Lesson 2. Wayboro fo koy Niamey. Content Intro Vocabulary Grammar Exercises   2.A. Intro Wayboro fo koy Niamey Wayboro fo karu farka boŋ. A koy Niamey. A na farka nera. A day haw fo da bari fo. A karu bariyo boŋ. A n'iri fo. A koy fu. Listen and exercise   2.B. Vocabulary Verbs Nouns Prepositions, etc. Learn these words by heart. 2.B.1 Verbs Zarma English Pronunciation kaa to come kaâ fo to greet fò wi to kill; to reap, to harvest [grain] wi kar to strike, to hit kar foy to spent, to pass the daytime foy karu 1) to climb, to mount (intransitive) 2) to ride (domestic animal, bike, etc.) kâ/ ru Back 2.B.2 Nouns Zarma English Pronunciation baani, baano health (of the body); peace (of the mind or personality) bââ/ ni bene, bena sky, heavens bê/ ne hari, haro water, liquid ha/ ri bene hari, bene haro rain bê/ ne ha/ ri Back 2.B.3 Prepositions, adverbs, etc. Zarma English Pronunciation boŋ (preposition) on, upon, on the top (nasal) boŋ bene (preposition) above, up be / ne oho (adverb) yes o / ho haŋ'a (adverb) aha no (nasal) haŋ / a à / hà fofo (adverb) hello, thanks, greetings fo / fo nda (conjunction) and, with nda Back Note: A preposition always follows the word or phrase or clause it modifies. Thus it is actually a "postposition".   2.C. Grammar Subjects in this lesson Direct object, introduction The particle "na" to indicate a direct object in past tense Direct object, exceptions of sentence order The verbs come and go The conjunction "nda" Review of sentence order learned at this point 2.C.1. Direct object, introduction First, let us review the three general types of objects of verbs: Direct object, answer the question "what" did the verb do. Indirect object, shows for whom or to whom the action of the verb is directed (explained in Lesson 6.D.2) Adverbial modifiers, answer when, why, where, how long, how, to what extent, to what degree, who far, etc. Note: The linking verbs, to be, to exist, do not fall into any of these categories. General rule Now the direct object in Zarma generally precedes the verb, while the indirect object and adverbial and other modifiers regularly follow it (see examples in 2.C.2. below). General exception There is one general class of verbs, those showing subjective perception or emotion, which regularly take the direct object afterwards, see section 2.C.3. These verbs will be marked with an "#" in the vocabularies as they occur in lessons. Other exceptions A very few common verbs (notably "buy" and "sell") will sometimes be heard with the direct object after them, but the regular way is correct as well, and more commonly heard. In section 2.C.3 to the above rules will be discussed. Verb auxiliary When there is a direct object before the verb, there is always some kind of verb auxiliary preceding it to distinguish it from the subject. But in all tenses, aspects and moods of the verb, the same sentence order is preserved. Back 2.C.2. The particle "na" to indicate a direct object in past tense In the past tense, when the direct object precedes the verb, it is pointed out and distinguished from the subject by the particle "na". This "na" precedes the direct object. Examples Zarma English Ay na bari fo nera I sold a horse. A na yo karu He rode a camel. Note: This "na" as a completed tense indicator only occurs where a direct object precedes the verb, whether or not the verb is followed by an adverbial modifier, indirect object or even a compound direct object when this follows the verb. When the personal pronouns, which begin with a vowel, are used as direct objects, the "na" generally contracts with "a" and "i", and sometimes with other pronouns as well beginning with a vowel. When this contraction occurs, the pronoun is strongly accented. Examples Zarma English Iri n' a wi. We killed it. A n' i day. He bought them Araŋ n' iri fo. You greeted us Zankey n' iri kar The children struck us. The vowel of this "na" particle, and indeed of all auxiliaries is very short, little more than a grunt. Back 2.C.3. Direct object, exceptions of sentence order The direct object usually precedes the verb (see 2.C.1). There is one general class of verbs, which regularly take the direct object afterwards. These are verbs showing subjective perception or emotion, such as "maa" (to hear) en kande (to bring). These will be marked with an "#" in the vocabularies as they occur in lessons. Examples Zarma English Iri maa musu beri. We heard a lion. Araŋ kande hansi. You brought a dog. For direct objects, which precede the verb (see 2.C.1), there is a possible exception (not a obligatory exception!). When two or more nouns are used as direct objects, they may follow the verb. Examples Zarma English I karu bari da yo. They rode horse and camel. Note that it would be just as correct to say: "I na bari da yo karu". In Zarma there is a group of verbs that can be either transitive or intransitive, depending on the meaning and context, similar to English.  A transitive verb takes a direct object: it shows action upon someone or something. Intransitive verbs take no direct object; they need only a subject to make a sentence. For example, the verb "karu" in combination with the preposition "boŋ" it is intransitive and means "to mount". Without this preposition "karu" means "to ride" and it is transitive, see Table below. The English translation of the verb might be in both cases transitive. Example Djerma phrase English phrase Ay na bariyo karu bariyo = direct object I rode a horse a horse = direct object Ay karu bariyo boŋ bariyo boŋ = object of the preposition I mounted a horse a horse = direct object Back 2.C.4. The verbs come and go Verbs "koy" (go) and "kaa" (come) The verbs of motion (come and go), which ordinarily take the preposition "to" in English before their adverbial object, do not require it in Zarma when the object is "home", "house", "town", "village", or the name of a specific town or country. Examples Zarma English A koy kwara He went to the village I kaa Niamey They came to Niamey Back 2.C.5. The conjunction "nda" Two nouns (or more) or pronouns, with their adjective modifiers, may be connected in Zarma by the conjunction "nda", but not adjectives, not verbs, and not clauses. If there is a string of nouns, where we would normally use a comma to separate all but the last two, "nda" must be used for all of them, not a comma. This "nda" is one syllable, short vowel, and the "n" is often not detectable. Examples Zarma English Ay na haw fo da yo fo nera. I sold a cow and a camel. Ay na bari da yo karu. I rode a horse and a camel. Hansi nda musu koy. A dog and a cat went. I karu bari da farka boŋ. They mounted on a horse and a donkey. But: Examples Zarma English Iri na haw fo day. Iri na bari fo nera. We bought a cow and we sold a horse. There are ways of connecting clauses, but that comes later in Lesson 5.D.5. It isn't "nda". Back 2.C.6. Review of sentence order learned at this point 1. With the regular transitive verbs (the article may or may not be present): Example subject-article auxiliary direct object-article verb Hanso na muso wi The dog (did) the cat kill 2. With the intransitive verb: Example subject-article verb object-article preposition Iri karu fuwo boŋ We climbed the house on Back   Last updated: 27 februari 2010 web site metrics website analytics