Technical note on the term "relative"

I have adopted the term "relative", the traditional term in Hausa linguistics, to refer "Relative Completive" and "Relative Continuative". This is an exceptionally poor term for these forms since it draws attention to only one function for these forms: the relative clause function. (Some linguists have been mislead by the term itself, trying to interpret all contexts where it occurs as somehow deriving from relative clauses!)

I would personally prefer a term like "Definite" Completive/Continuative, or "Presupposed" Completive/Continuative, but these terms would probably be opaque as to function and too narrow as well. Over the years in teaching Hausa, I have usually referred to the two Completives as the sun and suka forms and the two Continuatives as the suna and suke forms, these being the third person plural subject pronouns for the respective distinctions. However, this leads to confusion if one is describing the verb in a sentence like na zo 'I came' as using the "sun" form as subject, when "sun" means 'they' and the subject of the sentence is 'I'!

I have therefore given into tradition, which at least has the advantage of making the description here consistent with most other descriptions of Hausa.