Genitives

("possessives")

• General menu for noun modifiers
• Comments on the use of genitive ("possessive") constructions
• Genitive constructions consisting of two nouns: 'Zainab's friend'
• Genitive constructions consisting of a noun plus a pronoun: 'her friend'
  • Placing emphasis on the genitive pronoun: 'HER friend'
• Independent genitives: 'Zainab's', 'hers'
  • Independent genitives as ordinal numbers: 'first', 'second', etc.

COMMENTS ON THE USE OF GENITIVE ("possessive") CONSTRUCTIONS

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A genitive or "possessive" construction has the following form in Hausa:

Possessed-"linker" Possessor (or better, Modified-"linker" Modifier)

The general term "genitive" is preferable to the term "possessive" since the genitive construction signals many kinds of relations between words other than "possession". A few examples are the following. The genitive "linker" is in red. See more discussion on the linker below.

Possession Social relation Origin Material Source Function Instrument Dimension Type Part-whole Subject of a verbal noun Object of a verbal noun

littafin Zainab k'awar Zainab mutumin Kano dokin k'arfe man gyad'a tukunyar miya maganin tari tsawon mutum ruwan sama, ruwan sha k'otar fatanya zuwan Zainab ganin Zainab

'Zainab's book' 'Zainab's friend' 'person from Kano' 'horse of iron' (= "bicycle") 'peanut oil' 'pot for (making) sauce' 'remedy for a cough' 'height of a man' 'water of sky' (="rain")', 'drinking water' 'handle of a hoe' 'Zainab's arrival' 'seeing Zainab'

GENITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS CONSISTING OF TWO NOUNS: 'Zainab's friend'

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Two things show that words are in a genitive construction:

1. The order of the words ("possessed" or "modified" noun before "possessor" or "modifier")

      

2. The gentive "linker" between the words

The "linker": Words in a genitive construction (as well as certain other constructions, such as adjective + noun) always have a "linker" with one of the following forms:

• Trilled -r if the "possessed" or "modified" noun is feminine
• -n if the "possessed" or "modified" noun is masculine or plural

Pronunciation of the feminine linker "-r": Although the feminine linker is written -r and CAN be pronounced as "r", in speech it is almost always pronounced as a doubling of the next consonant. (This is actually a general feature of Hausa trilled "r", i.e. any trilled "r" can take this pronunciation.) Thus, the following pronunciations are options, with the right-hand form being the more common in speech. Note that if the second is written as beginning with a vowel, in speech one hears a double glottal stop, since all words written with a vowel in Hausa are actually pronounced with a glottal stop:

k'awar Zainab matar Salisu kujerar malam k'ofar gida 'yar Audu

= k'awaz Zainab = matas Salisu = kujeram malam = k'ofag gida = 'ya' 'Audu

'Zainab's friend' 'Salisu's wife' 'the teacher's chair' 'door of the house' 'Audu's daughter'

Examples of Noun + Noun genitives

Masculine modified noun	abokin Musa sunan matarka hoton yara	'Musa's friend' 'you wife's name' 'picture of the children'
Feminine modified noun	k'awar Zainab jakar mijinki jaridar talakawa	'Zainab's friend' 'your husband' bag' 'a newspaper for the commoners'
Plural modified noun	abokan Musa hotunan matarka idanun dabbobi	'Musa's friends' 'pictures of your wife' 'eyes of animals'

GENITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS CONSISTING OF A NOUN PLUS A PRONOUN: 'her friend'

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Genitive constructions with a pronoun modifier or "possessor" use a special set of genitive pronouns in a construction of the following form:

Noun-"linker"-genitive pronoun

See the full set of genitive ("possessive") pronouns with masculine and feminine nouns.

Note that the first person singular genitive pronoun is just the vowel -a and the feminine linker with first person singular is -t- rather than -r, as in all other genitive constructions. See technical remarks on the linker with genitive pronouns.

Placing emphasis on the genitive pronoun

In order to emphasize the pronoun in a genitive phrase, a special construction is available:

Independent genitive pronoun + Noun-"Previous Reference Marker"

Masculine referent	nasa abokin nawa mijin nasu gidan	'HIS friend' 'MY husband' 'THEIR house'
Feminine referent	tata k'awar tawa matar tasu saniyar	'HER friend' 'MY wife' 'THEIR cow'
Plural referent	naka abokan nawa 'ya'yan nasu shanun	'YOUR friend' 'MY children' 'THEIR cattle'

INDEPENDENT GENITIVES: 'Zainab's', 'hers'

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When the "possessed" or "modified" noun is understood and only the "possessor" or modifier is expressed, the independent genitive takes the following forms:

Masculine or plural referent: na + "possessor/modifier"

Feminine referent: ta + "possessor/modifier"

Masculine or plural referent	na Zainab na Musa na mutane	'Zainab's' 'Musa's' 'the people's'
Feminine referent	ta Zainab ta Musa ta mutane	'Zainab's' 'Musa's' 'the people's'

The independent gentive pronouns take basically the same form, but the na or ta have long vowels, and the first person singular has a Low-High tone pattern rather than High-Low as in other persons:

See a full set of independent genitive ("possessive") pronouns.

ORDINAL NUMBERS: 'first', 'second', etc.

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Ordinal numbers ('first', 'second', etc.) are expressed using independent genitive na (masculine or plural) and ta (feminine) plus a cardinal number. 'First' has a special form, farko or fari 'beginning', though d'aya 'one' can also be used in the ordinal construction to mean 'first'.

Masculine or plural	Feminine
na farko/fari, na d'aya na biyu na goma	ta farko/fari, ta d'aya ta biyu ta goma	'first' 'second' 'third'