Locative sentences

  

'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. (See a list of the common "specific" prepositions.)

Kofi yana cikin kwaba.
Goro yana tsakanin kyandir da kwalaba.
Ina gabanka.
Bashir yana dama da Bala.

Madara tana cikin firji.
Kina tsakanina da Kande.
Kujera tana kusa da k'ofa.
Tana dama da ke.

Kofuna suna cikin kwaba.
'Yam mata suna kan tabarma.
Muna hagu da ita.

'The cup is in the cupboard.'
'The kola is between the candle and the bottle.'
'I am in front of you.'
'Bashir is to the right of Bala.'

'The milk is in the refrigerator.'
'You (f) are between me and Kande.'
'The chair is near the door.'
'She is to the right of you.'

'The cups are in the cupboard.'
'The girls are on the mat.'
'We are to the left of her.

NEGATIVE LOCATIVE SENTENCES

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

Although the "all purpose" locative prepostion a 'at, in, on' CANNOT follow the negative continuative pronouns, locative sentences can use "prepositions" which express more specific locations. (See a list of the common "specific" prepositions.)

Kofi ba ya cikin kwaba.
Goro ba ya tsakanin kyandir da kwalaba.
Ba ka gabana.
Bashir ba ya dama da Bala.

Madara ba ta cikin firji.
Ba kya tsakanina da Kande.
Kujera ba ta kusa da k'ofa.
Ba ta dama da ke.

Kofuna ba sa cikin kwaba.
'Yam mata ba sa kan tabarma.
Ba ma hagu da ita.

'The cup is not in the cupboard.'
'The kola is not between the candle and the bottle.'
'You are not in front of me.'
'Bashir is not to the right of Bala.'

'The milk is not in the refrigerator.'
'You (f) are not between me and Kande.'
'The chair is not near the door.'
'She is not to the right of you.'

'The cups are not in the cupboard.'
'The girls are not on the mat.'
'We are not to the left of her.

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 (see the relative continuative pronouns 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.

See technical comments on vowel length of -ke.

Wa yake can?
Me yake cikin kwaba?
Wace ce take kusa da Kande?
Su wane ne suke d'aka?		 'Who is over there?'
'What is in the cupboard?'
'Who (f) is close to Kande?'
'Who all are in the room?'

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:

[preposition a 'at' +] 'where' (+ thing sought) + relative continuative pronoun

[see green note below]

A ina kofi yake?
A ina yake?
A ina kuke?		 'Where is the cup?'
'Where is it?'
'Where are you?'
(thing sought +) plain continuative pronoun + 'where' Kofi yana ina?
Yana ina?
Kuna ina?		 'Where is the cup?'
'Where is it?'
'Where are you?'
   
'where' + thing sought Ina kofi? 'Where is the cup?'

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.

Daga ina kake?
Ga wa yara suke?		 'Where are you from?'
'With whom are the children?'

A cikin me madara take?
= Me madara take ciki?

A bayan wa kake?
= Wa kake baya(nsa)?

'In what is the milk?'
= 'What is the milk in?'

'Behind whom are you?'
= 'Who are you behind (him)?'

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.

Subjects Kofi (ne) yake cikin kwaba (ba kwano ba).
Zainab (ce) take kusa da Kande.
   		 'A CUP is in the cupboard (not a bowl).'
'It's Zainab who is near to Kande.'
Locations A cikin kwaba (ne) kofi yake.
Ga Maryam (ne) yara suke.
Daga Kano nake.		 'IN THE CUPBOARD is where the cup is.'
'WITH MARYAM is where the children are.'
'I am FROM KANO.'

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.

Plain Amiru yana gida. = Amiru na gida.
Maryam tana gida. = Maryam na gida.
Mutane suna gida. = Mutane na gida.
  		 'Amiru is at home.'
'Maryam is at home.'
'The people are at home.'
Relative Wa yake gida? = Wa ke gida?
Kofi (ne) yake cikin kwaba. = Kofi (ne) ke cikin kwaba.
Kai kake kusa da Kande. = Kai ke kusa da Kande.		 'Who is at home?'
'THE CUP is in the cupboard.'
'It's you who is near Kande.'

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.