastrophe out in the open sea. 2 The other footballer with bright red boots. 3 Some of the secret negotiations with conservative representatives in the UN. 4 An important advance in the search for an answer to man’s problems. Composition: write 20–25 lines of Hausa on one of the following: 1 Outline some of the activities and purposes of the United Nations. 2 Being a traveller by inclination you arrive in country X in the middle of a political crisis. What happens? 3 Describe where you lived as a child.

Part 3

44

3. The Verbal Phrase

Having looked at the NP, let us now turn to the sentence and see nominal phrases in their various positions within it. First, some definitions: A verbal sentence (non-verbal sentences will be discussed under Section 4.4.2.) contains in traditional terms a subject and a predicate,

‘Ali died yesterday’ Another way of looking at the same thing is to describe it in terms of nominal phrase and verb phrase,

‘Ali and Audu returned yesterday’ The term verbal phrase subsumes the verb and all its dependents—objects, complements and adjuncts. The term verbal piece is a more restricted term for the verb and such items as are integral to the behaviour of the verb, which for Hausa means objects, complements but not adjuncts:


‘The Fulani went into the bush to graze (their cattle) in the morning’ Or,

‘Audu fed his Audu fed his family delicious food yesterday morning’ (efferential verbs derived from transitive verbs can operate with 2 objects) The justification for the term verbal piece lies in the fact that a verb may place restrictions on the occurrence of items dependent upon it; some verbs may not allow a following object, some may restrict or require certain kinds of following complements. Others require two following objects, the first restricted to ‘target’ and the second to ‘medium’. Items that are in this way integral to the behaviour of the verb are included within the verbal piece. Adjuncts however are not normally required as a feature of verbal behaviour although general semantic restrictions may often apply as with the adjunct in the following sentence: *mukà zō gōbe

VERB FORMS 47

3.1. The verbal complex In order to examine the criteria for the definition of objects and complements we need first to look at some of the characteristics of the ‘Grade’ system of Hausa verbs. The Grade system involves both morphology and syntax, morphology in terms of the shape of the verb: root, suffixes and tone pattern; syntax in that some of these features indicate whether the verb is functioning as a transitive, intransitive or efferential verb. The verbal complex is made up of: – – – –

an element marking person, gender and number of the subject an element marking aspect/tense a verb root carrying the underlying meaning of the verb a marker of Grade and Form—a tone pattern and final vowel

3.2. Verb form You are familiar from your work in Spoken Hausa with the notion of ‘variable-vowel’ verbs, that is verbs that change their shape according to whether they are followed by a pronoun direct object, noun direct object, or are not immediately followed by a direct object at all. The potentiality for a verb to be followed by a direct object is a mark of its being a transitive verb; many verbs will not allow a direct object and are termed intransitive. As intransitives they will only operate in one environment ‘not followed by direct object’ and not in the other two—‘followed by pronoun direct object’ and ‘followed by noun direct object’. As far as Hausa is concerned there are four environments generally distinguished: A—the form of a transitive verb when the direct object is not immediately following it, i.e. it is understood from the context, or has been moved elsewhere in the sentence.


—the form of an intransitive verb other than when followed by an indirect object. B—the form of a transitive verb before a pronoun direct object. C—the form of a transitive verb before a noun or nominal phrase direct object. D—the form of a verb before an indirect object (the ‘Dative’ case). For example, A mun àikā ‘we sent (s.o.)’

B mun àikē shì ‘we sent him’

C mun àiki ‘we sent the boy’

D mun musù ‘we sent them (s.th.)’

Set out below is a schematic representation of the Grade system adapted from the description by F.W.Parsons (1960).

The Grade system applies to most two and three (or more) syllable verbs. Monosyllabic verbs may operate ‘extended’ forms within the system; a number , mutù, of common verbs are not accounted for by the system, e.g. tāshì, gudù. An alternative to Parsons’s view of the way in which verbs operate has been presented by Paul Newman and the two main articles on the subject are: Parsons, F.W. 1960. The verbal system in Hausa. Afrika und Übersee 44:1–36 . Newman, P. 1973. Grades, vowel-tone classes and extensions in the Hausa verbal system. Studies in African Linguistics 4 (3): 297–346 .

Further reading Others have taken up aspects of their work. The reading list below gives some of the main articles you can refer to, presented in chronological order of writing (full reference details are given in the short bibliography at the back of this book): Gouffé, C. 1962. Observations sur le degré causatif dans un parler Haoussa du Niger. Lukas, J. 1963/64. Der II Stamm des Verbums im Hausa. Pilszczikowa, N. 1969. The Changing Form (Grade 2) of the Verb in Hausa. Parsons, F.W. 1962. Further observations on the ‘causative’ Grade of the verb in Hausa. Parsons, F.W. 1971/72. Suppletion and neutralization in the verbal system of Hausa. Newman, Paul. 1977. Chadic extensions and pre-dative verb forms in Hausa. Jaggar, Philip J. 1981. Varieties of passive in Hausa. Furniss, Graham. 1981. Hausa disyllabic verbs: comments on base forms and extensions. Newman, Paul. 1983. The efferential (alias ‘causative’) in Hausa. Jaggar, Philip J. 1988. Affected subject (‘grade 7’) verbs in Hausa: what are they and where do they come from?

3.2.1. The Grades of the Hausa verb (schematic)

VERB FORMS 49


The Grade system does not explain why a particular verb will operate a particular set of Grades. It is not the case that a verb will generally operate all seven Grades. Some ‘potential’ Grades may just be unacceptable and ungrammatical for particular verbs. So, for example, while it is normal to say, Grade 1

sun kāmà It is unacceptable to try to say, *sun

Grade 2

This particular verb does not operate Grade 2. At the same time it is true that the system is productive so that, within certain limits, it is possible to ‘invent’ new forms that a listener may perhaps find acceptable.

3.3. The verb Grades 1 Grades 1–3 are often termed ‘primary’ since most verbs operate one and sometimes two (occasionally three) of them with what appears to be a basic, unmodified meaning. The Grades 4–7 are termed ‘secondary’ in that they would appear to be ‘extensions’ upon a basic verb and a switch into a secondary Grade generally adds a further dimension of meaning to the ‘basic’ meaning of that verb. Sometimes, however, the relationship between a primary form and a secondary version of it may be more a question of transitive and intransitive counterparts rather than a clear additional level of meaning. The discussion below will explore these semantic and syntactic dimensions of the Grade system. 3.3.1. Grade 1 Intransitives: There are a number of verbs which operate as simple intransitives in Grade 1 and do not operate any other primaryGrade, e.g.

Transitives:There are some verbs that operate as simple transitives and do not operate in any other primary Grade, e.g.

1

For the forms of the Grades refer to the table, p.42

VERB FORMS 51

Some verbs can operate as transitive or intransitive notions in Grade 1, e.g.

yā būsà wutā tā tā kāmà yā yā mōtsà hannū

‘the wind blew’ ‘he blew the algaita (wind instrument)’ ‘the fire took hold’ ‘she grabbed the boy’ ‘the boy moved’ ‘the boy moved his hand’

Paul Newman (1973) has suggested the presence of an ‘applicative’ extension whose form is identical to what had been hitherto been considered a ‘basic’ form of the verb, namely Grade 1. The notion of an applicative extension may well help to explain the occurrence of pairs of verbs where the Grade 1 seems to imply that the action is applied to a direct object (Newman, 1973, p. 341, says ‘transitivizer, purposive, applicative, action away’), e.g. yā cìka yā cikà mâi yā zùba tā zubà ruwā cikin kwalbā

‘the pot is full’ ‘he filled the pot’ ‘the oil spilled’ ‘she poured water into the bottle’

In some cases the operation of such an applicative extension is accompanied by a distinction between the direct object as the target of the action (in Grade 2) or as the medium to which the action is applied (in the corresponding Grade 1 ‘applicative’), e.g. yā hàrbi kàrē ‘he shot the dog’ ‘he shot an arrow’ yā harbà kàrē (dà ) ‘he threw at the dog (with a stone)’ yā ‘he threw a stone’ yā jēfà (for more examples see Furniss, 1981, § 2.1.3.1.) However, where a verb operates both Grades the relationship between Grade 1 and Grade 2 is not a simple matter. In some cases it is perhaps useful to think of the Grade 1 as an applicative extension upon a basic Grade 2. With other verbs, however, it seems that it is the Grade 2 that implies an extra element of meaning, often conveying ‘separation, partition, action on a part’ as compared with a ‘basic’ meaning in the Grade 1, e.g. yā gātsà gōrò gōrò yā tā cirà hannū

‘he bit the kola-nut’ ‘he bit off a piece of kola-nut’ ‘she raised her hand’


tā cìri yā kōrà shānū yā

‘she pulled out the nail’ ‘he drove the cattle forward’ ‘he drove away the buffalo’

However, the subtle differences between the two Grades are many and various and you are advised to read further in Lukas (1963), Pilszczikowa (1969), Parsons (1960), Newman (1973) and perhaps Furniss (1981). Whether it is useful in the end to think in terms of one Grade of a particular verb being basic and the other an extension when dealing with Grades 1 and 2 is perhaps open to question. Translate: Kenya ne bayan 1 An dai tura likitan binciken sanadiyyar mutuwar gwamnatin Kenya ta nemi hakan. 2 Majalisar mulkin soji a yankin Ciskei na je-ka-na-yi-ka a Afirka ta Kudu ta bayan tashe-tashen hankula da aka yi. kafa dokar 3 Ta bayyana ra’ayinta ne a kan wasu matsaloli wanda cikinsu har da na auren mata fiye da guda. 4 Lokacin da Mrs Marien ta fara campain a kan neman hani da auren fiye da , sai aka hana kafofin watsa labaran ba da rahoto a kan mace aikace-aikacenta. da zamani suka rera daga cikin 5 Wannan da suka fi farin jini. 3.3.2. Grade 2 All verbs in this Grade are transitive. Many of the common verbs you have encountered operate in this Grade. A small number of verbs operate as Grade 2 verbs but with an aberrant A form: A

B

C

sàkē

sàki

Some of the distinctions between Grade 1 and 2 have been discussed above; with some verbs the Grade 2 seems to carry a pejorative notion as compared with the Grade 1, pejorative in the sense that the action is done to the detriment of the object, e.g. tā

tuwō tā

Audù

‘she stirred the tuwo’ ‘my words disturbed Audu’

VERB FORMS 53

yā dāmà furā mālàminsà dà yā yā Audù yā

‘he stirred the fura’ ‘he bothered his teacher with questions’ ‘he whispered the words’ ‘he slandered Audu’

Translate: 1 Ana ta matsa wa mijinta, wanda yake mai ibada ne , da ya sake ta sabo da musulunci bai bar musulmi ya auri wacce ta yi ridda ba. 2 An dai tsinci gawar Dr Ouko watan jiya a gonarsa a yammacin Kenya. 3 Amma ta lashi takobi sai ta cimma nasara, kamar yadda take cewa ba za su Mauritania sun sami ’yancinsu. tsaya ba sai matan da da 4 Mr Kastik ya ce an gayyaci shugabannin hamsin. na kasuwannin abin bai 5 Ya ce kashi guda daga cikin kashi shafa ba. 3.3.3. Grade 3 All verbs operating in this Grade are intransitive. The bulk of verbs in this Grade have a low tone, light first syllable with a short final -a vowel and that is how they have been marked in the Chart. However, there are a number of verbs that constitute clearly a small sub-group within the Grade, they share the final vowel and the feature of intransitivity but they differ in that they have a heavy first syllable which is accompanied by a High—High tone pattern, e.g.

girma sūma tsīra

‘to hide’ ‘to grow up’ ‘to faint’ ‘to escape’

Translate: yarda da shawarar da jamiyyar Labour ta bayar. 1 Shugabannin Likud sun . 2 Suka kira a shiga sasantawa da ’yan 3 ’Yan tawayen Contras guda arba’in ne suka tsira daga cikin kurkurku jiya da dare.


4 Wata jaridar Tehran da Shugaba Rafsanjani na Iran ta nanata yamman da ake garkuwa da su a Lebanon bai cewa mutanen kamata a sake su ba, ba tare da aka cika wasu alkawura ba. 5 Har yanzu dai babu wani cikakken bayani dangane da yawan suka jikkata. 3.3.4. Grade 4 This Grade is sometimes called the ‘totality’ extension because one of the implications that it can convey is an additional sense of totality, completeness on top of the basic meaning of the verb, e.g. basic intransitive extension intransitive basic transitive extension intransitive

yā cìka yā yā yā

‘the pot is full’ ‘the pot is completely full’ ‘he stretched his leg’ ‘he stretched his leg right out’

In the case of the two verbs above the transitivity remained the same in the base and the extension and the Grade 4 simply added a further layer of meaning to the sentence. But the Grade 4 can sometimes be related to a basic Grade as an intransitive counterpart to a basic transitive not necessarily conveying any extra totality dimension, e.g. yā karyà yā yā dusà kaifin muryàrsà tā fensìr tā ruwan samà yā tā fasà kwalbā tā

‘he broke the stick’ ‘the stick broke’ ‘he dulled the blade of the knife’ ‘his voice became faint’ ‘she picked up the pencil’ ‘the rain has stopped’ ‘she smashed the stone’ ‘the bottle smashed’

Furthermore, while it is generally the case that a verb in a secondary Grade will have a counterpart in one of the primary Grades, there are a number of Grade 4 verbs which do not operate a primary Grade at all and are basic intransitive verbs, e.g.

The C form of the verb can have a long or a short vowel and the distinguishing factor seems to be that the use of a long vowel emphasizes the totality notion in the execution of the action of the verb on the direct object.

VERB FORMS 55

Translate: Angola Mr Eduardo Dos Santos tare da madugun ’yan 1 Shugaban UNITA Dr Jonas Savimbi sun gana a watan Juni na bara tawayen Zaire inda suka cimma wata yarjejjeniyar zaman lafiya amma a can daga baya wannan yarjejjeniya ta watse. 2 An ba da odar kamo Janar Tanai, da rai ko a mace, wanda aka ce ya tsere . daga sabuwar 3 Mr Gorbachev ya yi watsi da batun cewar wai ta Jamus za ta kasance ’yar ta NATO. 4 Dakarun Afirka ta Kudu suna can cikin yankin Ciskei inda aka tura su takanas don su kare wuraren da ake bayar da wutar lantarki da kuma ruwan sha. 5 An warware rashin jituwar da ke cikin gwamnatin gamin gambizar 1 Jamus Jamus da kuma Poland. tayamma dangane da kan iyakar 3.3.5. Grade 5 This Grade2 has often been called the ‘causative’; however in many cases the underlying notion is not of causation but rather of action directed away, or action shifted away from the subject to the object and a better term for the extension is the ‘efferential’. In the following sentence, yā jēfar dà

‘he threw my book away’

the operative distinction is between the Grade 1 that simply means ‘to throw’ and the Grade 5 that means ‘to throw away’. When the Grade 5 is relatable to a transitive basic form then the additional notion is one of direction away, compare the following sentences, yā aurad dà ‘yarsà tā bāyad dà sun zubad da mâi

‘he married off his daughter’ ‘she gave away money’ ‘they poured away the petrol’

or of action shifted to the object, e.g.

nā ciyar dà dōkìnsà

1 2

‘I fed his horse’

coalition government See Parsons, 1962, and Newman, 1983, for an extensive discussion of this Grade


nā arad dà nā sayad dà

‘I lent my bicycle’ ‘I sold my bicycle’

In the case of Grade 5 verbs related to basic intransitives the effect of the Grade 5 is to act as a transitivizer, e.g. ‘I woke up’ ‘I woke him up’ ‘they went in’ ‘they took us in’ ‘my eye has got better’ ‘his medicine cured me’

nā nā farkad dà shī sun shìga sun shigad dà mù yā māgàninsà yā warkad dà nī

In western dialects the form of the suffix on a Grade 5 verb is -as and that is the original form of the efferential combined with the use of the particle dà, e.g. mun sayad dà dōkìn dà mukà sayas

‘we sold the horse’ ‘the horse that we sold’

Many verbs in this Grade operate a shortened form, as in the following examples, tāyar dà sayar dà mayar dà fitar dà kāyar dà jiyar dà tarar dà tafiyar dà

— — — — — — — —

tā dà sai dà mai dà fid dà kā dà jī dà tad dà tafī dà

‘to raise up’ ‘to sell’ ‘to replace’ ‘to take out’ ‘to knock over’ ‘to make feel s.th.’ ‘to encounter’ ‘to move s.th. along’

Grade 5 verbs can also operate a B form different from that which you would expect. Generally it is formed, in the case of verbs having light first syllables and a non-velar second consonant, by the addition of a final -ē vowel, typical of the B form of Grade 2, to the verb stem with the efferential -s, e.g. stem + fit

s fits

-ē fitsē

this final form then operates the normal rules of sound change—assimilation and palatalization—to produce the final form: sun fisshē shì

VERB FORMS 57

Compare the following: tsaishē, saishē, gaishē,

, zubshē.

In the case of Grade 5 verbs where the first syllable is heavy and the second consonant -y then -shē is added to the initial CVV of the stem, as in these examples, bāyar dà shī kāyar dà shī shāyar dà shī

— — —

bāshē shì kāshē shì shāshē shì

‘give it away’ ‘knock it over’ ‘water it/give it to drink’

If the second consonant is not -y then the tendency is for the -shē form to be added to the full form of the efferential verb, e.g. kōmas dà shī saukas dà shī karantas dà shī

— — —

kōmasshē shì saukasshē shì karantasshē shì

‘take back’ ‘lodge, put up’ ‘educate, make read’

Translate: bayan da aka kifar da gwamnatin Lennox Sebe a 1 Wata tarzoma ta mako. 2 Wakilan shugabar Nicaragua mai jiran gado Mrs Violetta Chamorra sun fara shawarwari a Honduras tare da ’yan tawayen Contra bayan da aka yi inda aka kayar da gwamnatin Sandanista mai ra’ayin canji. Amnesty ta ce ta sami rahotannin da ke nuna cewa an yi kashe 3 kashe ko kuma an azabtar da wasu tare da tsare mutane ba tare da yi musu shari’a ba. da cewa hanyar da za a bi a tsai da 4 Gidan rediyon na ’yan tawaye ya shi ne a yi jin ra’ayin jama’a a Eritrea dangane da batun ’yancin kai ga yankin. 5 Manjo Joup Joubert yana ba da shaida ne a gaban kwamitin binciken da aka kafa kwana biyu da suka wuce. 6 Mr Kastik ya ce har yanzu kwamitin nasa yana shan wahala wajen samar da da za su je can Namibia. masauki ga manya-manyan 3.3.6. Grade 6 Some verbs in this Grade are transitive and some are intransitive according to whether they are extensions upon transitive or intransitive bases. This Grade is also called the ‘ventive’ extension and is often characterized as implying ‘action/motion toward the speaker’ and that is generally speaking an


adequate indication of the additional level of meaning that this Grade carries when applied to verbs which are underlyingly verbs of motion/movement. However, this extension is sometimes added to verbs where there is no intrinsic idea of movement as in the following examples, yā màntō shì à gidā kà tunō minì

‘he forgot it at home’ ‘remind me’

It would seem more plausible to characterize the general implication of this Grade as being that the action of the verb is done, either literally or metaphorically, at a distance from the speaker. In the above examples, then, the crucial element is that the action of forgetting, or in the second case, remembering, is done ‘over there’, separated from, at another place from the speaker. In the case of verbs of motion, the inception of movement takes place elsewhere and the natural consequence is ‘towards the speaker’. (The opposite notion of ‘away from the speaker’, whether the movement starts from where the speaker is or elsewhere, is normally conveyed by the Grade 4.)

Translate: Tanzania a ci gaba da ziyarar da yake yi a 1 Mr Nelson Mandela yana waje tun lokacin da aka sako shi daga karo na farko zuwa kurkuku. zanga-zanga a Nairobi da wasu garuruwa. 2 Mutuwarsa ta jawo 3 Bayan tashe-tashen hankula na kwana biyu da suka biyo juyin mulkin da aka yi ranar Lahadi. 4 Ga dai rahoton da Sheikh Bekaye ya aiko mana daga can birnin Nouakchott. 5 Wani likitan binciken gawa ya gano cewa Dr Ouko ya mutu ne a sanadiyyar raunin bindiga a kansa. 6 Da aka ji cewa an gayyato ’yan tawayen Eritrea sai gidan rediyon ’yan tawayen ya yi watsi da gayyatar yana mai cewa shugaba Mengistu a duniyar mafarki kawai yake zaune.

3.3.7. Grade 7 All verbs in this Grade1 are intransitive.

1

For a detailed discussion of this Grade see Philip Jaggar (1981 and 1987) from where much of this discussion is taken

VERB FORMS 59

The core meaning of the Grade is ‘stativity’ and ‘completeness’ and is generally an intransitive extension upon transitive bases, e.g. mun dafà àbinci àbinci yā dàfu

‘we cooked the food’ ‘the food has been cooked’

The Grade 7 verb concentrates upon the state of the object/patient after the action of the verb has been carried out upon it. The use of a continuative or future aspect with such a verb implies that the object/patient of the action has the potential to suffer the action of the verb, e.g. mōtàr mōtàr bà zā tà

ba

‘the car is repairable’ ‘the car cannot be repaired’

With some verbs, however, it is not so much the case that a patient of the underlying active expression has suffered the action of the verb, it is more a case of an actor having thoroughly achieved a condition or state implied by the verb, e.g. mun wàdātà (Gr.3) (Gr.7) mun dà sū (Gr. 1) mun mun kàru dà sū (Gr.7) mun dàidaità (Gr.3) mun dàdàitu (Gr.7)

‘we have prospered’ ‘we have really prospered’ ‘we clashed with them’ ‘we clashed head-on with them’ ‘we reached agreement’ ‘we reached complete agreement’

In some cases the subject is less an intentional agent causing the state and more of an involuntary experiencer, e.g. Mūsā yā gàjìyu sun Mūsā ya

‘Musa is completely tired out’ ‘they were absolutely terrified’ ‘Musa shook violently’

Translate: 1

SPLA ta ce an tattauna ko zai yiwu a tare don da gwamnatin mulkin soji ta ta Sudan. kawo wata ambaliyar ruwa a Khartoum. 2 Ruwan da ya taru zai sun ce abin da ya faru shi 3 To amma fa yanzu masana tarihin Mongolia ne kashin-kaji1 kawai aka shafa wa shi Genghis Khan.


Translate: 1 There I was quietly feeding my donkey when up comes this madman, smashes a bottle at my feet, knocks over my basket of fruit, hides behind the nearest wall, and says my singing has cured him of all ills! 2 Riot police have ended a strike and demonstration staged by students and civil servants in protest at the continued detention of their leaders. 3 The floods have destroyed many homes and offices in the capital and many people have now fled as refugees into neighbouring countries. 4 He sold me his old car, then when I couldn’t sell it he sold it for me to some politician or other. 5 Little Jack Horner sat in a corner eating his favourite food, he put in his thumb and pulled out a date and said, ‘What a good boy am I’. Translate: jarrabawar kammala karatun nan. 1 Kafin su 2 An kama su ne bayan da ’yan sanda suka shiga bincike lokacin da aka kafa da tattalin arzikin ta Saliyo ran biyu ga dokar gaggawa ta watan Nuwamba bara. da Bil-adama. 3 Yankin nan ya cika ta Somalia ta soke yarjejeniyar abokantakar da ta 4 Gwamnatin da Tarayyar Soviet. da ke tsakaninsu. 5 Suka warware bayan tankin mai ya fashe harshen wuta ya yi tsiri1 mita 6 Jim barkataia sama. 7 Dubban kadadar2 gonakin jama’a sun shafe da ruwa. 8 Za a gudanar da wannan ganawar da maraice. 9 Taimakon da aka dakatar da ba da shi a watan Fabrairu da ya wuce. 10 Mahukunta 3 cewa suka yi wani gas ne dake tsiyaya ya ta da gobarar. 11 Ba zai yiwu ba a mai da cikakkiyar dangantakar jakadanci tsakanin biyu. 12 Majalisar gargajiya ta Agona Nyakom ta Ghana ta kuma nuna damuwarta game da mata da ke yawan ciki yadda suke tsai dakaratunsu har sai sun haifu. bayani. 13 Liz Blunt ta aiko da suka fara kuwa ta faro ne a can Jami’ar 14 Zanga-zangar da Jos. 15 Akwai alamar kyautatuwar dangantaka tsakanin Somalia da Rasha. da sharar masana’antu4 17 Jirgin ruwan nan na Jamus ta Yamma da ke mai guba ya doshi gabashin tekun kudancin Ingila, ya nufi Holland.

1

Smeared (his name)

VERB FORMS 61

18 ’Yan sandan kwantad da husuma5 a Monrovia babban birnin Liberia sun yi masu zanga-zanga a amfani da motar fesa ruwa don su tarwatsa ginin Ma’aikatar Shari’a ta . IRA nan su 19 ’Yan sanda a Ireland ta Arewa kuma sun ce ’yan uku da aka kashe a jiya sun kai hare-hare da dama kan jami’an tsaro. An ce 6. jami’an tsaro ne suka yi wa mutanen na benen ya rusa, wani na bangon gaban ginin shi ma 20 Hawa da ya tsiyaya ya kama wuta. ya rushe, bututun7 gas ya huje, gas 21 Ba za su kawo gida ba sai bayan sati uku.

Composition: Write 20–25 lines in Hausa on one of the following: 1 ‘When I am a millionaire….’ 2 Tell a stranger how to get from the centre of town to your home. 3 Write a dialogue between an official denying all responsibility for a recent military incursion and a journalist trying to find out what happened and who was responsible. 4 Write a letter to a friend about learning Hausa!

1

rising high into the air land area measurement, very approx. quarter of an acre 3 the authorities 4 factories 5 unrest 6 kwanton —ambush 7 cylinder 2

62

Part 4

64

4. Syntactic Verb Classes

4.1. Introduction to the relationship between a verb and its grammatical dependents In the present discussion we are most concerned with the syntactic rather than the morphological characteristics of verbs. A verb in a particular Grade will feature transitivity or intransitivity as a characteristic seen in the potential either to operate all three forms A, B and C or only an A form. As a verb changes Grade this may sometimes entail a change in transitivity as well as a modification of sense: Gr.1.

Gr.4.

yā zubà ruwā cikin ‘he poured water into the pot’ (C form, short final vowel before noun d.o.) ruwân yā ‘the water ran away’ (A form), intransitive

In other cases there may be a modification of sense, but retaining the transitivity feature of the primary form: Gr.1. Gr.4.

tā karàntà (C form), ‘she read the book’ tā karàncè(ē) (C form), ‘she read the book right through’

As you have seen, some of the Grades are either transitive (Grade 2) or intransitive (Grades 3 and 7) by their very nature; in other cases (Grade 1 and 4) some of the verbs in the Grade will be transitive and others will be intransitive:


Gr.1. yā Gr.1. tā jūyà ràndā Gr.4. tā Gr.4. yā bugè

intransitive transitive intransitive transitive

‘he stopped’ ‘she turned the pot’ ‘she passed by’ ‘he knocked over my bike’

(Occasionally there will be a verb that seems to have two meanings in the Grade, , ‘he grabbed the the one transitive the other intransitive, e.g. yā kāmà , ‘the fire took hold’, intransitive.) horse’, transitive; wutā tā Syntactic types of verbs:

Transitive:can take a direct object; A, B, C and D forms; Grades 1, 2, 4 and 6. Intransitive:cannot be followed by a direct object; A and D forms; Grades 1, 3, 4, 6 and 7; can be followed by a complement. Efferential or Sociative: the verb is linked to an oblique object by means of the particle dà. Efferential = Grade 5; sociative constructions can occur with any Grade. Translate: adawar su taka 1 Shugaba Mengistu ya bayyana cewa za a bar , kuma ya yi kira gare su da su shiga cikin rawa a rayuwar siyasar . jam’iyyar da ke mulkin batun a babbar 2 Jam’iyyar Labour ta ce tana so a tattauna gaba a kan shirin yin shawarwarin da majalisar ministoci, kuma a jefa Amurka ta zana. 3 Shugaba Najibullah na Afghanistan ya ce gwamnatinsa ta kawar da wani juyin mulkin da aka so shirya mata jagorancin . Ministan Tsaron 4.1.1. Complement, direct object and oblique object The term ‘complement’is used for a nominal that is closely linked to a verb, often intransitive, but which cannot strictly speaking be termed a direct object. A ‘direct object’is a nominal standing immediately to the right (unless an indirect object is also present) of a transitive verb in a neutral, unemphatic sentence, and which can be represented by one of the set of pronouns called the direct object pronouns; further, it is generally the case that the question word ? can substitute for a direct object. A complement typically provides information without which a verb would appear incomplete, and tends to occur without preposition and before temporal, locative or other adjuncts. Compare for example the following:

VERB CLASSES 67

sun

dafà ‘they cooked the potatoes’ C form Gr.1 trans. sun ‘they went home’ A form Gr.1 intrans.

direct object gidā destination complement

is an intransitive verb implying movement, and In the second example integral to the understanding of any such verb is the notion of the destination of such movement. It cannot be termed a direct object since, as a Grade 1 verb, does not operate with a short final vowel before the word gidā, nor can it be is not normally acceptable. If replaced by a direct object pronoun; * some form of pronominalization is needed then some phrase such as can is required. Compare for example the uses of yi first as a transitive verb, sun yī shì ‘they made it’, with its use as a verb of motion, sun yi hakà ‘they went thataway’. Let us now turn to the use of the term ‘oblique object’,where an efferential or sociativeconstruction occurs. In a phrase such as, yā ciyar dà ìyālìnsà Grade 5 efferential

‘he fed his family’

closely associated with the verb as an ‘object’ but one which is the word not ‘direct’ in the terms we have previously defined. Similarly, in the following sentence, sun gàmu dà Audù Grade 7 sociative construction

‘they met Audu’

a notional ‘object’ is closely associated with a verb by means of the particle dà, termed here an ‘oblique object’. It is often the case that a sociative construction is a way of linking a notional object to a basically intransitive verb. The construction dà+NP is one which occurs in other places and it is worthwhile noting some of the differences between the implications of sociative constructions and other instrumental ones. For example, compare the differences in meaning and analysis of the following: sun zō intrans V.

gidā dest. complement ‘they came home with their friends’ sun zō dà intrans V. sociative oblique object ‘they brought their friends home’

dà manner adjunct gidā dest. complement


yā yàrda intrans V.

dà saurī manner adjunct ‘he agreed quickly’

yā yàrda intrans V.

dà sociative oblique object ‘he agreed with what I said’

Contrast also the differences in operation between the efferential and the sociative constructions in the continuative: Soc. Eff.

dà ‘he looks after his own’ ciyar dà dōkìnsà ‘he is feeding his horse’

(+

v.n. form)

(no use of

)

Translate: , wai ta zama kamar ibilishiya a cikin 1 Mrs Mariem ta ce ta tsorata jama’arsu masu tsananin ra’ayi. 2 Amma mijin nata wanda shi ne mai bai wa Ministan Ilmi shawara ya yarda da kiran da mutane suke masa. 3 Daga can Windhoek Kabir Yusuf ya aiko mana da wannan rahoto. mai tafiyar da ayyukan MNSD ya yi wani taron gaggawa. 4 Kwamitin bayani cikin rahoton Siradji amma fa, sai 5 Za mu taho muku da mun gama da labaran duniya tukuna. ANC ce ta mance da abin da ya kira kurakurai, da 6 Ya ce niyyar wajen rashin adalci, yadda dukkan ’yan Afirka ta Kudu za su iya . aikin gina 4.1.2. Indirect object 4.1.2.1. Form of the indirect object In broad terms the indirect object is the entity for which, or on behalf of which (and it may convey many other notions depending upon the meaning of the verb) an action is performed, as opposed to the direct object which is ‘acted upon’ by the action of the verb. They brought us the book/they brought the book to us.

VERB CLASSES 69

In this example the order of the items is immaterial, in both cases ‘us’ is the indirect object and ‘the book’ the direct object. In Hausa the general notion of the relation of indirect object to verb is most commonly conveyed by the use of the particular set of pronouns (minì, makà, etc.) or the use of a marker (wà/mà) plus nominal phrase. The particular forms referred to earlier (sometimes called the ‘dative’) vary according to dialect, East minì makà mikì masà matà manà mukù musù

West manì makà makì mashì matà mamù makù masù

variants mîn mā, mâ

East wà+NP

West mà+NP

mâi, mâr mâr

The ‘dative’ is never used reflexively, i.e. ‘to oneself’; that is conveyed by wà kânsà, or such phrases as à rânsà. 4.1.2.2. D forms of verbs Grade 1

The form of a Grade 1 verb before an indirect object is the same as the A form of the verb: tā

minì shī

‘she grabbed it/him for me’

Grade 2 The Grade 2 form does not occur before an indirect object; consequently either a Grade 1 or a Grade 5 form substitutes: masà nā tā tambayam minì shī —Grade 2 ‘to receive’ minì shī tā or, minì shī tā Note also, wà Audù shī tā mà Audù shī tā

‘I bought him a bike’ ‘she asked him for me’ ‘she received it for me’ (Grade 1) ‘she received it for me’ (Grade 5) ‘she received it for Audu’ ‘she received it for Audu’ (W.dialects)


Newman has argued (1977) that what appears to be a Grade 5 is in fact a Hausa reflex of a widespread Chadic pre-dative (indirect object) marker which is underlyingly a nasal consonant and not simply an -r that has been assimilated to the following -m. Grade 3

Grade 3 verbs commonly operate with the -ar/-am form before an indirect object, or sometimes switch into a Grade 4 form in such circumstances: yā shigam minì gidā zā sù fiffitam manà gidā minì dà ganī kù

‘he went into my house’ ‘they will all leave our house’ ‘get out of my sight!’

Grade 4 The form of a Grade 4 verb before an indirect object is the same as the A form of the verb: yā

minì ita

‘he hid it from me’

Grade 5 Grade 5 verbs commonly operate with the -ar/-am form before an indirect object: minì dà yā yā fahimtar minì dà shī

‘he lost my horse’ ‘he made him understand for me’

Grade 6 The form of a Grade 6 verb before an indirect object is the same as the A form of the verb: tā kāwō matà ita

‘he brought it to/for her’

Grade 7 Grade 7 verbs commonly operate with the -ar/-am form before an indirect object: yā aukam masà yârā sukà tāram masà ya aukam masà?

‘it fell upon/happened to him’ ‘the boys gathered round him’ ‘what happened to him?’

VERB CLASSES 71

4.1.2.3. Syntax and the indirect object Indirect object can follow a verb: yā kāwō masà takàrdā kāwō masà takàrdā

‘he brought him a piece of paper’ ‘he is bringing him a piece of paper’

but not a strong verbal noun: *

sàyē minì

Alternatively, ‘

yi minì sàyē’ is possible.

Nothing can intervene between verb and indirect object, not even a modal particle, kuma, kùwa, mā, dai, fa. The indirect object/dative particle must remain immediately after the verb even when the nominal is moved to the left in a relative clause or for emphasis: nā

wàmùtumìn nàn takàrdâr (neutral sentence) ‘I showed this man the piece of paper’ wà takàrdâr (relative clause) mùtumìn dà na ‘the man I showed the piece of paper to’ wàtakàrdâr (focus emphasis) mùtumìn nē na ‘it’s that man I showed the piece of paper to’

In contexts where a direct object might be omitted, the indirect object is not, viz. in answers: ? Q: kā kāwō Q: kā kāwō minì

?

A: I, nā kāwō. A: I, nā kāwō makà.

When the indirect object occurs after the verb yi, the verb is sometimes omitted or assimilated into the person-aspect marker: nā yi masà mun yi masà zân yi manà

nai masà mun masà zan manà

With a small number of verbs the notion of indirect object is conveyed not by the use of such forms as outlined above but by the form that normally conveys the direct object, e.g.


sun bā they gave

tà (d.o. pronoun) to her indirect object nì me indirect object

sun biyā they paid

a gown direct object fâm bakwài seven pounds direct object

And the same notion can also be conveyed through the use of the particle gà/gàrē, as in the following examples, sun kāwō minì littāfìnsù sun kāwō littāfìnsù gàrē nì/gà Audù

‘they brought me their book’ ‘they brought me their book’

In certain set phrases a form using the direct object rather than the more usual indirect object is employed: wà Audù mun mun gōdè Allàh kù gāfàrtā minì Allàh yà gāfàrtà mālàm

‘we thank Audu’ ‘we thank Allah’ ‘forgive me’ ‘may Allah forgive the malam’ (polite address)

With some verbs an indirect object is essential to the construction, e.g.

,

,

:

zâi minìàbîn dà ya ‘he will tell me what happened’ masà ba bà zā mù ‘we won’t lend him a bike’ manàyaddà yî yā dai ‘he taught us how it’s done’

*zâi gayà

(tell)

*zâi arà

(lend)

*zâi kōyà Faransancī

(teach)

4.1.2.4. Meanings of the indirect object While the exact implication of the relation between verb and indirect object depends heavily on the particular meaning of the verb, there are a number of potential kinds of implication, for example,

VERB CLASSES 73

for to the detriment of from on behalf of to against, at

kà nēmō minì àbinci minì kā minì kāyā yā kù biyā minì minì shī kù yā tāsam masà

‘look for food for me’ ‘you’ve gone and broken my pot’ ‘he has stolen my things’ ‘pay the tax for me’ ‘show it to me’ ‘he attacked him’

The idea of ‘possession’: with parts of the body or intimate possessions it is possible to construct a usage with the indirect object that is equivalent to a possessive construction: tā karyà tā minì

‘the car broke my leg’ ‘the car broke my leg’

Translate: 1 Ta bayyana yadda take koya wa yadda ainihin mulkin wariya1 yake. sun kashe mana daji sun kuma korar mana 2 Azzalumai sun shiga mana da Filani sun saye gonakin. 3 Sun kai wa shugaba Siad Barre ziyarar ban-girma. 4 Sun kai ziyarar ban-girma ga shugaba Siad Barre. wa masu zanga-zanga wuta. 5 Lokacin da ’yan sanda suka a gidan yari har tsawon watanni goma sha 6 Aka yanke musu hukuncin biyu. mutane za su biya tarar Cedi2 dubu ashirin. 7 Irin ba da taimakon gaggawa na dollar 8 Kasuwar Tarayyar Turai za ta ke fama da bala’in ambaliyar ruwa a Sudan. milyan biyu ga 9 Mr Rizimunga ya shaida wa Kamfanin Dillancin Labaran Faransa cewa na ’yan gudun hijirar3 ba su da wuraren kashi tamanin daga cikin . kwana, ga shi kuma ana ta zuba ruwa kamar da bakin 10 A taron da aka yi cikin shekarar da ta wuce a jumhuriyar Niger an wa shugaba Hupet Banyo nauyin da wani tsarin da za a bi domin warware matsalar kamfanin.

1

mulkin wariya—apartheid, lit. rule by segregation Cedi—Ghanaian currency 3 ’yan gudun hijira—refugees 2


Translate: 1 Sixty per cent of all road accidents involve drunk-driving. 2 At a recent meeting of the House of Representatives a vote was taken on whether further aid to the rebels should be provided. 3 Troops opened fire on the crowd and many people were injured. 4 He is going to tell me the moment it arrives. 5 The other man is an inveterate liar, he tells me what has been going on and not a word of it is true. Composition: Write 20–25 lines on one of the following: 1 Write to a friend in Nigeria or Niger asking about the cost of living, the availability of accommodation and the prospects for work as a teacher. 2 Current relations between the superpowers. 3 Write an obituary for an honest civil servant, a good friend of yours. 4.2. Transitive verbs 4.2.1. Simple transitives The following are just some of the many verbs that can operate as simple transitives, Gr.1—

(with medium d.o.), , aikàtā, fassàrā , zàtā, , sàyā, , sàkā, , Gr.2— Gr.4— , ajìyē, (can also be used intransitively), hardàcē Gr.6— many transitives can operate this ventive extension. monosyllabic verbs—bi, shā, yi, jā, fi, and others. , , non-Grade verbs—ganī,

,

,

Translate: 1 Wani shirin rediyo da aka watsa kwanan baya ya wata hira da wata daga cikin makarantun firamare na malama da ke aiki a Namibia. 2 To, an tsare ni tun daga lokacin, aka yi ta kai ni gaban shari’a amma ba a . sako ni ba sai bayan da aka yi

VERB CLASSES 75

3 Sai aka tura shi cikin kududdufi ya mutu; shi kuma Tubu sai aka kama shi shi shekara biyu aka ce shi ya kashe Malam . aka 4 Bayan duk sun harbi wanda za su harba sai kuma suka bi gida gida suna cunna1 wuta. Translate 1 He clapped his hands, I spread out the mats and he chose the one he wanted. 2 He put up with great hardship before he was able to memorize the play and translate it from the French. 3 I picked up some money on the road and spent it there and then. 4 He begged her to say it but she refused. 5 I’ll sing a song while you sow the maize along the ridges.

4.2.2. Auxiliary/indeterminate verbs with restricted objects1 A number of transitive verbs can operate as ‘auxiliary’ verbs whereby they constitute in broad terms a modification concerning the process of another action, i.e. in conjunction with a phrase such as, ‘she worked’ they convey not a separate action but notions such as, ‘she started to work, she finished working, she did some more work, she worked again, she carried on working,’ etc. Generally, such verbs will take as their direct object a dynamic noun, either verbal or non-verbal, sometimes an abstract noun but not a concrete noun unless either the verb yi has been omitted or it is not operating as an auxiliary verb, see below. Examples:

A number of intransitive verbs can also operate as auxiliary verbs where the ‘go back to’, dynamic noun that follows it stands as a complement: Gr.1—

1

(Kats.) set on=


‘insist on’; Gr.3—shìga ‘start’; cf. also: tasam ma ‘set about’, ràbu dà ‘cease, desist’. Characteristics of auxiliary verbs

The transitive verbs will only occur in the C form before the dynamic noun, yā bugùn ganin sarkī tā tā fārà cìnikī

‘he started to beat the boy’ ‘she tried to see the chief’ ‘she began to trade’

Auxiliary verbs are generally not used with a following Dative (mà/wà indirect it is clear from the fact that it object). While it is possible to say is not, *sun

minì

(D form long final vowel in Gr.1)

but, sun fārà minì

(C form short final vowel)

that a direct object has been omitted, generally the verbal noun yi, and that the indirect object is dependent upon that verbal noun rather than the auxiliary verb. Auxiliary vs. non-auxiliary usage

Quite a number of verbs can operate with two slightly different meanings, the one auxiliary the other a simple transitive meaning, for example, zā tà sākè ba ‘she won’t be here again’ yā sākè ‘he changed his coat’ zā mù ba ‘we won’t say anything more’ zân ruwā ‘I will add some more water’ nā Zinder ‘I have been to Zinder’ tā hannūnā ‘the scorpion touched my hand’

1

(auxiliary) (non-auxiliary) (auxiliary) (non-auxiliary) (auxiliary) (non-auxiliary)

For a more extensive discussion of this class see Jaggar 1977

VERB CLASSES 77

Auxiliary verbs with abstract noun objects The use of auxiliary verbs with abstract nouns is perhaps less common and arguably involves an underlying use of the verb yi, for example, rānā tā fārà (yîn) zāfī ‘the sun started to get hot’ nàn yā fayè tsāmī ‘this orange/lemon is bitter’ Audù yā yi ta (yîn) ‘Audu was forever unhappy’ Sample sentences containing auxiliary uses of verbs: 1 Sai ya fārà cêwā shī bài zāgìn sarkī ba. ‘Then he began to deny that he had ever insulted the chief.’ tūrà yāròn nan cikin . 2 Kadà kà kùskurà in sākè sāmùnkà ‘Don’t make the mistake of letting me again find you pushing this boy into the pond.’ aikìn ba? Kâi, yā cikà sanyin jìkī. 3 Har yànzu bài ‘Hasn’t he finished the work yet? Goodness he is lethargic!’ ganin sarkī sai akà minì wai bài sābà ganin wàr hakà 4 Nā ba. ‘I tried to see the chief but was told he wasn’t accustomed to seeing people at this time.’ iyà zamā bāsùkùr sai ya hawan irìn mài 5 Àmmā dà ya ga bā ukù. ‘When he realized he could no longer ride a bike he went back to riding a tricycle.’ cikin gàrī àmmā yànzu dà ya fārà tsūfā yā ragè . 6 À dâ dai yā shā ‘Previously he used to go a lot to town but now he is getting old he goes less often.’ , sā’ànnan sukà , kàmar 7 Dà farkō sukà dingà cikin . ‘At first they kept on whispering, then they went back to speaking out loud as if they were in their own homes.’ yîn àbù dà farkō ba, sai kà yi ta dai. 8 In bà kà ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.’ in the completive implies an acquired or temporary ability rather Note that than a natural ability which is normally conveyed by the use of the continuative : aspect without yànzu yā iyà yànzu yā iyà Hausa

‘now he can walk’ ‘now he can speak Hausa’


yànzu yā iyà bā

samà samà

‘…can ride a bike/swim/ride a horse’ ‘people cannot fly’ ‘birds can fly’

Translate: 1 Barkanmu da sake saduwa a cikin wannan fili. . 2 Gwamnati za ta daina bai wa makarantar garuruwa. 3 ’Yan tawaye na Tigre sun ci gaba da don dai su tayar da husuma1 duk 4 Ya ce su daina yin amfani da lokacin da suka tashi yin maganin duk wani irin rikicin da ya shafi ma’aikata. da biyu suka tafkawa2 game da mallakar yankin 5A Ogaden. 3 garuruwan nan. 6 Baraden gwamnati suka nemi 4 a tsaunukan da ke kusa. 7 Suna iya sulalewa cikin dare su tsare shi tare da sauran ’ya’yan wannan da 8 Da ma an dama. Translate: 1 I fail to understand what you are getting at. 2 I am going to keep on trying until I succeed. 3 I have been many times to his office but I have never seen him. 4 She began to talk about it when the boy came in again and started to shout. 5 I used to keep on meeting him in the street but I don’t go along that way so much anymore. 4.2.3. Two-object verbs In the discussion of the notion ‘indirect object’ we saw that some verbs, bâ, and biyā, for example, handle the ‘recipient’ by the use of a direct object pronoun with the true direct object represented by an independent pronoun,

1

unrest carry on (of war) 3 v.n. taking by force 4 slip away 2

VERB CLASSES 79

and only the second of the two pronouns can be omitted, i.e. it is possible to say, mun bā shì

‘we gave (it) him’

but not, *mun bā shì

meaning ‘we gave it (away)’

(mun bā dà shī)

These verbs are anomalous in that they convey a meaning that clearly involves a direct and an indirect object more normally conveyed by the use of the indirect object/dative markers. There is however a class of verbs in which the verb operates with two direct objects, and their manner of operation is what we look at now. Take, for example, the two-object verb par excellence, fi, and look at these sentences, ‘Binta is brighter than Audu’ ‘Binta is better than Audu’ ‘Binta is the brightest’ ‘Binta is best’

Bintà tā fi Audù Bintà tā fi Audù Bintà tā fi Bintà tā fi

There is no implication that the action is done on behalf of/for/to Audu, nor are there any of the other normal notions surrounding the indirect object. The notional restrictions are rather that Binta and Audu must be comparable elements and that the second object is some quality or attribute conveyed normally by an the abstract notion of abstract or dynamic noun (even were the second object quantity would be understood). Verbs that can omit either object

Examples: fi, mayar dà, zamar dà, kirā Sample sentences: 1 Nā fī shì

àmmā nā

shi

.


‘I am older than him but not as patient.’ mu shân à nân. (also—an manà…) 2 An ‘We are forbidden to smoke here.’ shì iznìn gidā. 3 Nā ‘I begged for permission to go home.’ dà kumā dàlīlìn dà ya sâ ya fitō dàgà gàrinsù, 4 Sai kà tàmbàyē shì àmmā kadà kà tàmbàyē shì sūnansà. ‘Ask him about himself and why he left his hometown but do not ask him his name.’ shì àmmā an cī dà shī gàba an sâ shi . 5 An ‘He was taken on as a messenger but was promoted and made a clerk.’ nì à gidansà ya mai dà/zamad dà nī kàmar . 6 Attājìrîn ya ‘The merchant took me into his home and treated me as his son.’ gōmà. 7 Nā kasà ‘I divided up the groundnuts into ten piles.’ 8 Zā mù ninkà wannan takàrdā biyu. ‘We are going to fold this piece of paper into two.’ . 9 Saraunìyā mài sihìrī ta jūyà ‘The magic queen turned Gandoki into a monkey.’ ma’aji 10 Audù yā ‘Audu appointed Sulemanu treasurer.’ The verb sâ allows only the omission of the first object, as in the following examples: 1 Zāfin dūkàn har ya sâ yāròn nan kūkā. ‘The pain of the beating made this boy cry.’ sâ kūkā. 2 ‘A beating makes (you) cry.’ Verbs that can omit the second object Examples: rigā,

,

, kai

Sample sentences: 1 Yā rigā dà fìye dà gùdā. ‘He predeceased his wife by more than a year.’ (Yā rigā tà ‘he preceded her’) wannàn ? 2 Kō zā kà tàimàkē nì ‘Will you help me pick up this box?’ wânkà tsawō kô? 3 Kā ‘Are you slightly taller than your brother?’

VERB CLASSES 81

4

bài kai àlfadari ba. ‘A donkey is not as strong as a mule.’

The notion of two objects is not limited to these particular transitive constructions. There are other similar patterns to be seen in the operation of some verbs in the efferential Grade 5 where, in the main, the verbs allow the omission of the second object but not the oblique object. Some of the Grade 5s are built on transitive base forms and others on intransitive bases: Examples (from underlying transitives): ciyar, shāyar, hawar, sanar, jiyar, biyar Examples (from underlying intransitives): hūtar, Sample sentences: 1 Yā ciyar dà ìyālìnsà àbinci mài . ‘He fed his family delicious food.’ ruwā. 2 Yā shāyar dà dōkìnsà ‘He watered his horse with muddy water.’ 3 Yā hawar dà nī dōkìnsà. ‘He put me to ride on his horse.’ 4 Yā sanar dà nī sūnansà. ‘He informed me as to his name.’ . 5 Sun jiyar dà mū ‘They told us about it.’ . 6 Sun biyar dà mū wannàn ‘They took us along this road.’ . 7 Sun hutar dà mū ‘They relieved us of the problem/difficulty.’ dà nī àbîn dà ya . 8 Yā ‘He alerted me to what had happened.’

Translate: . 1 Ruwan saman da ya fi kowanne 2 Suka hana jakadan da sauran ma’aikatansa gudanar da aikace-aikacensu.

1

Cedi—Ghanaian currency


3 Za a ci shi tarar Cedi1 dubu ashirin da kwalabe biyu na wata irin barasar da ake kira Schnapps. 4 Jaririyar da ta tambayi mahaifiyarta yadda ake fara yin tafiya, sai ita mahaifiyar tata ta ce da ita, ‘Tashi kawai ki fara tafiyarki’. domin kuwa an 5 Amma ruwan saman da aka yi ran Laraba shi ne ya fi ce a ran nan ne mutane goma sha biyu suka mutu a birnin Kano lokacin da gidajensu suka rushe a kansu. Sin a kan ta daina bai 6 Kakakin ya ce irin matsa lambar1 da ake wa 2 ne kawai a zamar da ita makamai, wani wa ’yan mai laifi a kuma janye hankalin jama’a daga irin bukatar da ake da ita ta . janye sojojin Vietnam daga Translate: 1 She helped me carry him inside out of the sun. 2 I’ve already seen him in hospital although they stopped us staying too long. 3 Flood is worse than fire in a library. 4 I begged them for just a few pennies but they refused point blank. 5 He can swim as well as I can. 6 I folded it into three like you said but it wouldn’t fit in the box. 7 He was appointed secretary-general in 1982. 8 Well I took him to be a clerk but he turned out to be the chairman of the association. 9 Three weeks afterwards he was demoted back to assistant secretary.

4.3. Intransitive Verbs 4.3.1. Simple intransitives The following are some of the many verbs that can operate as simple intransitives,

1 2

matsa lamba—pressurize, cajole attempt

VERB CLASSES 83

4.3.2. Intransitive verbs operating with a following complement A number of intransitive verbs signify some kind of movement and integral to such a notion is the destination of such movement. In Hausa the place-word that stands as the destination is not preceded by a preposition and stands normally immediately after the verb as in the following example, sun they

Kano Kano

went to

dà by car

insofar as the place-word is closely linked to the verb but is not a direct object we use the term destination complement. Similarly, it is possible to use a dynamic noun immediately after such verbs to imply the purpose of the action, for example, sun they

went back to

work

and in this case we use the term purpose complement and the general rule is that the order is as follows, A form of the Verb

+

destination complement

+

purpose complement

There are at least four features that indicate that the place-word is not a direct object as we have previously defined it, – In Grade 1 the verb has a long vowel before the place word. – It cannot be replaced by a direct object pronoun; rather it is necessary to use the word can, nan or hakà as a pronominal equivalent. ? – If a question word stands in place of the place-word it will be ìnā? and not


– In the continuative aspect the compare,

they

kāmà are catching

they

are returning

marker is added before the place-word,

kīfī fish gidā home

(transitive) (intransitive)

Examples: ; the following can also be

Gr.1— used as simple transitives: fìta, shìga, ìsa, sàuka (also simple trans.), jē, dāwō, isō, kāwō, zō

Gr.3— Gr.4— Gr.6— Gr.7— non-Grade verbs—kai, tàfi, tāshì, tāsam mà A further group of intransitive verbs operate with a status complementwhich, rather than involving physical movement as with verbs of motion, implies transformation/movement into another stage or state of being. Look, for example at the following sentence, Bintà tā zama saraunìyā

‘Binta became queen’

Further examples: Gr.1—

,

Gr.4— Gr.6—kōmō Gr.7—kàsu, ràbu Sample sentences: ta kūrā ganī. ‘The monster changed into a hyena as we watched.’ àmmā zāmànī yā ya matàlàucī. 2 À dâ shī mài arzìkī ‘Previously he was rich but times have changed and he has returned to being a pauper.’ 1

While this whole section 4.3. is concerned with the operation of classes of intransitive verbs, the use of a destination and/or purpose complement, is not limited to intransitive verbs. Look, for example, at the following sentence:

VERB CLASSES 85

Lādi Ladi subject

tā àiki sent transitive verb

Bintà Binta direct object

gidā home destination complement

In this example the verb is transitive, Bintà stands as direct object, and is followed by a destination complement; in other cases the relationship between the verb and that which follows may be a sociative or efferential construction where the complement follows the oblique object, for example, Lādi Ladi subject

dà takàrdā the letter sociative oblique object

tā sent verb

gidā home destination complement

nēman ràncē looking for a loan purpose complement

or, sun they subject

took verb

dà mū us sociative oblique object

makarantā to school destination complement

Examples of verbs commonly operating with an object (direct or oblique) and following complement(s): dà (send thing), dà, Gr.1— Gr.2— àikā (send person), Gr.3— shìga dà, fìta dà dà Gr.4— Gr.5— fitar, gabātar, mayar, shigar, tāyar, tsayar, zaunar Gr.6— aikō, aikō dà, kirāwō, dāwō dà, kāwō, kōmō dà non-Grade—kirā Sample sentences: nēman àbîn dà zâi ci. 1 Ya tàfi ‘He went to market looking for something to eat.’ 2 An gàyyàcē nì sūnā. ‘I have been invited to a naming ceremony.’ 3 Dà akà gabātad dà fursùnàn gàban kōtù, sai kōwā ya jā dà bāya à fìrgìce. ‘When the prisoners were brought before the court everyone drew back in fright.’


4 In tā yi, àbincin shānū yā farà , sai Fùlànī sù kōrà shānunsù kudù. ‘When harvest comes cattle fodder becomes scarce in the north and the Fulani drive their cattle south.’ , ya rāmìnsà. 5 Mùzūrū ya gudù ya ‘The cat ran off into the bush and the mouse rushed into its hole.’ mù tàfi shân dājìn nân, nā gàji dà zamā wurī . 6 ‘Come on, let’s go and get a breath of fresh air along beside the wood, I am bored with sitting in one place.’ Translate: 1 Suna komawa yankunan da ke hannun gwamnati. 2 Magaji yaron Alhaji Gabatari yana ta jiran Ada Birkila domin su shiga aikinsa. wurin Alhaji ko za ya sami wani abu daga cikin 3 Yana cikin wannan tunani har ya isa gida. 4 Ba shakka za su zama wata babbar barazana ga masu neman mamaye yankunan arewancin Ethiopia. 5 Miliyoniya zan zama? 6 Daga can Delhi Satish Jacob ya aiko mana da rahoto. masassabansu su ma suka yi ta bugun 7 Sai aka dawo da su gida suka Mato, shi ma ya shigo ya ’yan sanda, har daga baya Madugu, adda tasa sama zai sare sufeto, sufeto ya harbe shi ya matacce. zuwa. 8 Aka kirawo shi liyafa amma ya 9 Firaministan Sudan ya bayyana damuwarsa game da yadda kayayyakin agajin da ake bayarwa ba a kawo su wurin mutanen da ambaliyar ruwa ta shafa. 10 Dr Runcie ya sake jaddada1 ra’ayinsa cewa hanyar diplomasiya ita ce ta fi dawowa da mutanen nan gidansu. kowacce amfani a Translate: 1 They all went together to see the librarian but he refused to let them borrow any more books. 2 We crossed over to the northern bank of the river in a tiny canoe only big enough for two. 3 They set out for the town but were attacked on the road and so scattered into the bush. 4 We reached the top of the hill at dawn just as the sun was coming up. 5 We stayed at the hotel by the bridge. 6 He changed into a ghost before my very eyes. 7 I sat him on my chair and said, ‘Don’t get up until I get back’. 8 He said he would bring it back if we paid him enough money.

VERB CLASSES 87

9 You were invited to the party but you didn’t come. 10 I sent a horse to you as a present and I sent a boy to ride it to you. Didn’t you get it?

4.3.3. Sociative verbs 4.3.3.1. Intransitive sociative verbs The use of the term oblique object discussed in the introduction to these verb classes was one whereby a nominal was linked to a verb by the use of the word dà; notionally the nominal phrase is ‘affected’ by the action of the verb in very much the same way as a direct object is; while there are differences in behaviour between the oblique object of an efferential (Gr.5) verb and that of a sociative verb we have opted to use the term ‘oblique object’ for both. For the moment at least let us also make the division between the verb and its oblique object such that the word dà forms part of the oblique object. Compare the following, mun we subject mun we subject

sayar sold Gr.5 verb gàmu met Gr.7 verb

dà the car oblique object dà mālàm the malam oblique object

efferential construction

sociative construction

For some of the differences in behaviour between the two constructions compare the two verbs in the continuative, sayar dà gàmuwā dà mālàm

‘we are selling the car’ ‘we are meeting the malam’

or when the oblique object is the head of a relative clause, mōtàr dà mukà sayar sayârwā mōtàr dà mālàmîn dà mukà gàmu dà shī gàmuwā dà shī mālàmîn dà

1

restate, reiterate

‘the car we sold’ ‘the car we are selling’ ‘the malam we met’ ‘the malam we are meeting with’


where it is obligatory to recapitulate the nominal in the sociative construction but not in the efferential. Typically, sociative constructions ‘transitize’ an intransitive verb, however there are some cases where a sociative construction is built upon a basically transitive verb and these we will also look at shortly. A feature of some sociative constructions which involve a mutuality of action in the sense of the verb is the rendering of a plural subject where a single actor is represented (only when the subject and oblique object are comparable, i.e. human) thereby creating an ambiguity as to whether the subject is truly plural or not, for example in the sentence, mun gàmu dà mālàm

lit. ‘we met the malam’

it is not clear whether the sentence out of context means ‘we met the malam’ or ‘I met the malam’, it can mean either. The verb used in the sociative construction means ‘to meet’ and since this action involves a mutuality of action between the subject and the oblique object, ‘me and the malam’, Hausa allows a plural subject ‘anticipating’ this same plurality. Verbs that operate with this anticipatory plural are, for example, dà, dà, dà, dà, Gr.1— dà, jìtu dà, ràbu dà, Gr.7—gàmu dà, monosyllabic—zō dà

dà,

dà

All these are examples of intransitive verbs operating with a sociative oblique object Anticipatory plurality is a phenomenon that occurs in other context also, not only in the operation of these verbs. Translate: ta yi ta faman gamuwa da matsaloli barkatai. mutane za su da wasu mutanen su talatin da biyar inda da talatin. ake lura da kusan marasa lafiya suka je kan iyaka suka gana da mutane, su sun san yadda 3 Sai dai al’amuran suke. 4 Tun tuni ma ba ma jituwa da shi, ana zaman doya da man ja da abokanensa. 1 2

Translate: 1 I went to have a chat with the Secretary of Defence but he is not used to conversation off the cuff with a member of the Press. 2 We met as friends at the summit meeting in October but parted as enemies shortly afterwards.

VERB CLASSES 89

3 I have tried and tried to live with him but there is just no way we can get on together. 4.3.3.2. Transitive sociative verbs A number of transitive verbs can operate with a sociative oblique object, and sometimes can also operate with a following direct object and sociative oblique object; for example compare the following, dà sū mun na shiryà Audù dà Àli

‘we came to an arrangement with them’ ‘I brought Audu and Ali together/I made peace between Audu and Ali’

Further examples of transitive verbs that can operate with a sociative oblique object (with corresponding d.o.+oblique object also indicated in brackets): dà ‘finish with’ Gr.1— dà ‘include’ (gamà X dà Y ‘introduce X to Y’) dà ‘include’ ( X dà Y ‘introduce X to Y’) dà ‘add’ dà ‘share with’ (rabà X dà Y ‘separate X from Y’) dà ‘introduce’ (sādà X dà Y ‘introduce X to Y’) Sample sentences: 1 Bā dà Bellò cikin , bā mā jìtuwā dà shī. ‘I don’t include Bello among my friends, we don’t get on.’ ya ku dà sarkī? ni dà gidan na ya yi. 2 ‘What business do you have with the chief? He deprived me of the inheritance of my family home.’ zā mù dà shī ba sai yā tūbam minì. 3 ‘I won’t be reconciled with him until he apologizes to me.’ ya sâ ka ràbu dà gidā ka zō nân? 4 ‘Why did you leave home and come here?’ sai akà dà dà ùbānā 5 Dà akà tàfi à zō dà shānun nàn na . ya bar minì ‘When they went to fetch these cattle of Makau’s they included mine that my father had left me in his will.’ dà hannunsà. 6 Nī dà kâinā nā sādà ‘I myself put the letter into his hand.’


Translate: 1 Ana tuhumarsa da aikata laifin shiga cikin zanga-zangar. da shugabannin 2 ’Yan kallo a wajen taro sun ’yanci da babban sakataren Majalisar Duniya. lokacin karatu da yawan makwannin da aka 3 Kowace makaranta za ta yi hasara. da wata yagaggiyar takarda wadda take da 4 Shaidar ta yi. samfurin irin maganganun da marigayi1 Thomas Sankara ya

Translate: 1 Would you include the sale of armaments as legitimate trade? 2 Would you please introduce me to your guests ? 3 We parted company three years ago. 4 Please pass me the newspaper when you have finished with it. 4.3.3.3. Phrasal sociative constructions In the immediately preceding discussion we have seen the operation of basic intransitive verbs with following oblique objects dà+NP and also basic transitive verbs also operating with such oblique objects; the transitive verbs also potentially operate with both a direct object and a following oblique object. The operation of a following oblique object introduced by dà is also allowed by various groups of ‘phrasal verbs’, for example, phrasal verbs—yi+ /

/hīrā/ /àlkawàrī/ban kwānā/ /zamā/fāmā+dà…

/

/

There are also a number of set phrases using a common transitive sociative verb with a direct object and a sociative oblique object, for example, /

gamà + + +

/ /jìkī/kâi/

/ /

/jìkī/kâi + dà… + dà… / + dà…

Note also the following idiomatic constructions where a sociative type of construction is employed,

1

the late Mr….

VERB CLASSES 91

sun àbinci dà cî dà hawā sun kāmà jînkà dà wànnan sônkì dà aurē nēmankì dà

‘they fell upon the food’ ‘they set off up the hill’ ‘I am anxious about this journey of yours’ ‘he wants to marry you’ ‘he is looking for your advice’

Sample sentences using phrasal verbs: 1 Guy Fawkes yā dà sukà sâ wà wai sù shi. ‘Guy Fawkes conspired with others and put gunpowder under parliament in order to blow it up.’ 2 Mun yi àlkāwàrī dà Kūrā ìn yi matà gidā. ‘I promised to make a home for Hyena.’ (wà) àbinci dà cî sukà cînyē shi kaf. 3 Sukà ‘They fell on the food and ate it all up.’ sô mù yi ban kwānā dà kē yànzu sô ìn tāshì tun 4 Amīnà, à kirā . ‘Amina, I want to say goodnight to you now because I want to leave before prayers are called.’ dà shī. 5 Nā san shì mànà, mun yi ‘Of course I know him, we were neighbours.’ dà shī ba, zaman kawài ya mu. 6 Bà mù gamà ‘He is not a blood relation, having lived in the same place is our only link.’ dà Ingìlīshì à Hitilà. 7 Amirkāwā sun ‘The Americans were in alliance with the English during the Hitler war.’ Translate: abinci sosai a manyan garuruwa kamar 1 An yi fama da matsalar su Axum da Wakro. kai da sauran yammacin Turai a 2 Ya ce kamata ya yi a toshe hanyoyin da suke samun goyon baya daga waje. 3 Mun yi alkawari da shi za mu zo mu ga abin da ya gina can cikin lungunsu. 4 Haka ma abin yake ga wanda ya yi yawo a duniya. Shi ma yakan san . Amma kuma duk wannan ba ta hana a baki da wasu masu son abin duniya daga cikinsu a cuci talakawa. Translate: 1 The Republic of Benin has co-operated with its neighbours in outlawing the dumping of toxic waste.


2 We talked to him about how his work has been going over the last few months. 3 All three representatives have come together to criticize the plan that has been put forward. 4 When the food arrived they set to and demolished it and then climbed back up the twelve-storey building. Composition: Write 20–25 lines of Hausa on one of the following: a bakin tulu, a kashe ka a fasa tulu, a bar ka ka 1 2 Nigeria since Independence. 3 A disgruntled dialogue in a tax office.

ruwa.

4.4. Introduction to verbs operating dependent VP complements or objects The discussion so far has divided up the material primarily on the basis of the transitive—intransitive contrast. In this section we are shifting our ground and will relegate the transitive—intransitive—sociative split to a secondary position (reflected in the section heading, ‘complements or objects’, the first being associated with intransitives and the second with transitives or efferential and sociative constructions). Rather we are now going to turn to verbs which allow a Verb Phrase/sentence as an object or complement in contrast to all the verbs we have seen so far where the object or complement has been a Nominal Phrase. Before we look at the verbs and the way they operate, we need to look briefly at the notions of dependent sentences, verbaland non-verbal sentences,and tense/aspect systems in dependent sentences. 4.4.1. Dependent sentences A dependent sentence is one which stands as an ‘argument’ to the verb in another sentence; in other words the dependent sentence stands as the subject or object or complement to another verb, for example, as subject:1 cêwā yā mutù yā bā nì S ‘that he had died amazed me’

VERB CLASSES 93

as object: yā ji zā sù zō DO ‘he heard they will come’

nā

shì DO1 DO2 ‘I begged him to come back tomorrow’

4.4.2. Verbal and non-verbal sentences So far we have looked at verbal sentences in which there have been verbal complexes or continuatives, with potential verbal dependents. There can be however, fully formed utterances that contain neither of these. Rather they contain or imply the existence of a ‘verb equivalent’ which for want of a better term we can call non-verbal predicators. These predicators do not carry aspect or tense nor do they, other than the predicator nē/cē/nē, vary for person or number. But they do operate with grammatical dependents by way of subjects, objects, etc. nē/cē/nē—the ‘copula’, which operates, in a neutral (unemphatic) sentence, as follows: wannàn this subject

cē it is predicator

a door complement

and if the subject reference is already known,

a door complement

cē it is predicator

Grammatical concord operates in such a way that the nē (with polar tone) occurs with masculine singular or plural subject nominal phrases and cē with feminine singular ones; if the complement is a sentence or an adverbial expression then nē occurs: sun zō jiyà nē complement predicator ‘it is the case that they came yesterday’ ‘it was last year’

1

Note the postpositioning of the subject in the phrase, yā kàmātà mù tāshì


(cf.

wàccan, f. noun)

Note that grammatical concord operates between the subject and the complement . Conventionally we in the above sentences; you cannot say * say the subject has a given number and gender and the complement must ‘agree’ the word with it. However this leads us to hold that in the sentence wannàn carries the given properties of gender and number, whereas the realworld item to which it ‘points’ carries no such properties; it is the name given to the item, occurring in complement position, that is marked for gender and number. In some instances the predicator is absent leaving simply the juxtaposition of subject and complement, sūnansà gàrinsù

Audù nōmā

‘his name is Audu’ ‘their home town is Kano’ ‘his occupation is farming’

Àkwai, , bâ, can be followed by an NP direct object; I say direct object because pronominal substitution for a nominal involves using a direct object pronoun: àkwai bâ

– – –

àkwai tà ta bâ su

‘there is a car’, ‘there is one’ ‘thereis a chair’, ‘thereit is’ ‘there is no money’, ‘there isn’t any’

Bābù, dà, gāra, gwàmmàcan be followed by an NP complement; complement on the basis that the pronoun used is the independent pronoun: bābù dà gāra mālàmin nàn gwàmmà Bintà

– – – –

bābù ita dà sū gāra shī gwàmmà ita

‘there is no car’, ‘there isn’t one’ ‘there is some money’, ‘there is some’ ‘better (it be) this teacher’, ‘better him’ ‘better (it be) Binta’, ‘better her’

Only àkwai and bābù can stand alone without an object or complement 4.4.3. Tense/aspect systems in dependent sentences There are three aspect ‘systems’ in Hausa and while they mostly involve discussion of the verbal aspects you are familiar with, non-verbal predicators do also participate in them, and that is the relevance of the preceding discussion. The three systems are the general system, the relative systemand the subjunctive.

VERB CLASSES 95

Generally speaking the difference between general aspects and the subjunctive is that the general deals with facts, events, states or processes that have or may have some reality whereas the subjunctive generally implies a contingent, conditional, non-fact circumstance, except when it is used in narrative coordinate sequences after an initial future, continuative or habitual aspect (see above under subordinate and coordinate sentences). The difference between the general and the relative systems is that, putting aside the use of the relative completive in narrative, a relative system aspect is required in certain conditions, namely, after question words, in relative clauses and in focused constructions. All three of these involve left-shifting of a nominal in the neutral sentence, for example: mun sàyi ‘we bought a car’ cē mukà sàyā ‘it was a car we bought’ mōtàr dà mukà sàyā ‘the car that we bought’ mun sàyi ‘we bought what?’ mukà sàyā? ‘what did we buy?

neutral sentence focused sentence relative sentence question-word substitution question-word left-shifted

General system aspects:All the non-verbal predicators operate as do the following verbal aspects: general completive general continuative 1st future 2nd future habitual/iterative Relative system aspects:In the special circumstances outlined above, of the nonverbal predicators only bābù and bâ can operate: bābù à cikin àkwàtì ‘there is no money in the box’ dà bābù à cikin àkwàtì ‘the money of which there isn’t any in the box’

neutral relative sentence

or, dà bâ su à cikin àkwàtì ‘the money of which there isn’t any in the box’


You cannot say, *

dà…. nē/àkwai/dà….à cikin àkwàtì

The nearest thing is to use a grammatically required but otherwise superfluous in conjunction with àkwai,1 dà àkwai à cikin àkwàtì ‘the money of which there is some in the box/the money that there is in the box’ Note however that it is possible to omit the relative marker after wandà, waddà, if the copula is employed, wandà (yakè) shī mazàunin sābuwar màjàlisàr dōkōkin ‘which is the location of the new legislature in Ethiopia’

Ethiopia

In contexts where a relative is required a number of substitutions take place for general system aspects: General general completive general continuative 1st future 2nd future habitual

Relative relative completive relative continuative 1st future 1 st future relative future (see note below) habitual

Note that, in standard dialect at least, the semantic distinction between the 1st and 2nd future disappears in relative circumstances, as do the formal distinctions between the general and relative, completive and continuative in the negative. In standard dialect you would not say, *mōtàr dà mwâ sàyā

but rather,

mōtàr dà zā mù sàyā,

thereby losing the ‘probability’ element from the neutral sentence.1

1 Incidentally, the phrase

would appear to be an emphatic form of whereby shī is focused and the requirement that there should be a relative is met by the use of and the prohibition on standing alone is met by the use of the all-purpose complement substitute, nan.

VERB CLASSES 97

4.5. Verbs operating with dependent VPs 4.5.1. Verbs allowing NP or VP objects or both at once With a number of verbs it is possible to combine both NP and VP objects in one sentence, for example, nā san shì nā san yā zō nā san shì V d.o. pronoun

‘I know him’ ‘I know he came’ yā zo d.o. sentence

‘I know he came’

(cf. nā san shī yā zō, where shī yā zō acts as a sentence standing as an object to the verb, a sentence with the subject emphasized as topic) Examples: Gr.2—hàngā, Gr.4— Gr.5—tarar monosyllabic verbs—ji non-Grade verbs—ganī,

,

In cases where these verbs are followed by a sentence object they can operate either in the A- or the C form, nā ganī sun zō

1

— ‘I saw they arrived’

nā ga sun zō

Note also that in Western dialect there is in fact a relative future aspect quite often found in poetry: Western Relative Future

wandà wandà wandà wandà wandà wandà wandà wandà wandà


mun

yā bùgu — mun san yā bùgu ‘we know he was drunk/has been beaten’ mun hàngā sun dāwō — mun hàngi sun dāwō ‘we saw they came back’ Note that tarar does not operate with an accompanying dà when there is a sentence after it, mun tarar bà sù dāwō ba

‘we discovered they had not come back’

In circumstances when a sentence object follows these verbs it is possible to use a clause introducer/complementizer immediately after the verb either in the A- or the C form, mun tarar cêwā bà sù dāwō ba cêwā yā bùgu mun mun ji cêwā yā bùgu

‘we found they had not come back’ ‘we know he was drunk/has been beaten’ ‘we heard he was drunk/has been beaten’

or the complementizer that throws doubt upon the veracity of the dependent sentence, wai, mun ji wai yā bùgu ‘we heard apparently he was drunk/has been beaten’ wai bà sù dāwō ba ‘they found that it appeared they had not sun returned’ These clause introducers/complementizers can be used with more verbs than cêwā bà sù dāwō ba those given in this section alone, cf. sun When both a nominal and a sentence object are underlyingly present then it is also possible for the underlying sentence to be realized as an adverbial expression, —nā gan tà dà kyâu ‘I saw she was beautiful’ (The second sentence is ambiguous and could be read as, ‘I saw her clearly’.) shì yā mutù —nā shì màtaccē nā ‘I found he had died’ dà —an san shì dà an san shì ‘he is known to be a thief’ nā gan tà

dà kyâu

The non-verbal particle which we have hitherto considered as a separate item from the imperative form of the verb ganī, operates in much the same way as the verbs in this group, reinforcing its connections with the verb ganī,

VERB CLASSES 99

shi

dà

su

dà

— shi dà ‘and there he was, all fat’ — su dà ‘and there they were, all fat’

but compare the usage in which the shi pronoun refers not to the subject in the dependent sentence but to a general notion ‘the fact/situation that’, shi sun mutù shi tā mutù shi yā mutù

‘and so it is, they have died’ ‘and so it is, she has died’ ‘and so it is, he has died’

Sample sentences:

1

Nā san shì mutûm nē nagàri wandà bâ shi dà mūgùn ‘I know him to be a good man with no evil intentions.’

2

àku barcī. Yā ‘He found the parrot was asleep.’

3

. Nā ji dafìn yā ci ‘I felt the poison had sapped my strength.’

4

zā à kai shì à . Sai ya ga wani màtaccē an ‘Then he saw a dead person being taken to be buried.’

5

zàune tsàkānin nāmùn , fādancī. Sukà tarar ‘They found the lion sitting among the wild animals holding court’

6

ka kyàkkyāwan sauràyī àmmā zūcìyarkà tā ‘And you a good-looking boy, but your heart is evil.’

.

.

4.5.2. Verbs regularly operating a general system aspect in the dependent sentence In the discussion of the distinction between general system aspects and the subjunctive in section 4.4.3. we tried to draw together a generalization that where general system aspects make definite, ‘real-world’, independent statements even where they relate to future events, the subjunctive tends to carry the notion that the action/event is contingent upon some other notion. Following this line of thought we find that a number of verbs that mean, ‘to state, believe, affirm, agree,


etc.,’ i.e. that by their very nature imply definite, ‘real-world’ circumstances, tend to be followed by a general system aspect in their dependent sentences if the statement in the dependent sentence is ‘a fact’. With some of these verbs a subjunctive can operate in some circumstances to imply that the dependent notion is ‘contingent’ upon the main verb, for example, (cêwa) sun maidō manà dà yârân sun ‘the children insisted that they had paid us back our money’ (cêwa) mù mayar musù dà yârân sun ‘the children insisted that we should pay them back their money’ Examples: Gr.1— *bayyànā, *shâidā, Gr.2— , zàtā, Gr.3— fàhimtà, Gr.4— , Gr.5— tabbatar, tarar , yi Phrasal—ji non-Grade verbs—ganī, dynamic nominals—

, *

,

, *gaskàtā, *tabbàtā, mântā,

, amìncē, kasàncē , yi , màganàr, zàton

Those verbs above marked with a raised sign (*) can optionally operate with a following indirect object as well as a dependent sentence. Complementizers :With most of these verbs it is possible to interpose the words cêwā or wai between the verb and the following sentence, sun shâidā (cêwā) an yi lâifī ‘they gave evidence that a crime had been committed.’ Verbs requiring indirect objects :There are some verbs that are followed by a General system aspect sentence but which require that there be an indirect object before the sentence, Gr.1— sun sun

,

manà (cêwā) zā sù dāwō manà (cêwā) zā sù dāwō

‘they told us they would return’ ‘they told us they would return’

Sociative constructions and sentence complements : In the case of some of the above verbs which you will recognize as ones that operate with a following

VERB CLASSES 101

sociative/causative dà before a nominal phrase, when they operate with a following sentence the dà is generally not employed, nā mântā dà littāfìn ‘I forgot the book’ nā mântā sun rigā sun tāshì ‘I forgot they had already left’ dà màganàrsà mun ‘we remembered what he said’ sun maidō manà littāfìn mun ‘we remembered they had returned the book’ and ràbu dà it is possible, when the following However in the case of sentence is subjunctive, for the dà to be retained, for example, nā

nā ràbu dà in gan shì ‘It is a long time since I saw him’ dà à shì ba wannàn sarkī bài ‘this chief cares not if he is in insulted’

Sample sentences: dà yà yi àbîn dà ya ga dāmā. 1 Nā tabbàtā mùtûm ‘I am sure man has the power to accomplish whatever he wishes.’ dà yârā dà ’yan mātā dà sauran dà sukà 2 Rùmfâr tā cìka yā sai dà gēmùnsà dà . shâidā ‘The hut was full of boys and girls and the other people who all gave evidence that the muezzin had sold his beard and sideburns for thirty shillings.’ makà bà zân fitō ba? 3 Har sau nawà zân ‘How many times must I tell you I am not coming out?’ yâu duk nàn bābù wandà ya fi mù arzìkī. 4 Nā ‘I swear that today in all the land there is none richer than us.’ sun cī sù sai ya 5 Dà ìsarsà gurîn sai ya tarar duk sun mutù. Dà ya sukà su. yi zàton sū ‘On arriving at the place he found they were all dead. When he noticed that the hyenas had eaten them then he concluded that they had killed them.’ nì wai bā aikìn kōmē à gidā sai barcī. 6 Kullum yā ‘He forever bothers me saying that I never do any work at home only sleep.’


Translate: 1 ta neman 1 Bai tsammaci za ta yi wata garuruwa. za ta kasance an rage ta da gaske. 2A nasara aka samu ba. 3 Sun amince cewa ba 4 Sun tabbatar da cewa sun tsaya tsayin daka 2 wajen yin amfani da shawarar. 5 Botswana ta ce Angola ta gaya mata ita ta harbi jirgin saman shugaban ta Botswana ran Lahadi da ta wuce.

Translate: 1 When the policeman gave evidence he explained that he had been standing a hundred metres from where the accident happened. 2 I think they should be here before dawn, all being well. 3 I can confirm that all seats on this flight have been sold. 4 We know he is not a liar, but maybe sometimes he just makes mistakes. 5 We found there was no-one at home and the front door had been broken down. 4.5.2.1. Verbs taking kân plus a general system aspect A number of verbs operate a ‘prepositional’ kân before a dependent sentence normally in the completive, for example, Gr.2—

Sample sentences: 1 Sarkī yā mânyan gàrîn kân sun yi masà . ‘The chief abused the senior people in the town saying they had done him ill.’ kân yā yi . 2 Akà zàrgi ‘The thief was blamed for thieving.’ nì kân bàn zō nā masà àbîn ba tun dà wuri. 3 Yā ‘He criticized me for not coming to tell him about it right at the beginning.’

1 2

id. making a great effort standing firm, lit. the stance taken when pounding

VERB CLASSES 103

Translate: 1 da kuma malaman jami’o’in 1 Ministan ya zargi kan sun yi laifin zuga Nijeriya. nan ta yaba kan ba ya hawa kan dukiyar 2 In har akwai mutumin da jama’a, hakika ka sani Balarabe ne. 3 Sun tsaya kan a zo da wuri. 4 Sun tsaya tsayin daka kan sun dawo da keken. 5 Sun amince kan cewa sun dawo da keken. 6 ’Yan jam ’iyyar Republicans sun zargi ’yan Democrats kan ba su da niyyar ganin an sake ci gaba da ba da taimakon makamai.

Note also kan+NP: kan Afirka ta tsaya kan da ’yantar da Afirka ta kudu. 8 Aka rattaba 2 hannu kan yarjejeniyar kafa

7

da ake fuskanta game kan Afirka.

Translate: 1 They criticized me for not taking bribes in spite of the fact that everone else did. 2 I abused him roundly for forgetting the most important thing of all.

4.5.3. Verbs regularly operating a general system aspect or subjunctive in a dependent sentence A number of verbs regularly allow either a general system aspect or a subjunctive in a dependent sentence depending upon the factors discussed above under 4.5.2. Examples: Gr.1— Gr.2— Gr.3—yàrda,

1 2

trade unions rattaba hannu—formally sign


Phrasal—yi , yi , yi Allàh yà sâ, sâ râi, sâ zūcìyā Monosyllabic verbs—sō, cê

, yi

, yi àlkāwàrī, yi yàrjējēnìyā,

The bulk of these verbs and phrases tend to be used in the completive (except for sō which is generally used in the continuative) and the aspect in the dependent sentence is usually either a subjunctive or a future. The verb sâ along with a number of these verbs can also operate with a following relative completive if the action in the dependent sentence is a ‘fact/completed action’, 1 dà samàn sukà yi sàukar gaggāwā àbîn dà ya sâ ‘the reason why the warplanes were forced to make an emergency landing’

Where the subject of the main verb and that of the dependent verb are the same then it is usually possible to convert the dependent sentence into a nominal construction, for example, zân nā yi ìn nā yi nā yi shirìn

gidā gidā gidā

‘I have made ready to go home’ ‘I have made ready to go home’ ‘I have made ready to go home’

Sample sentences: zâ shi nēman àbinci. 1 Nā ‘I took it that he was going out looking for food.’ ìn zō makarantā dà wuri. 2 Nā ‘I took it that I should come to school early.’ sù/zā sù masà duk. 3 Sun ‘They plotted to steal all his money.’ mù/zā mù yànzu. 4 Mun ‘We have decided to go back now.’ mù/zā mù tàfi. 5 Mun ‘We have got ready to go.’ yā/yà . 6 Allàh yā ‘Allah has determined that he recover.’ zân/ìn zō makarantā dà wuri. 7 Nā ‘I understood I should come to school early.’ fatā zā mù/mù . 8 ‘I hope we will meet tomorrow.’ 1

da yaji—willy-nilly

VERB CLASSES 105

9 Yā wani zâi/yà zō tàimakonsà. ‘He waited patiently for someone to come and help him.’ 10 Allàh yà sâ zâi zō dà wuri. ‘Allah willing he will arrive early.’ . 11 Allàh yà sâ mù ‘Allah grant that we understand.’ 12 Nā sâ zūcìyā zā sù/sù zō. ‘I hope they will come.’ 13 Nā fid dà râi zā sù zō. ‘I have given up hope of their coming.’ Translate: 1 Babban nufin Shugaban da gwamnatinsa shi ne su sa mutanen su amayo1 da da suka ci. 2 Kamfanin dillancin labaran Botswana ya ambaci2 gwamnatin Angola tana jirgin shugaban kan jirgin saman cewa an yi kuskuren abokan gaba. 3 Ran asabar mai zuwa ne ake sa ran za a fara aiki da wannan shirin dakatar wuta. da suna da maganin duk wani talaka. 4 Su fa sun Translate: 1 Should I take it that you have no intention of paying me my money? 2 He will have to just put up with the fact that no-one wants to talk to him. 3 I expect the money will be in the bank tomorrow before midday. 4 I am ready to come with you even though you have not asked me to.

4.5.4. Verbs normally operating with a subjunctive in a dependent sentence A number of verbs and phrases will by their very nature tend to be followed by a subjunctive for the reasons outlined at the beginning of section 4.5.2. Examples: Gr.1—

1 2

spew up quote

,

, mântā,


Gr.2— , nùfā, Gr.3— Gr.4—gwammàcē phrasal verbs—yi

, yi

, yi

, yi tsōrō (+kadà), yi (+kadà), yi (+kadà), fi sô, yi , yi allà-allà saurī, ji , gudùn (+kadà), dynamic nominals—hanìn, clause introducers—dōlè, tīlàs, lallē, daidai , wājìbī , gāra, gwàmmà special phrase—saurā

Sample sentences: 1 An à shā à nân. ‘Smoking is forbidden here.’ kà bā shì àbîn dà zā kà bā shì. 2 Yā ‘He is very keen for you to give him what you are going to give him.’ kà dāwō dà wuri. 3 Sai kà ‘Try and come back early.’ makà. 4 Nā mântā ìn ‘I forgot to tell you.’ sù yi dà shī sù tāshì. 5 Sukà ‘They took care to speak to him before they left.’ kadà kōwā yà gan sù. 6 Sukà ‘They were careful not to let anyone see them.’ yà 7 Saurā ‘He very nearly fell.’ 8 Nā nùfā ìn tāshì ‘I intend to depart tomorrow.’ kà zō. 9 Sai kà ‘Try and get here.’ dà ìn yànzu. * 10 Gāra/gwàmmà/nā gwammàcē ìn ‘I would rather start tomorrow than now.’ bùkātàr/gūrìn/mùrādìn yà Makkà. 11 ‘He needs/wishes to go back to Mecca.’ tsōron/gudùn/shakkàr kadà à gan shì. 12 ‘He is afraid of being seen.’ 13 Hanìn à fìta dà darē yā bā mù ‘The prohibition on going out at night/curfew has caused us problems.’ * Note that with the verb gwammàcē, or the non-verbal predicators, gāra and gwàmmà it is possible to operate a second subjunctive sentence introduced by dà to denote the other half of the preference.

VERB CLASSES 107

Plus indirect object:A number of verbs that can operate with a following subjunctive require in addition a personal indirect object, for example, Gr.1— bayyànā,

, shâidā,

,

, tsanàntā, tsāwàtā, tīlàstā,

Gr.2— Sample sentences: 1 Nā musù sù fìta dàgà gidân. ‘I explained to them that they should get out of the house.’ wà yârā sù bar kiràn àkū kuturū. 2À ‘Impress upon the boys that they should stop calling the parrot “leper”.’ masà yà dāwō dà àbîn dà ya . 3 Nā ‘I pressed him to bring back what he had stolen.’ musù sù tāshì ukù. 4 Mun ‘We reminded them to leave at three o’clock.’ Possible indirect object:And there are some that allow but do not require an indirect object in addition to the dependent sentence, for example, , Gr.1— Gr.3—yàrda , yi , yi , yi ùmùrnī phrasal verbs—yi Sample sentences: (masà) yà zō dà . 1 An ‘They sent to tell him to come with his visitor.’ (manà) mù shigō. 2 An ‘We have been prevented from coming in.’ makarantā a gàrin nàn. 3 An yardam musù à ‘They have been given permission to open a school in this town.’ kà mai dà hankàlī. 4 Nā yi makà ‘I told you to take care.’ kâr yà tōnà àsīrī. 5 An yi (masà) ‘They begged him not to betray (them).’ tà dāwō . 6 An yi (wà Allàh) ‘They prayed to Allah for her safe return.’


Plus direct object:There are others that require not an indirect object but a personal direct objectto be expressed in addition to the dependent subjunctive sentence, for example, Gr.2— Gr.4— non-Grade verb—kirā Sample sentences: 1 Nā nàn sù bā ni . ‘I watched over these people as they gave me the money.’ shì yà wàkìlcē mù. 2 An ‘He has been elected to represent us.’ . 3 Tā tàimàkē nì ìn ‘She helped me finish.’ 4 An kirā shì yà zō. ‘He was summoned to appear.’ shi yà bar gàrîn. 5À ‘Leave him to get out of town.’ Possible direct object:And there are some that allow but do not require a direct object in addition to the dependent sentence, for example, Gr.1— non-Grade verb— phrasal verb—bā dà Sample sentences: 1 An ni/hanà ìn shā . ‘I have been forbidden to smoke.’ ìn yi yaddà 2 Sai à bar nì/ ‘Leave me to do my work as I wish.’

sô.

Translate: da wasu sauye-sauye a tsarin shari’ar Islama, tsarin 1 Ta yi kiran da a 1 da mata ne. da a cewarta, ya su ne sabo da ana jin 2 Madatsun ruwa biyu da ke kan kogin Nilu an tsoron kada kogin Nilu ya sake tumbatsa kuma. ta yi kira ga duniya da su kwararun 2 matakai. 3

VERB CLASSES 109

4 Sannan kuma ya umurci hukumomin jami’o’in Nijeriya da su rushe duk . wata da na dardumar. 5 Launinsu sun so su zama

Translate: 1 I sent him to ask you again, did he arrive? 2 If the child smashes another plate, te, don’t just ignore him and let him do it again. 3 You must remind me to let you have his telephone number as soon as we get back to the office. 4 He pressurized me into finishing it before you got back.

4.5.5. Verbs that operate with a following dà or yaddà plus a relative system aspect A number of verbs and particularly phrasal verbs operate with a dependent sentence that is introduced by either dà or yaddà. Whereas in the case of the verbs in section 4.5.2. ‘sociative constructions and sentence complements’ it was possible to follow the particle dà with a subjunctive sentence, in the case of these verbs and phrases the words dà and yaddà require a following relative system aspect. Verb+dà+relative system sentence

Examples: Gr.1— kyâuta (+indirect object) Gr.4— Gr.3— fùsātà Gr.7— non-Grade verb—gàji , yi farin , yi , yi fushī, yi phrasal verbs—yi , yi arzìkī, yi gàskiyā, yi àlfahàrī, yi àlfarmā, yi , yi , yi (+indirect object)

1 2

belittle major, important

, yi


The dependent sentence is often replaceable by a nominalized construction in which the subject of the dependent sentence is represented by a possessive (subjective genitive) attached to the verbo-nominal phrase. However where the subject of the dependent sentence is the same as the subject of the main verb then the verbo-nominal stands without a subjective possessive, for example,

—

—

—

mukù dà kukà tàimàkē nì nā ‘thank you for helping me’ mukù dà tàimakonkù nā ‘thank you for helping me’ mun ji dà mukà ci jarràbâwā ‘we were happy to pass the exam’ dà cîn jarràbâwā mun ji ‘we were happy to pass the exam’ dà mukà gan shì mun ji ‘we were happy to see him’ dà ganinsà(objective genitive) mun ji ‘we were happy to see him’

Where the dependent sentence is negative then the nominalized form will be constructed with rashìn+NP, mun ji dà bà sù dāwō ba ‘we were happy they didn’t come back’ dà rashìn dāwôwarsù mun ji ‘we were happy they didn’t come back’ Sample sentences: dà Mūsā ya aikìn nan. 1 Nā yi ‘I was happy that Musa got that work.’ dà ya dàgà . 2 Nā yi masà ‘I congratulated him on escaping death.’ dà ka wannàn mài tsāwō hakà. 3 Kā yi ‘You did well to remember that great long story like that.’ dà kikà indà nakè. 4 Kin yi ‘You were clever to work out where I was.’ sukà . 5 Yā fùsātà dà akà fāsà sanad dà shī shāwaràr dà ‘He was angry that they failed to inform him of the decision that his friends had reached.’ dà ka zàci bà zân wannàn lâifī ba, kā mā yi dà bà 6 Kā yi dà shī. zân sàllàmē kà ba

VERB CLASSES 111

‘You were sensible to think that I would not overlook that error and you are lucky that I am not going to sack you for it.’ dà akà minì ba. 7 Nī bàn ‘I am not bothered that they pass judgement on me.’ Verb+yaddà+relative sentence With a couple of phrasal verbs it is normal to use yaddà before the dependent sentence. Examples: phrasal verbs—yi

, yi àl’ajàbin, yi kīshìn

Sample sentences: 1

sukà yi yaddà ya yi arzìkī hakà. ‘People were amazed at how he had become rich in this way.’ àl’ajàbin yaddà sarkī ya ta nan zā sù . 2 ‘I am astonished at how the chief worked out they were going to appear from that direction.’ ya fādà wajen ùbansù, shī kùwa bài 3 Wân ya yi kīshìn yaddà kōmē ba. ‘The elder brother was jealous at the way in which his younger brother was in favour with their father, while he got nothing.’

Translate: 1 Kowa ya yi mamakin yadda aka gurfanar1 da shi gaban shari’a. Translate: 1 I am very grateful to you for letting me have your car for those two days. Without it I would have been stuck. 2 I am amazed how she is able to walk along the top of the wall without holding on. 3 They were very upset to see her on a hospital bed like that after the accident 4 You were very lucky to get out of there alive. 5 Are you not going to wish me happy birthday?

1

take, drag unwillingly, make crouch


4.6. Coordinate sentences Coordinate carries the implication that two or more sentences are of equal ‘rank’ so that the one is not encapsulated/dominated by the other. Typically in Hausa such sentences are juxtaposed one against the other but may be linked by a modal particle or by a contrastive conjunction, sun zō sun mā sun zō sun sun zō àmmā sun

‘they came and they went back’ ‘they came and they also went back again’ ‘they came but they have gone back’

Coordinate sentences can operate cumulatively or consecutively, cumulative,i.e. using the same aspect in each sentence: sun zō sun

sun ci àbinci ‘they came and sat and ate’ ‘he was working and singing/he sang as he worked’

This second example could be viewed differently, i.e. the second sentence acting ‘he came along as a manner adverbial adjunct to the first, cf. yā zō singing’ on a par with ‘he came along yesterday/in a car/quickly’. consecutive,i.e. following the rules of narrative action sequence: sukà zō sukà zā sù zō sù

sukà ci àbinci ‘they came and (then) sat and (then) ate’ sù ci àbinci ‘they will come and (then) sit and (then) eat’

The very common use of the subjunctive to express purpose means that it is much more likely that this second sentence would be interpreted to mean ‘they will come to sit and eat’. The distinction between cumulative and consecutive coordinate sentences is perhaps seen best in examples such as these, cumulative consecutive

‘they did writing, reading and arithmetic’ ‘they wrote then read then did arithmetic’

In consecutive sentences in Hausa rules of narrative tense sequence commonly apply: general completive+rel. comp.+rel. comp.+… future+subjunctive+subj.+… habitual+subjunctive+subj.+… general continuative+subjunctive+subj.+…

VERB CLASSES 113

4.6.1. Catenative constructions: two or more closely linked coordinate verbs A particular form of cumulative coordinate sequence is one in which concatenation of verbs takes place; ‘catenation’ meaning ‘chaining/linking’. In such constructions the following constraints apply: In the completive a verb occurs immediately before or after another verb in the same aspect; i.e. they do not follow the normal rules of aspect sequence; if the construction is shifted into the future or habitual then the rules of sequence using a following subjunctive do apply. Most such occurrences will be in the completive. Rarely will such chains be in the negative,but where they are, the negative frame will include both verbs, for example, sun rigā sun zō bà sù rigā sun zō ba

‘they have already arrived’ ‘they have not yet arrived’.

The chain is never broken by the use of an indirect object and it is unusual indeed for anything to come between the two verbal complexes (except where a transitive verb operates a restricted direct object, see below), and sentence adjuncts will normally stand as modifiers of the whole concatenated expression. Typically chains require the same subject for both verbs. Some however do not , , , allow the same subject for both verbs (chains involving , yàrda, sâ, , bā) The bulk of verbs that typically operate in such chains are either intransitives or are transitives that operate with a particular restricted object, for example, Mūsā yā kasà kûnnē yā ji àbîn dà sukà fàdā ‘Musa listened and heard what they said’ yā ga àbîn dà sukà yi Mūsā yā zubà ‘Musa looked and saw what they had done’ Typically such chains involve near-redundancy in that they quite often provide a picture of aspects of a single action rather than two or more separate actions; in this regard they are reminiscent of auxiliary verbs where the auxiliary provides information about the state of the main action conveyed in the dynamic noun. For example look at these catenative constructions, mun mun mun ci mun ba bài zō yā akà yi shagàlī akà sun ga àbîn ba bà sù

‘we have stayed a long time’ ‘we have eaten our fill’ ‘he hasn’t come past’ ‘the party came to an end’ ‘they didn’t look and see it’


à yi à

‘let’s get it over with’

Sample sentences: 1 Nā kashè shānunkù dà kukà sukà shigam minì gōnā. ‘I have killed your cattle that you let get into my farm.’ sun rigā sun 2 Yànzu nī ai bâ ni dà ta cêwā . yāmùtsà ‘Now I have nothing to say because these people have already confused the matter.’ sāran . 3 Bābù àbîn dà zâi sâ ìn ‘Nothing will get me to go back to chopping wood.’ sāran . 4 Dàlīlìn dà ya sâ na ‘The reason why I have gone back to chopping wood.’ akà yi akà shi sarkin Sīnārì? 5 ‘How come he was appointed chief of Sinari?’ akà yi akà yi sarkin Sīnārì, bàllē ’yarsà Sīnāratù? 6 ‘Who the hell is the chief of Sinari, let alone his daughter Sinaratu?’ yā ji barcī yā kwāshè bāyin nàn. 7 Mūsā yā ‘Musa listened and heard that sleep had overtaken these slaves.’ Translate: jam’iyyar da ba ta rigaya ta zo nan ba yaya take? 1 Ita 2 A wannan irin hali talakawa ba su rigaya sun gane zambar masu zambatarsu ba ke nan. Translate: 1 I have had a look and seen what is wrong with the car—there is no petrol in it 2 Haven’t you already spoken to him? 3 They took careful note of what you had to say and no doubt they will think carefully about it 4 That’s it over with! Composition: Write 20–25 lines in Hausa on your plans for the future.

Bibliography

Cowan, J Ronayne, and Russell G.Schuh. 1976. Spoken Hausa. Ithaca, New York: Spoken Language Services. Furniss, Graham. 1981. Hausa disyllabic verbs: comments on base forms and extensions. Studies in African Linguistics 12 (2): 97–129 . ——. 1983. The 4th Grade of the verb in Hausa. In E.Wolff and H.Meyer-Bahlburg (eds.) Studies in Chadic and Afroasiatic Linguistics, pp. 287–300. Hamburg: Helmut Buske. Galadanci, M.K.M. 1969. The simple nominal phrase in Hausa. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of London. Gouffé, C. 1962. Observations sur le degré causatif dans un parler Haoussa du Niger. Journal of African Languages 1:182–200. Jaggar, Philip J. 1977. The nature and function of auxiliary verbs in Hausa. In Paul Newman and Roxana Ma Newman (eds.), Studies in Chadic Linguistics, pp. 57– 87. Leiden: Afrika-Studiecentrum. ——. 1981. Varieties of passive in Hausa. In W.R.Leben (ed.) Papers from the 12th Annual Conference on African Linguistics. Studies in African Linguistics Supp. 8:73–7. ——. 1987. Affected subject (‘grade 7’) verbs in Hausa: what are they and where do they come from? In Masoyashi Shibatani (ed.) Passive and Voice, (Typological Studies in Language, 16). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Kraft, Charles H., and A.H.M.Kirk-Greene. 1973. Hausa. (Teach Yourself Books). London: English Universities Press. Lukas, J. 1963/64. Der II Stamm des Verbums im Hausa. Afrika und Übersee 47: 162–86. Newman, Paul. 1973. Grades, vowel-tone classes and extensions in the Hausa verbal system. Studies in African Linguistics 4 (3): 297–346. ——. 1977. Chadic extensions and pre-dative verb forms in Hausa. Studies in African Linguistics 8:275–97. ——. 1983. The efferential (alias ‘causative’) in Hausa. In E.Wolff and H.MeyerBahlburg (eds.) Studies in Chadic and Afroasiatic Linguistics, pp. 397–418. Hamburg: Helmut Buske. ——, Roxana Ma Newman and CSNL. 1977. Modern Hausa-English Dictionary/Sabon na Hausa zuwa Turanci. Ibadan and Zaria: Oxford University Press. Newman, Roxana Ma. 1990. An English-Hausa Dictionary. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. Parsons, F.W. 1960. The verbal system in Hausa. Afrika und Übersee 44:1–36. ——. 1962. Further observations on the ‘causative’ Grade of the verb in Hausa. Journal of African Languages 1 (3): 253–72. ——. 1971/72. Suppletion and neutralization in the verbal system of Hausa. Afrika und Übersee 55:49–97, 188–208.


——. 1981. Writings on Hausa Grammar: The Collected Papers of F.W.Parsons. 2 vols, ed. by G.L.Furniss. London: SOAS. (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms International —Books on Demand). Pilszczikowa, N. 1969. The Changing Form (Grade 2) of the Verb in Hausa. Warsaw: Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe.

Index of verbs

The following index of verbs lists most of the verbs to be found in this book with references to pages where such verbs are discussed or seen in operation in sentences. In this instance, I have tried to provide an indication of the stem with particular Grade forms given as sub-entries. Since tone pattern is a feature of the Grade system, stems are marked only for the length of stem vowel(s) and not for tone; however, in the case of irregular verbs the full tone pattern and vowel lengths are marked. Furthermore, forms in this index are not marked for transitivity, you must look at the page references and your Modern Hausa-English Dictionary to see examples of the way in which a verb operates as a transitive or intransitive verb. The sub-entries given do not necessarily represent the complete spread of forms that a stem will operate, only those forms to be found exemplified in this text. As mentioned in the introduction, forms that look as if they are based on one stem may well in fact derive from more than one original source; this list ignores etymology. The theme of this course book has been the operation of verbs in Hausa and so the hope is that this index will help you gain some mastery over these words that are so crucial to your ability to generate acceptable Hausa. A aikGr 1 (+dà), send(thing) 84 Gr 1, send 106 Gr 2, send (person) 47, 84 Gr 6 (+dà), send here 60, 85, 86 Gr 6, send 18 aikatGr 1, perform, do 74, 89 aiwatGr 5, put into effect 12 ajiyGr 4, put down, deposit 74 ambatGr 2, mention, quote 105 amint-

Gr 4 (+kân), trust that 102 Gr 4, trust that 100, 101 arGr 1 (+i.o.), lend 72 Gr 5, lend 55 aukGr 1 (+i.o.), happen to 42 Gr 1, happen 82 Gr 7, happen 48, 70, 82 aurGr 2, marry 53 Gr 5, marry off 55 azGr 1, think 100 azabtGr 5, torture 56 117


B bā Gr 5, give away 53, 55, 56, 73 irreg (aux), desist, cease 75 irreg, leave, allow 35, 53, 96, 108 Gr 4, swerve aside 82 bayyanGr 1, explain 52, 86, 100, 106 bi Gr 6 (biyō), follow 57 monosyllabic Gr 5, lead, make to follow 81 monosyllabic, go along, follow 12, 27, 73 bincikGr 4, investigate 60 binnGr 4, bury 99 biyā irreg, pay 71, 72, 73 Gr 4, open 19, 73, 108 bugGr 4, knock over 61 Gr 7, be drunk, be beaten 82 būsGr 1, blow 50

Gr 6, detach 48 Gr 4, break out 56 Gr 1, become lost 42 Gr 4, become lost 4, 82 Gr 5, lose, lead astray 48, 56 Gr 1, ruin, spoil 10, 35 Gr 3 , hide 53, 77, 82 Gr 4, hide 48 Gr 6 (+dà), bring out, produce 108

C canzGr 1, change 84 cê monosyllabic, say 16, 29, 82, 103 ci monosyllabic Gr 5 (+gaba), advance 79 monosyllabic Gr 5, feed 46, 55, 66, 67, 81 cikGr 1 (aux), do a great deal of 75, 77 Gr 1, fill, complete 13, 50 Gr 3, fill, become full 15, 50, 54, 60, 82 Gr 4, be completely full, fill completely 54 cim mà irreg, arrive at, overtake 12, 53 cirGr 1, raise 50 Gr 2, pull out 50 cunnGr 1, set (fire) 74 cūtGr 2, damage, affect adversely 91 D Gr 1 (aux), do again 75 Gr 4, last a long time 42, 82, 113 dafGr 1, cook, boil 50, 66 Gr 7, be cooked 58 dāgGr 4, insist 54 daidaitGr 3, reach agreement 58 Gr 7, reach complete agreement 58 dainGr 1 (aux), cease doing 75, 77, 82 dākatGr 5, delay, put off 60, 105 dākusGr 4, make blunt 22 dāmGr 1, stir 52

INDEX OF VERBS 119

Gr 2, bother, upset 35, 52, 100, 101 Gr 7, become bothered 109 Gr 1, put upon, entrust 73 daurGr 4, endure 54 dāwGr 6 (+dà), bring back 35, 85, 86 Gr 6, return 10, 12, 29, 82 dingGr 1 (aux), do repeatedly 75, 77 dōsGr 2, head for 60 dūbGr 2, look at, watch 107 Gr 3, make an effort 67 Gr 5, cause to submit, weigh down 18 dusGr 1, dull, make blunt 54 Gr 4, become dull, faint 54

Gr 1, pick up 86 Gr 1, exceed slightly 80 Gr 2, hire, take on 79 Gr 2, pick up, undertake 18, 32, 54, 58, 108 Gr 2, take it that 103, 105 Gr 4, cease, pass over 54, 82 Gr 6, pick up 86 Gr 4, tie up, imprison 74 Gr 1, sew 74 Gr 1, put on top 50 Gr 1, go en masse 83 Gr 6, go en masse 48 F Gr 2, say 22, 52, 74

Gr 1, fall upon, arrive at 16, 82, 83, 85, 90 irreg , fall down 48, 86 Gr 5, alert, inform 81 fahimtGr 3, understand 31, 100 Gr 5, make understand 48, 70 fārGr 1 (aux), begin 75, 77, 82 Gr 1, begin 10, 15, 22, 82 Gr 6, start at a distance 60 Gr 7, happen 82 Gr 6, recover, improve 60 farkGr 1, wake up, arise 55, 82 Gr 5, wake up, rouse 55 fasGr 1, break, smash 54, 72 Gr 4, burst 18, 54, 60, 82 fāsGr 1 (aux), fail to 110 Gr 1 (aux), postpone doing 75 fassarGr 1, translate 74 fātGr 2, hope 103, 104 fayGr 4 (aux), be characterised by 75 fēsGr 1, sprinkle 60 fi monosyllabic, exceed 22, 24, 52, 78, 81 fiffitGr 3, all go out 69 fitGr 3 (+dà), take out 85 Gr 3, go out 83 Gr 5, take out 55, 85 Gr 6, come out 16, 29, 82 fusātGr 3, become angry 109 fuskantGr 2, face, envisage 12


Gr 2, hit, whip 29 G gabātGr 5, introduce 85 gāfartGr 1, forgive 72 gaisGr 1 (+dà), greet 88 Gr 1, greet 50 gàji Gr 7 (gajiyar), be tired out 58 irreg, be tired, bored 85, 109 gamGr 1 (+dà), cooperate with 90 Gr 1 (+dà), include, finish with 67, 88 Gr 1 (+dà), be related to 90 Gr 1 (+dà), encounter 90 Gr 1 (+dà), encounter 90 Gr 1 (+jìkī) (+dà), cooperate with 90 Gr 1 (+kâi) (+dà), cooperate with 90 Gr 1 (aux), finish 75 Gr 1(+dà), include, finish with 16 Gr 1, join, finish 35 Gr 7 (+dà), meet 87, 88 Gr 7, meet 66 gānGr 1 (+dà), converse with 88 Gr 1, discuss 50, 55 Gr 4, understand 110 Gr 6, discover, work out 57 ganī irreg, see, understand 10, 12, 15, 19, 23, 35, 96 gasGr 1, grill 50 gaskatGr 1, verify, be sure 100 gātsGr 1, bite into 50 Gr 2, bite off 50 gayGr 1 (+i.o.), tell 35, 72, 77, 100, 100, 101, 106 gayyatGr 2, invite 53 Gr 6, invite 58

gazGr 1, fall short of 79 giftGr 1, pass in front of 50 ginGr 1, build, dig 35, 91 girmGr 3 (girma), grow up 53 gittGr 1, traverse 31 gōdGr 4, thank 72, 109 gōtGr 4, swerve 82 gudirreg (gudù), run 48, 85 gudānGr 5, conduct, put into effect 60, 81 gundumGr 1, do a great deal of 48 gwabzGr 1, do a great deal of 31 gwammatGr 4, prefer 105 gyārGr 1, repair 50 Gr 7, be repairable/repaired 58 H haddasGr 1, cause, bring about 22 Gr 1 (+dà), join forces with 90 Gr 1 (+dà), include 88, 89 Gr 1 (+dà), join forces with 90 Gr 1 (+jìkī) (+dà), cooperate with 90 Gr 1 (+kâi) (+dà), join forces with 90 Gr 1 (+dà), consult with 90 Gr 1, join, finish 50 Gr 7 (+dà), meet 88 Gr 4, swallow 48 haifGr 2, give birth to, to father 35 irreg (haifù), give birth 60

INDEX OF VERBS 121

monosyllabic, go 83 Gr 4, verify, be sure 100 Gr 3, be patient, tolerate 103, 104 halakGr 3, be destroyed, perish 34 halartGr 2, attend 18 hallarGr 3, be present 24 hanGr 1, prevent 27, 32, 79, 81, 106, 108 hangGr 2, espy 96 harbGr 1, fire, shoot 29, 50 Gr 2, shoot 29, 50, 74, 101 Gr 4, shoot 86 hardacGr 4, memorise 74 hau irreg, mount, get into 24 monosyllabic Gr 5, make mount, put up on 81 hūdGr 4, be pierced 60 hūtGr 1, rest 82 Gr 5, ease, make to rest 81 I isGr 3, reach 82, 83, 86 iskGr 4, encounter 31, 96 iyGr 1 (aux), be able to 10, 75, 77 J jā Gr 6 (jāwō), bring 57 monosyllabic Gr 4 (jânye), pull back, withdraw 82 monosyllabic, pull 85 jaddadGr 1, reiterate 86 jē

jēfGr 1, throw 50, 74 Gr 2, throw at 50 Gr 5, throw away 55 ji monosyllabic Gr 5, inform, let hear 81 monosyllabic Gr 5, make feel 55 monosyllabic, feel, hear 29, 35, 96 Gr 5, be on close terms with 53 jikkatGr 3, be wounded 54 jitGr 7 (+dà), be on good terms with 88, 88 jūrGr 4, endure 74 jūyGr 1, change into 79 Gr 1, turn 61, 82 K Gr 7, shake violently 58 kafGr 1, found, erect 52, 57, 60 kai Gr 6 (kāwō), reach, bring xv, 28, 48, 60, 70 irreg (kai), take, reach 13, 16, 31, 60 kāmGr 1, grab, hold 36, 48, 60, 74, 90 kamātGr 3, be fitting, be right 19, 53 kammalGr 1, finish 58 karGr 1 (+dà), clash 58 Gr 7 (+dà), clash 58 karantGr 1, read 61 Gr 4, read through 61 Gr 5, educate, make read 56 Gr 2, receive 18, 69, 74, 79 Gr 2, understand that 103, 104


karyGr 1, break 54, 73 Gr 4, break, be broken 54, 82 kasGr 1, divide into 79 Gr 4, kill, put out, spend 3, 13, 60, 73, 74 Gr 7, be divided into 84 kāsGr 1 (aux), fail to do 75 Gr 1, fail 82 kasantGr 4, happen, be the case that 55, 100, 101 kāyGr 5, knock down 55, 56 kifGr 5, upturn, overthrow 56 kirā irreg Gr 6 (kirāwō) call invite 85, 86 irreg, call 24, 53, 81, 107 kōmGr 1 (+dà), take back 85 Gr 1 (aux), go back to 75, 77 Gr 1, change back into 83 Gr 1, go back, return xv, 50, 66, 82, 83, 86 Gr 5, take back 56 Gr 6, come back 46 kōrGr 1, drive (animal) 85 Gr 1, drive onwards 50 Gr 2, drive away 50 Gr 5, drive away 73 kōyGr 1 (+i.o.), teach 72 Gr 3, escape 82, 110 Gr 5, rescue 15 kulGr 1, look after 67 Gr 1, note 105 Gr 3 (+dà), take care of 18, 42 kuskurGr 3, make a mistake 77 kwānGr 3, spend the night 82 kwant-

Gr 1, lie down 82 Gr 5, put down, subdue 60 kyâutGr 1, do well 109 kyautatGr 1, improve, ameliorate 42

Gr 1, predestine 103, 104 Gr 2, challenge 18 Gr 1 (aux), do more 75, 77 Gr 1, increase 24, 31, 58, 73 Gr 4 (aux), finish 75, 77 Gr 1, strengthen, encourage 106 Gr 5, belittle 108 Gr 4, depart, emigrate 22 monosyllabic (aux), refuse 53, 75 monosyllabic, refuse, reject 86 Gr 1, try 105 Gr 1, be keen to 105 irreg, become replete 113 Gr 1, decide 103, 104 Gr 1 (+dà), make friends with 90 Gr 1 (+dà), make a pact with 90 Gr 1 (+dà), establish trust with 90 Gr 1 (+dà), plot with 90 Gr 1, contract, establish, plot 35, 60, 103, 104 Gr 2, enclose 74 Gr 4, ignore, allow 107, 110 L labt-

INDEX OF VERBS 123

Gr 1, pile up 18 lafGr 1, abate 50 lallāsGr 2, coax, encourage 107 lāsGr 2, lick 53 Gr 6, peep in 22 Gr 1, attach, stick 50 Gr 4, stick, be stuck 74 lūrGr 3 (+dà), take care of 19, 88 Gr 3, take note 100, 105 M maidGr 6 (+dà), bring back 35 Gr 6, bring back 100 Gr 4, hide, tuck away 82 mallakGr 2, have control over, rule 13 māmayGr 4, control 86 mannGr 1, make adhere 50 mântGr 1, forget 100, 100, 105 Gr 4, forget 67 Gr 6, forget 57 matsGr 1, press 53, 106 mayGr 5, make into 79 Gr 5, replace, restore, transfer 55, 60, 85 Gr 1, stretch out 54 Gr 4, stretch right out 54 mōtsGr 1, move 50 mūnanGr 3, become ugly 99 Gr 4, wring 37 Gr 4, knock down, defeat 13, 32

mutirreg (mutù), die 48, 57, 74, 82 N Gr 1, appoint 79 nānatGr 1, reiterate 53 narkGr 4, melt 82 nēmGr 2 (aux), try to do 75, 77, 77 Gr 2, look for 29, 37, 52 Gr 2, try 105 Gr 6, look for 72 ninkGr 1, fold 79 nīsGr 1, sigh 50 Gr 4, withdraw, shy away 54 nufGr 2, head for 60 Gr 2, intend 103, 105 nūnGr 1, show, demonstrate 13, 19, 22, 28, 60, 71, 72, 100 Gr 3, become ripe 82 nutsGr 4, sink 82 R rabGr 1 (+dà), share with 88 Gr 1, divide 50, 79 Gr 7 (+dà) (aux), cease 75 Gr 7 (+dà), be separated from 88, 89 Gr 7, be divided into 84 Gr 7, be separated 82 Gr 1, whisper 52 Gr 2, slander 52 ragGr 4 (aux), reduce 75, 77 rantsGr 4, swear 54, 100, 100 rarrab-


Gr 1, share out, divide 13, 28 Gr 7, become divided out 48 rasGr 1 (aux), fail to do 75 Gr 7, die 42 rāzanGr 7, be terrified 58 rērGr 1, sing, intone 50, 52, 74 rigā irreg, precede, have already done 80, 112 Gr 4, change into 84 Gr 1 (aux), keep on doing 18, 60, 75, 77 Gr 4, hold 101 rinkGr 1, keep on doing 19 Gr 2, beg 74, 79, 107 Gr 1, confuse, deceive 22 rufGr 4, close, cover 36 rūgGr 1, rush towards xv, 50, 83, 85 rūsGr 1, fall in 60 Gr 4, collapse 60, 82, 82 S sâ (+râi) phrasal, expect 103 monosyllabic, cause, put 79, 80 sābGr 1 (+dà), get used to 88 Gr 1 (aux), become used to 75, 77 sādGr 1 (+dà), introduce 88, 89 Gr 7 (+dà), meet 88 Gr 7, meet, encounter 23 sakGr 2, release 52, 53, 74 Gr 6, release 57, 74 sākGr 4 (aux), do again 75, 77, 77, 86, 102, 108

Gr 4, change 22 sāmGr 2 (aux), manage to do 75, 77 Gr 2, irreg A-form , get, obtain 19, 22, 29, 35, 52 Gr 5, make available 22, 57 irreg Gr 5, inform, let know 81 irreg, know 16, 24, 31, 96 sārGr 4, cut down 86 sāsantGr 1, reconcile, ease 23, 53 sātGr 4, steal 72 saukGr 3, descend, be lodged 83 Gr 5, put down, lodge 56 Gr 6, alight, come down 82 saurārGr 2, listen 114 sayGr 2, buy 5, 10, 12, 24, 48, 74, 94 Gr 4, buy up 73 Gr 5, sell 15, 55, 56, 87 shā monosyllabic (aux), do a great deal 75, 77 monosyllabic Gr 5, water, give to drink 57, 81 shāfGr 2, affect 53, 77, 86 Gr 4, wipe out 60 shâidGr 1, bear witness 73, 100, 100, 106 Gr 7 (+dà), be friends with 88 shigGr 1 (+i.o.), intrude, enter 73 Gr 3 (+dà), take in 85 Gr 3 (aux), begin 53, 60, 75 Gr 3, enter 16, 48, 55, 69, 82, 83 Gr 5, take in 55, 85 Gr 6, come into 35 Gr 1, spread out, lay 74 shiry-

INDEX OF VERBS 125

Gr 1 (+dà) come to an arrangement with 88, 89 Gr 1, prepare 103, 104 shūkGr 1, sow 74 sō monosyllabic, have a tendency to 108 monosyllabic, want, wish 103 sōkGr 2 (+kân), criticise 101 Gr 4, pierce, attack, criticize 60 sōmGr 1 (aux), begin 75, 106 sulālGr 4, slip away, disappear 77 sūmGr 3, faint, lose consciousness 53 T tabbatGr 1, be certain 100, 100 Gr 5, be sure 100, 101 Gr 1 (aux), neg.—never do, pos.—once do 75, 77, 77 Gr 1, touch 29, 31, 35 Gr 4, deteriorate 24 tàfi Gr 5, take 55 Gr 6 (+dà), bring 67 irreg (+dà), take xv irreg, go 27 tāfGr 1, clap 74 taimakGr 2, help 29, 80, 107 tākGr 1, step on 35 tambayGr 2, ask 48, 79, 82, 107 tarGr 5, encounter, meet 16, 28, 35, 37, 55, 96, 100, 101 tārGr 1, gather, amass 37 Gr 4, pack and move 83

Gr 7, gather, meet 58, 70, 82 tarbGr 2, go out and meet 24 tarwatsGr 1, scatter 60 tāsGr 2 (aux), start doing 75, 77 irreg (tāsam mà) (aux), set about 75 irreg (tāsam mà), attack 72 tattaunGr 1, discuss 32 tāyGr 5, raise up 55, 60, 77, 85 tīlastGr 1, force, insist 106 tōnGr 1, dig up 107 tōsGr 4, block up 28, 54, 91 tūbGr 3, be sorry, repentant 89 Gr 1, stir, drive 52 Gr 2, disturb 52 tumbatsGr 3, overflow 108 tunGr 1 (+i.o.), remind 106 Gr 1, remember 100, 100 Gr 6 (+i.o.), remind 57 tūrGr 1, push 52, 74, 77, 85 TS tsagaitGr 1, decrease, lessen 19 tsallakGr 4, jump over 37 tsammatGr 2, think 100, 101 tsanantGr 1, recommend, urge 106 tsarGr 4, guard, block 56, 74 tsārGr 1, arrange 25, 74 tsāwatGr 1, scold, warn 106 tsay-


Gr 1 (+kân), insist 102 Gr 1 (aux), insist on 75 Gr 1, insist 100, 101 Gr 1, stop 42, 61, 82, 83 Gr 5, make stop 56, 60, 85 tsērGr 3 (tsīra), escape 53, 82 Gr 4, escape 55, 82 tsinkGr 4, snap, break 82 tsintGr 2, pick up by chance 53 tsōratGr 1, frighten 35 Gr 3, be frightened 67 tsūfGr 3, age, become old 82 U umurtGr 2, order, instruct 108 W wadātGr 3, prosper 58 Gr 7, prosper 58 wakiltGr 2, represent 107 warkGr 4, recover 55, 82 Gr 5, cure 55 warwarGr 4, unravel 60, 73 wātsGr 1, scatter, broadcast 74 Gr 4, scatter, become dispersed 55 Gr 7, scatter 83 wāyGr 4, become enlightened, enlighten 15, 22, 54, 82 Gr 5, educate, enlighten 42 wutGr 4, pass by 54, 60, 61, 74, 82 Y yabGr 2, praise 102

yāmutsGr 1, stir up, confuse 113 yankGr 4, cut 73 yardGr 3, agree 67, 103, 106 yi (+ta) monosyllabic (aux), keep on doing 74, 77, 86 (+dà), make friends with 90 àlkawàrī (+dà), promise 90 (+dà), encounter unexpectedly 90 ban kwānā (+dà), say goodbye to 90 fāmā (+dà), struggle with 90 Gr 7 (yìwu), be possible 60 hīrā (+dà), speak to 90 (+dà), speak to 90 (+dà), be neighbours with 90 (+dà), consult with 90 (+dà), speak to 90 zamā (+dà), live with 90 Z Gr 2, choose 105, 107 zāgGr 2 (+ kân), insult 101 Gr 2, insult 100 zamGr 5, make into 79 irreg (zama), become, be 23, 86 zānGr 1, draw, design 50 zargGr 2 (+kân), blame 101, 102 zatGr 2, think 74, 100 zaunGr 1 (+dà), live with 88 Gr 1, live, sit 27, 29, 50, 82, 83 Gr 1, remain as 83 Gr 5, make sit/live 85 ziyartGr 2, visit 28 zō

INDEX OF VERBS 127

monosyllabic, (+dà), bring 24, 88 monosyllabic, come 27, 35, 67, 82 zubGr 1, pour 50, 61, 73 Gr 3, be spilled 50 Gr 4, pour away 82 Gr 4, pour/run away 61 Gr 5, pour away 55, 56 zugGr 1, encourage, incite 22, 102 Gr 2 (+kân), criticise, point out 101

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