Hausa Sentences Expressing “be”

Hausa has no verb ‘be’. It uses several different types of constructions to express concepts for which English uses the single verb ‘be’.

Identification

‘I am a student’, ‘that is a book’

Basic Identification Sentences: NE and CE

Hausa sentences that express identification of a person or thing use a word ce if the person or thing being identified is feminine singular and a word ne if the person or thing being identified is masculine singular or is plural(regardless of gender of the singular). In a simple statement, ne or ce is at the end of the sentence. (Although one might translate ne or ce as ‘is’, ‘are’, and so on, these words are NOT verbs).

Why ne and ce are not verbs:

Technical writings on Hausa refer to ne and ce as “stabilizers” (the term used by the great Hausa scholar, F.W. Parsons) or “copulas” (the term used by most linguists today). There are a number of reasons for not calling ne and ce “verbs”:

• The subject pronouns which go with all other verbs do not go with ne or ce.
• Following from the first point, since Hausa uses subject pronouns to express “tense” or mood (completedness, futureness, imperative or exhortation, etc.), none of these overtly expressed distinctions are available with neand ce.
• No verbs have separate forms to show gender agreement, whereas ce is restricted to feminine singular and ne to masculine singular and any plural.
• Verbs go after the subject; ne and ce go at the end of the sentence, at least in simple statements of identification.
• Ne and ce are invariable. One cannot, for example, make them into nouns meaning ‘being’.
• Ne and ce can be omitted in many contexts–identification can really be accomplished just by stating a subject followed by an identifying noun. With the exception of the verb ‘do’ in specific contexts, verbs must be expressed since they are fundamental words in their sentences.

Hausa is unusual among its sister Chadic languages in having an overt copula, i.e. ne or ce. Most Chadic languages form identificational sentences by juxtaposing the subject noun and the predicate noun with no further marking. “Old Hausa” undoubtedly did the same, a fact which is still evident in many fixed and presumably archaic expressions, especially proverbs such as the following, where there is no ne or ce.

Ne and ce have their origin in the demonstrative system, and Hausa still uses related elements in demonstrative-like functions, e.g. possessives such as na-sa ‘his’ (that-of-him) referring to a masculine thing, ta-sa ‘his’ (that-of-him) referring to a feminine thing. (In Western dialects of Hausa, the copula is actually na and ta rather than ne and ce.) While it is not entirely clear how the demonstratives became copulas, it undoubtedly started with identificational sentences like ‘my book is this one’, with eventual weakening in the meaning of the demonstrative until it came to be simply a marker of an identificational sentence.

Technical Note on Gender Conflict in Ne/Ce Sentences

Since every noun in Hausa has its own grammatical gender, and since a ne/ce sentence can have two nouns, it is possible that those nouns will not have the same gender. The question thus arises as to whether ne or ce will agree in gender to the first noun (the “subject”) or the second noun (the “predicate”). A number of technical linguistic works on Hausa have discussed this. I will not discuss the details of any of these works here. Suffice it to say that either ne or ce is possible in such sentences, and there is no grammatical rule that determines the choice. Here are some examples from Junaidu (1995):

• wando (m) ‘pants’
• tufa (f) ‘article of clothing’

• dabba (f) ‘animal’
• rak’umi (m) ‘camel’

Junaidu, who is the only linguistically trained native speaker of Hausa to have specifically addressed this issue, claims that the difference “is on what element one wants to focus on”. That is, the noun with which ne or ce agrees is the element which the speaker is focusing on. Thus, in the first example above, ne indicates that the speaker is stressing the fact that PANTS are a type of clothing where ce indicates that pants are a type of CLOTHING, not something with some other function.

References

• Junaidu, Ismail. 1995. “Nature of Hausa equational sentences,” Paper presented at the 5th International Conference on Hausa Language, Literature, and Culture, Bayero University, Kano, 7-12 August 1995. [so far not published]
• Parsons, F.W. 1963. “The operation of gender in Hausa: stabilizer, dependent nominals and qualifiers,” African Language Studies 4:166-207.
• Schachter, Paul. 1966. “A generative account of Hausa ne/ce.” Journal of African Languages 5:34-53.

Technical Note on the Origin of Ne/Ce Sentences

Hausa is unusual among its sister Chadic languages in having an overt copula, i.e. ne or ce. Most Chadic languages form identificational sentences by juxtaposing the subject noun and the predicate noun with no further marking. “Old Hausa” undoubtedly did the same, a fact which is still evident in many fixed and presumably archaic expressions, especially proverbs such as the following, where there is no ne or ce.

Ne and ce have their origin in the demonstrative system, and Hausa still uses related elements in demonstrative-like functions, e.g. possessives such as na-sa ‘his’ (that-of-him) referring to a masculine thing, ta-sa ‘his’ (that-of-him) referring to a feminine thing. (In Western dialects of Hausa, the copula is actually na and ta rather than ne and ce.) While it is not entirely clear how the demonstratives became copulas, it undoubtedly started with identificational sentences like ‘my book is this one’, with eventual weakening in the meaning of the demonstrative until it came to be simply a marker of an identificational sentence.

Tones of Ne and Ce

Ne and ce always have tone opposite the preceding syllable, i.e. High tone after Low and Low tone after High. (The grave accent, ` , above a vowel shows that the syllable has Low tone.)

Identificational Sentences with Pronoun Subject

If the subject of an identificational sentence is a pronoun, the independent pronoun is used.

It’s…’: Identificational Sentences with No Expressed Subject

A noun or pronoun can be used alone with ne or ce to mean ‘its …’ or ‘they’re …’.

‘What is it?’, ‘Who is it?’: Identificational Questions

Basic identificational questions have the following forms:

If the name of the person or thing asked about is expressed, it usually follows the expressions above unless it is a pronoun, in which case it usually precedes:

In everyday speech, one often hears contracted forms Me ye? ‘What is it? and Wa ye? ‘Who is it?’ Parallel to Wace ce? ‘Who is it?’, which can be used when one knows that the referent is female, one occasionally hears Mece ce? ‘What is it (feminine)?’ when it is known that the thing in question is of feminine gender.

Negative Identifcational Sentences

To express the notion of “not be”, ba with long vowel and low tone precedes the negated part and ba with high tone and short vowel follows it. Ne or ce follow the second ba. The ba…ba can surround just a noun or pronoun to mean ‘it’s not …’, ‘he’s not …’, ‘she’s not …’.

Emphasizing Words in Identificational Sentences

In order to put emphasis on the subject of an identificational sentence, ne or ce follows the subject. This turn of phrase is particularly common in sentences of the following type, where the person thing to be identified is either seen or known in advance. The person or thing is first referred to by a demonstrative ‘this’ or ‘that’, then the identificational sentence has a pronoun subject with ne or ce following:

Name as Predicate: ‘My name is Zainab’; ‘what is your name?’

In English, sentences like ‘my teacher is John’ and ‘my name is John’ have identical form. In Hausa, they are different. Whereas the first would be a normal identificational sentence ending in ne or ce (malamina John ne), the latter, with “name” as the subject and a proper name as predicate, never ends in ne or ce–one simply says ‘… name’ + the proper name.

Likewise, in English, questions like ‘what is your job?’ and ‘what is your name?’ have identical form. In Hausa, the first would be a regular identificational question asking ‘what is …?’ (mene ne aikinka?). The latter is most commonly expressed using yaya?, literally ‘how?’

(Some speakers do use mene ne? in name questions, i.e. Mene ne sunanka? ‘What’s your name?’. Others use wa(ne ne)? ‘who?’, i.e. Wa sunanka? ‘What is your name?’)

A Quantity as Predicate: ‘there are two of us’; ‘he has two wives’; ‘my arm is 24 inches long’

In a number of expressions where English uses a number to modify a noun or pronoun, Hausa uses a construction where the number is in the predicate of an identificational sentence. These sentences are something like stilted or archaic constructions such ‘we are two’ (= ‘there are two of us’), ‘his wives are two’ (= ‘he has two wives’).

If the subject includes a possessive, ne or ce is absent.

Sentences with Qualities as Predicates

General Remarks on Qualities as Predicates in Hausa

In English, nearly any quality can be attributed to a noun in a sentence of the form ‘she is …’ with an adjective in place of the dots, e.g. ‘she is tall ~ beautiful ~ smart ~ devout ~hungry ~ lazy ~ tired’, etc. Hausa sentences translatable as English ‘she is …’ take a number of forms depending on the quality. Only a minority of such sentences involve adjectives. Here are the main ways Hausa expresses qualities as predicates.

Adjectives as predicates of ‘be’ (ne/ce) sentences

Hausa does have a small number of true, “simple” (= “non-derived”) adjectives. These mostly express size, age, or color. Sentences with true adjectives have the form “subject + adjective + ne/ce“.

Nouns of quality in ‘have’ sentences

The majority of “quality words” in Hausa are nouns. Hausa uses these nouns in ‘have’ sentences, literally saying, “She has beauty,” rather than saying, “She is beautiful.”

Nouns referring to a person with certain characteristics

Hausa expresses ethnicity or nationality and some inherent physical characteristics using nouns referring to a person of that type. These nouns appear as the the predicate of ne/ce identificational sentences.

Nouns expressing physical or emotional sensations

Physical and emotional sensations are expressed with nouns following the verb ji ‘feel’.

Verbs or “action nouns” expressing physical or emotional conditions

Some physical or emotional states are expressed with verbs or with “action nouns” following the verb yi ‘do’ (which can be omitted in the continuative).

Adjectives as Predicate

‘the bag is red’, ‘I am tall’

Basic Pattern: ‘the bag is red’

Sentences with an adjective as predicate follow the same patterns as identificational sentences with a noun as predicate, the only difference being that adjectives must agree in gender or plurality with the subject. Sentences with adjectives as predicate have the following characteristics:

1. The order is subject – adjective.
2. The sentence ends in ce if the subject is feminine singular or ne if the subject is masculine singular or any plural.
3. The adjective must agree in gender or plurality with the subject.

Pronoun Subjects: ‘I am tall’

A pronoun subject of an adjectival sentence is expressed by the independent pronoun.

Negative Adjectival Sentences: ‘I am not  short’

A negative adjectival sentences has ba with low tone and long vowel before the adjective and ba with short vowel and high tone after it.

Comparison

In English, sentences involving comparison use the verb ‘be’ with a word or phrase in the predicate specifying the type of comparison:

• Greater than some standard: ‘he is taller than me’, ‘he is more patient than me’
• Not as great as some standard: ‘he is less tall than me’
• Equal to some standared: ‘he is as tall as me’
• Exceeding some (desired) standard: ‘the tea is too hot (for me to drink)’

In Hausa, the specification of the type of comparison is in the verb rather than the expression involving the quality.

Comparatives: ‘you are taller than me’

Comparatives use the verb fi ‘exceed, surpass’. Sentences with fi have the following form:

Subject + subject pronoun + fi (+ person/thing being compared) (+ quality for comparison)

Fi is a stative verb and hence is normally in the completive. (See a list of quality words that could appear in comparative constructions.) Either the person/thing being compared and/or the quality of comparison may be omitted, with context determining the specific comparison one has in mind.

‘Less than’ Comparatives: ‘I am less tall than you’

Comparatives expressing ‘less’ can use either the verb kai ‘be equal to’ in the negative or the verb kasa ‘be less than’ (which, in other contexts, means ‘fail, be unable’). Sentence structure and use of tense marking is the same as for fi ‘exceed, surpass’.

“Excessives”: ‘the tea is too hot‘

Hausa expresses the notion of “too” in the sense of “excessively” with the verb yi ‘do’. There are two possible ways to use yi this way. (See remarks on fi ‘exceed, surpass’ for comments on verb tense and a list of quality words.)

1. Quality + yi + yawa ‘abundance:

2. Subject + yi (+affected person/thing) + quality:

Yi does not really mean ‘be too much’. The notion of “excessiveness” comes from context and the knowledge of desirability of particular properties. Yi + quality word is often more or less equivalent to the ‘have’ construction with a quality word, e.g.

Locative: ‘the cup is in the cupboard’

Basic Pattern for Locative Sentences: ‘I am at home’, ‘the cup is in the cupboard”

A sentence which states the location of a person or thing uses the continuative pronouns followed directly by the the location. Below is the entire paradigm with gida ‘home’ as the predicate. Note that there is no preposition expressing ‘at’–the continuative pronouns include the notion ‘at, in, on’.

Although the “all purpose” locative prepostion a ‘at, in, on’ CANNOT follow the continuative pronouns, locative sentences can use “prepositions” which express more specific locations.

Negative Locative Sentences

Negative locative sentences use the negative continuative pronouns also used with verbs.

Although the “all purpose” locative preposition a ‘at, in, on’ CANNOT follow the negative continuative pronouns, locative sentences can use “prepositions” which express more specific locations.

Questioning the Subject of Locative Sentences: ‘what is in the cupboard?”

When the subject of a locative sentence is a question word, such as wa? ‘who?’ or me? ‘what?’, the question requires a set of relative continuative pronouns ending in -ke similar to those that are used with verbs. However, unlike the -ke forms used with verbs, which always have a long e on -ke, those used with locatives are sometimes long and sometimes short. The conditions for choosing long -ke vs. short -ke are complex. Examples below avoid the issue by not marking vowel length.

Technical Remarks on the Vowel Length of the Relative Continuative marker –ke

In an important article on the Hausa relative continuative form, Roxana Ma Newman argues that Hausa has two “ke‘s”, a long one and a short one:

Long -ke: This is the form used in relative continuative constructions with verbs. –ke invariably has a long vowel for all speakers in all contexts for the “Kano” dialect, which is the dialect being described here.

Short -ke: This is the form use in sentences without verbs, including ‘have’ sentences, locative sentences, stative sentences, and identificational sentences in some contexts. Complications arise from the fact that “short ke” is sometimes pronounced long! Below are the conditions for “short ke” being pronounced short or long. I give a limited number of examples simply to illustrate the point. See Newman’s paper for more exemplification.

• ke is always short
  • ‘have’ sentences with the relative form
  • identificational sentences and sentences with adjectival predicates
  • In locative sentences before any “true” preposition (a ‘at, in’, daga ‘from’, ga ‘in the presence of’)
  • When the predicate of ANY non-verbal sentence has been placed at the front of the sentence for emphasis.
• ke is always long
  • When the pronoun part of the –ke construction is omitted following an over subject
  • In locative sentences with “specific” locational words ending in the linker –n
• ke varies as long or short from speaker to speaker
  • With stative predicates
  • With locative predicates which do NOT begin in a “true” preposition (a ‘at, in’, daga ‘from’, ga ‘in the presence of) or a “specific” locational word ending in the linker –n.

Reference

Newman, Roxana Ma, “The two relative continuous markers in Hausa,” in L.M. Hyman, L.C. Jacobson, and R.G. Schuh (eds.), Papers in African Linguistics in Honor of Wm. E. Welmers, Studies in African Linguistics, Supplement 6, pp. 177-190, 1976.

Footnote

There are several reasons for keeping “short ke” separate from “long ke“, even when “short ke” is pronounced long. First, in Western dialects, the two are completely distinct–the “short ke” is always short, the form corresponding to Kano “long ke” is always pronounced ka, and there is no “long ke“. Second, the context where ALL speakers pronounce “short ke” as long has an explanation. This is the context where the pronominal agreement ya ‘he’, ta ‘she’, su ‘they’ is omitted when an overt subject is present. If ke is considered to be a suffix to the pronoun, then it obviously cannot be pronounced short since there is no pronoun for it to be suffixed to! Third, in other contexts where “short ke” is pronounced long, there is variation among speakers, some pronouncing it long, some pronouncing it short, whereas ALL speakers ALWAYS pronounce “long ke” long. Since we are attempting to describe the Hausa LANGUAGE rather than the speech of a single individual, we can make sense of the variation by saying that the base form is “short ke“, which is pronounced long by some speakers in some contexts. (An alternative would be to speak of different distributions of long and short ke in different dialects, though Newman points out that one cannot even delimit “dialects” for this variation, since speakers who have grown up in the same place may vary in their use of ke.)

Questioning the location in Locative Sentences: ‘where is the cup?’

When the location of a locative sentence is a question word, usually ina? ‘where?’ the question can take one of several forms. A basic question asking where a person or thing sought is has three variants:

*Note: The preposition a can be omitted in the first type of phrase above, but among Kano speakers at least, there is a strong preference to use it. However, a is never used in the last type of question, where the relative continuative pronoun is absent.

The last variant in the table above is available only when the thing sought is a noun.

If the questioned location is a phrase, the whole whole phrase must be at the beginning of the sentence if it has a “true” preposition (a ‘at, in’, daga ‘from’, ga(re) ‘in the presence of’), but if the “preposition” is one of the “specific” locational words, the entire phrase may be at the beginning or just the question word, with the locational word left at the end. The relative continuative pronouns are required.

Emphasized Words in Locative Sentences: ‘THE CUP is in the cupboard’, ‘IN THE CUPBOARD is where the cup is’

Locative sentences with emphasized subjects or locations follow the same patterns as the corresponding questions. (See discussion of questioned subjects and questioned locations.) Ne or ce (depending on gender) may follow an emphasized word at the beginning of the sentence.

Omission of Pronoun Subject When Noun Subject is Present

If there is a subject word present before the continuative pronoun (plain ending in na or relative ending in ke) the subject agreement part of the pronoun (ya ‘he’, ta ‘she’, su ‘they’, etc.) may be omitted.

The ubiquitous expression shi ke nan “that’s all, that concludes the matter” (literally ‘IT is here’) is simply a locative sentence with nan ‘here’ as the predicate and an emphasized subject pronoun shi, which allows the ya- of yake to be omitted.

Sentences Expressing Existence

‘there is tea’, ‘there’s no pounded yam’

Affirmative Existential Sentences: ‘there is tea in the thermos’

Hausa uses an invariable word akwai ‘there is/are…’ to express the existence or presence of something. Akwai alone means ‘there is one, there is some’, as in answer to a question where the object is understood. A more specific location phrase can go before or after the existential construction.

Akwai can take a pronoun object, usually in the sense of ‘one’ or ‘some’. Akwai uses the direct object set of pronouns.

An alternative to akwai is the preposition da ‘with’. It is also possible to combine the two words, giving da akwai.

Negative Existential Sentences: ‘there is no  pounded yam’

Hausa uses an invariable word babu ‘there is/are no…’ to express non-existence or non-presence. Babu can be used alone to mean ‘there isn’t any, there aren’t any.’

Babu has a short variant, ba, with falling tone on the -a. Ba must always be followed by an object.

Both babu and ba can take pronoun objects, usually meaning “one, any”. Babu takes the independent form of the pronoun as an object, whereas ba takes the direct object form of the pronoun.

Presenting or Pointing Out

‘here’s my cloth’, ‘there’s Bala’

To say ‘here’s…’ when presenting something to someone or ‘there’s…’ when pointing something or someone out, Hausa uses an invariable word ga ‘here’s…, there’s…’. Ga must always have an expressed object. The ga expression will often be followed by nan ‘here’ or can ‘there’. A ga sentence can include a phrase indicating a specific location.

Ga uses the direct object form of the pronoun for pronoun objects.