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Reply to ‘grammar question’ The Zaria dialect (Kaduna State) seems partly to have lost gender distinctions, possibly due to the large mix of languages in the area (Nupe, Kanuri, Fulani, as well as Hausa). The dialect therefore uses ‘nee’ invariably and irrespective of gender and number of the preceding items, e.g. ràak’umii nèe ‘It’s a camel’, mootàa nee ‘it’s a car’, yaarinyàa nee ‘It’s a girl’, raak’umàa nee ‘It’s camels’, and ‘yammaataa nèe ‘it is girls’. The feminine definite article would also be -n, not -r as in Kano, as in yaarinyàn ‘the girl’. Marit Lobben University of Oslo, Norway =================================== Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 14:39:43 +0300 From: "Nikolai Dobronravine" <nikolai@ND1506.spb.edu> Subject: Re: grammar question As concerns k'arya ne: I do not think it's a dialectal feature. Gaskiya has been also used with ne regularly, at least in the publications, even in "Gaskiya" since 1950s. I don't have any reference work at hand now, but it seems that it was Abraham who first mentioned this use of ne with these two words. As concerns mulki, maybe the literal translation should be "power"/"rule"? (as based on the Arabic source, mulk). It does not seem to be confined to sarauta, as we have seen mulkin danniya, mulkin kama karya, mulkin mallaka, etc. Naku Nikolai Dobronravine ================================== Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 08:42:12 -0800 (PST) From: lorraine foute <lorrainefoute@yahoo.com> Subject: Re: grammar question John, not sure about the masculinizing karya. If the group were not Hausawa, or a mixed group, they tend to make nouns masculine kind of by default. It's middle belt Hausa. Second, on the mulki. I hear that word used in a pretty broad sense for any governmental leadership. It can be used interchangeably with shugabanci, but it's a bit broader in the sense of power or control, whereas shugabanci is used more for the person. What people want is mulki or control in Abuja, shugabanci is just one part of that equation. I'm not a scholar, just a street hausa speaker formerly in Kano, now in Jos, but right now in Fresno till July. So take whatever I say with a big grain of salt. Thanks, Bill Foute ================================== Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2003 09:17:22 -0800 From: "Mike Blyth" <mike.blyth@bigfoot.com> Subject: Re: grammar question For what it's worth, my Hausa informant (a Katsina man, 60 years old or so), always used "mulki" as the general word for "government". --Mike Blyth ================================== Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2003 00:47:15 +0000 From: "Jonathan Reynolds" <sagiru@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: grammar question From my experience, the "Zarianci" brand of Hausa can be pretty laid back when it comes to the assignment of gender. Indeed, it often seems to default to the masculine gender. When I get my genders mixed up and get corrected, I often get a good laugh by saying "A,a, Zarianci ne!" As for the sub-categories of Siyasa, I don't think it too surprising to hear of the current democratic government being referred to as "mulk." This term is often used to identify either secular or questionably Islamic government. Associate Professor of History Northern Kentucky University Highland Heights, KY 41099 (859)572-5279 (fax)572-6088 ReynolJo@nku.edu http://Sagiru.tripod.com -- Wannan wasik'ar i-mel ce daga H-Hausa, inda za'a cigaba da hira game da harshe da al'adu da tarihi da sauran lamura na Hausawa da mak'wabtansu.
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