Kah has a possessive marker closely resembling the English word of for simple possessive constructions. In such constructions the possessed object is put in front of the possessor and they are linked by the marker na:
nia na wa
car of me
my car
podo na Mohamed
shop of mohammed
Mohammed's shop
When the possessed object and the possessor are modified by numerals, adjectives and such, the marker is placed in between both nominal phrases:
nia wan pesan jom na Yonih
car big green five of Joni
Joni's five big green cars
ben yem na wana pesa ye
child three of mother skinny that
The three children of that skinny woman over there
Pseudo-possessive relations in English can be expressed with na as well:
yudo na fai pol
house of spirit thousand
the house of a thousand spirits
An other example of a pseudo-possessive relation are constructions involving an adjectival use of na:
ukoiru na sunupuno
rebel of separatism
a separatist rebel
amunjoju na haijono
explanation of biology
the biological explanation
vonu na musko
current of atmosphere
an atmospheric current
As well as ordinal numerals:
kwanya na kwa
lesson of one
the first lesson
yudo na yem la yino
house of three be at left
the third house on the left side
Sometimes it might be helpful to specify the nature of the possession. For example, the possessive link of an author to his book is of a different nature than the one of a person buying that very same book in a store. This is called a partitive. Compare the difference between:
kaiko chu koko
book from author
the author's book
kaiko na poza
book of customer
the customer's book
Also, when a material from which something is made is involved, the possessive link is expressed with chu:
dun chu vungu
tooth from gold
an golden tooth
sengo chu kwengu
robe of silk
a silk robe
seo chu shedu
cup from china
a china cup
Mind the difference between the relations expressed below:
huda na pevo
cart of wood
a cart of wood (i.e.: a cart loaded with wood)
huda chu pevo
cart from wood
a wooden cart (a cart made out of wood)
The same word chu is used in constructions like:
nini chu wanyo
ten of we
ten of us
usumbe chu unganyo
half of herd
half the herd