Huyu li? - Who are you?
After sharing one's name and nationality with one another, it's time to discover a little bit more about each others background. This lesson deals with various interhuman relations and manners to describe these:
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bua - brother yunyo - they fanyo - parents esto - but sisi - just, only mea - sister |
Paragraph 3.1 - Na
In the previous sections the word na has popped up multiple times. It expresses a possessive relation between two nouns in the same manner the English word "of" does:
vawana na wa - my wife vawana na li - your wife vawana na yu - his wife vawana na yunyo - their wives vawana na Omer - Ömer's wife vabu na wa - my husband uba na wa - my father bua na wa - my brother benyo na wa - my children vabu na mea na wa - my sister's husband |
Depending on the context however, it is not always expressed whose the item is. When person A asks person B: "Who is that?", and person B answers: yu uma, literally: "she is mother", then it is obvious from the context, this refers to person B's mother and the utterance can be translated as "she is my mother". Because of this context-dependency, the word na is not always expressed in combination with pronouns such as wa, li or yu.
Because of this, a simple question like yu uma ha? can be understood either as "Is she my mother?" or "Is she his mother?" or "Is she your mother?", all depending on the context. As a matter of fact, a sentence like yu uma na wa in a clear context denotes a certain amount of focus: "She is my mother" (and not yours or anyone else's).
Paragraph 3.2 - X is Y
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In the snippet of conversation above, Fatime mentions the relationship between her husband and her brother in law: "They are brothers". In order to express this, she simply puts the two words together: yunyo for "they" and bua for "brother". The same technique can be seen in the following phrases:
Huan wa - I'm Juan Huan vabu - Juan is her husband yu Emineh - she is Emine yu vawana na Kim - she is Kim's wife wanyo mea - we are sisters yu uma - she is my mother yu uba na wa - he is my father Huan bua - Juan is my brother linyo vanyo ha? - are you family? Omer bua na Okan ha? - is Ömer Okan's brother? wanyo - we linyo - you (plural), y'all, yous |
Paragraph 3.3 - Nong
The word nong expresses negation. It can be translated as "no" or "not". It can be placed in between nouns in order to express "X is not Y"
wa nong Huan - I'm not Juan Huan nong vabu - Juan is not her husband yu nong Emineh - She is not Emine yu nong vawana na Kim - she is not Kim's wife wanyo nong mea - we are not sisters yu nong uma - she is not my mother yu nong uba na wa - he is not my father Huan nong bua - Juan is not my brother linyo nong vanyo ha? - aren't you family? Omer nong bua na Okan ha? - is Ömer not Okan's brother? |
In order to practice the use of na, the X=Y formula and nong, please make the following exercise:
Translate into Kah: 1. Ökan is not my father. 2. They are not my sisters, they are his sisters. 3. Turkey is not my country. 4. Lima is not a country. Lima is a city. 5. What about France? Is France a country? 6. What is the capital of France? 7. What is the capital of your country? 8. Who is your sister? 9. I only know Ömer and his wife. |