Score |
110
Momma's Boy @ Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Bauchi
Bauchi, Nigeria
10411
9041
639
528
HAUSA 101 - LESSON 2
HAUSA 101: LESSON 2<p><br/></p><p>SINGULARS AND PLURALS</p><p><br/></p><p>Good morning, class. Professor Farouq is here again.</p><p><br/></p><p>Settle down. Settle down.</p><p><br/></p><p>I said settle down.</p><p><br/></p><p>—carries cane—</p><p><br/></p><p>Good.</p><p><br/></p><p>Our topic for today: singulars and plurals.</p><p><br/></p><p>What do we do when we have more than one?</p><p><br/></p><p>Book → Books</p><p>House → Houses</p><p>Colony → Colonies</p><p>Child → Children</p><p><br/></p><p>That’s English for you. Straightforward for the most part. Formulaic. Predictable.</p><p><br/></p><p>With a few exceptions, of course.</p><p><br/></p><p>Ox → Oxen</p><p>Child → Children</p><p>Mouse → Mice</p><p><br/></p><p>But generally, you can figure it out.</p><p><br/></p><p>Now, Hausa.</p><p><br/></p><p>What rules govern the formation of plurals in the Hausa language?</p><p><br/></p><p>Boy!</p><p><br/></p><p>Hehehe.</p><p><br/></p><p>Well… you’ll see.</p><p><br/></p><p>Let’s take a few examples, shall we?</p><p><br/></p><p>Alhaji → Alhazai</p><p>Dattijo → Dattijai</p><p>(middle-aged man → middle-aged men)</p><p><br/></p><p>Dalili → Dalilai</p><p>(reason → reasons)</p><p><br/></p><p>Mataki → Matakai</p><p>(step/precaution → steps/precautions)</p><p><br/></p><p>Notice the pattern?</p><p><br/></p><p>The ending changes to -ai.</p><p><br/></p><p>Easy, right?</p><p><br/></p><p>Now you try.</p><p><br/></p><p>Mota (car)</p><p><br/></p><p>Plural?</p><p><br/></p><p>Did you say Motakai?</p><p><br/></p><p>Well, you’re wrong.</p><p><br/></p><p>So wronggggg.</p><p><br/></p><p>Class, everybody say SHAME!</p><p><br/></p><p>Mota → Motoci.</p><p><br/></p><p>Mota → Motoci</p><p>(car → cars)</p><p><br/></p><p>The ending has changed to -oci.</p><p><br/></p><p>Next.</p><p><br/></p><p>Doka (law)</p><p><br/></p><p>Plural?</p><p><br/></p><p>Dokoki.</p><p><br/></p><p>Correct.</p><p><br/></p><p>Doka → Dokoki</p><p>(law → laws)</p><p><br/></p><p>Taga (window)</p><p><br/></p><p>Plural?</p><p><br/></p><p>Tagogi.</p><p><br/></p><p>Taga → Tagogi</p><p>(window → windows)</p><p><br/></p><p>Kofa (door)</p><p><br/></p><p>Want to try?</p><p><br/></p><p>I believe in you. Don’t be shy.</p><p><br/></p><p>Did you say Kofakai?</p><p><br/></p><p>No?</p><p><br/></p><p>Kofofi?</p><p><br/></p><p>Correct!</p><p><br/></p><p>Kofa → Kofofi</p><p>(door → doors)</p><p><br/></p><p>The ending becomes -ofi.</p><p><br/></p><p>You saw the pattern.</p><p><br/></p><p>Good.</p><p><br/></p><p>A round of applause.</p><p><br/></p><p>👏👏👏</p><p><br/></p><p>Now let’s make things interesting.</p><p><br/></p><p>Mayya (witch)</p><p><br/></p><p>Maye (wizard)</p><p><br/></p><p>Plural?</p><p><br/></p><p>What’s that?</p><p><br/></p><p>Mayoyi?</p><p><br/></p><p>LMAO.</p><p><br/></p><p>Wrong again!!!</p><p><br/></p><p>Maye → Mayu</p><p>(wizard → witches/wizards)</p><p><br/></p><p>The ending becomes -u.</p><p><br/></p><p>Easy peasy lemon squeezy.</p><p><br/></p><p>Right?</p><p><br/></p><p>Right?????</p><p><br/></p><p>Bindiga → Bindigu</p><p>(gun → guns)</p><p><br/></p><p>Shaidani → Shaidanu</p><p>(devil → devils)</p><p><br/></p><p>Cinnaka → Cinnaku</p><p>(ant → ants)</p><p><br/></p><p>See?</p><p><br/></p><p>Replace the final vowel with an -u sound.</p><p><br/></p><p>Easy.</p><p><br/></p><p>Easy peasy lemon squeezy.</p><p><br/></p><p>Or so you thought.</p><p><br/></p><p>Because the pattern breaks again.</p><p><br/></p><p>Now we have:</p><p><br/></p><p>Itace → Itatuwa</p><p>(stick → sticks)</p><p><br/></p><p>Ido → Idanuwa</p><p>(eye → eyes)</p><p><br/></p><p>Kafa → Kafafuwa</p><p>(leg → legs)</p><p><br/></p><p>Ah!</p><p><br/></p><p>-uwa.</p><p><br/></p><p>There it is!</p><p><br/></p><p>Just end it with -uwa and you’re good to go.</p><p><br/></p><p>Right?</p><p><br/></p><p>RIGHT????</p><p><br/></p><p>Wrong.</p><p><br/></p><p>You suck at this.</p><p><br/></p><p>Okay.</p><p><br/></p><p>Study this pattern.</p><p><br/></p><p>Daki → Dakuna</p><p>(room → rooms)</p><p><br/></p><p>Jaki → Jakuna</p><p>(donkey → donkeys)</p><p><br/></p><p>Sarki → Sarakuna</p><p>(king → kings)</p><p><br/></p><p>Riga → Riguna</p><p>(shirt → shirts)</p><p><br/></p><p>Wando → Wanduna</p><p>(trousers → trousers)</p><p><br/></p><p>Look at that.</p><p><br/></p><p>-una.</p><p><br/></p><p>Beautiful.</p><p><br/></p><p>Elegant.</p><p><br/></p><p>Predictable.</p><p><br/></p><p>We finally have a system.</p><p><br/></p><p>Now:</p><p><br/></p><p>Yaro (boy-child)</p><p><br/></p><p>Yarinya (girl-child)</p><p><br/></p><p>Plural?</p><p><br/></p><p>Yaruna?</p><p><br/></p><p>Wrong.</p><p><br/></p><p>Yaru?</p><p><br/></p><p>Wrong.</p><p><br/></p><p>Yarori?</p><p><br/></p><p>Wrong.</p><p><br/></p><p>Wrong.</p><p><br/></p><p>Wrong.</p><p><br/></p><p>Yara.</p><p><br/></p><p>Yaro/Yarinya → Yara</p><p>(child → children; gender-neutral)</p><p><br/></p><p>No suffix that you were expecting.</p><p><br/></p><p>Just…</p><p><br/></p><p>Yara.</p><p><br/></p><p>Next.</p><p><br/></p><p>Abu (thing)</p><p><br/></p><p>Plural?</p><p><br/></p><p>Ababe.</p><p><br/></p><p>Abu → Ababe</p><p>(thing → things)</p><p><br/></p><p>And you thought you were getting somewhere.</p><p><br/></p><p>Saurayi → Samari</p><p>(young man → young men)</p><p><br/></p><p>Budurwa → Budurwaye</p><p>(young woman → young women)</p><p><br/></p><p>Wait.</p><p><br/></p><p>Wait……</p><p><br/></p><p>I know what you must be thinking.</p><p><br/></p><p>“Where is the pattern?”</p><p><br/></p><p>Where is the damn pattern?</p><p><br/></p><p>I’m sorry to break it to you.</p><p><br/></p><p>There is no damn pattern.</p><p><br/></p><p>Well…</p><p><br/></p><p>There are patterns.</p><p><br/></p><p>Lots of them.</p><p><br/></p><p>You learn one.</p><p><br/></p><p>You understand it.</p><p><br/></p><p>You become confident.</p><p><br/></p><p>You encounter a new word.</p><p><br/></p><p>You confidently apply the pattern.</p><p><br/></p><p>And Hausa looks you dead in the eye and says:</p><p><br/></p><p>“No.”</p><p><br/></p><p>Just when you think you have it all figured out, you put -u at the end and—</p><p><br/></p><p>VOILÀ!</p><p><br/></p><p>Boom.</p><p><br/></p><p>The pattern breaks.</p><p><br/></p><p>You start again from scratch.</p><p><br/></p><p>Another pattern unfolds.</p><p><br/></p><p>You study it.</p><p><br/></p><p>You understand it.</p><p><br/></p><p>Then—</p><p><br/></p><p>BREAK.</p><p><br/></p><p>Another pattern is revealed.</p><p><br/></p><p>And another.</p><p><br/></p><p>And another.</p><p><br/></p><p>There are recognizable patterns and noun classes, yes, but there is no single formula that lets you reliably look at any new Hausa noun and magically know its plural.</p><p><br/></p><p>That is why plurals are perhaps one of the most confusing parts of Hausa for many non-native speakers.</p><p><br/></p><p>That…</p><p><br/></p><p>And, of course…</p><p><br/></p><p>Gendered words.</p><p><br/></p><p>I still watch my Ebira mother misgender words and use incorrect plurals despite her great fluency in Hausa. And that's why languages interest me. Every language has its rules and mechanisms of sentence formulation, vocabulary, a lot of which cannot be conveyed through translation </p><p><br/></p><p>So you must now be thinking, I’m sure:</p><p><br/></p><p>How on earth do native speakers know which plural to use?</p><p><br/></p><p>If there isn't one reliable formula…</p><p><br/></p><p>How?</p><p><br/></p><p>Well…</p><p><br/></p><p>I don’t know.</p><p><br/></p><p>You tell me.</p><p><br/></p><p>Hehehe.</p><p><br/></p><p>We just know, I guess.</p><p><br/></p><p>Class dismissed.</p><p><br/></p><p>ASSIGNMENT</p><p><br/></p><p>Write the plurals of the following words:</p><p><br/></p><p>1. Mutum — person</p><p>2. Kauye — village</p><p>3. Gona — farm</p><p><br/></p><p>To be submitted yesterday.</p><p><br/></p><p>See you next class.</p>
|
8
Other insights from Ibn Abdullah 🦁
Referral Earning
Points-to-Coupons
Insights for you.
All that I gave
Oh, hey there!It's me... again...You know, There's so much I want to saySo much I want ...
406 views
70 upvotes
64 comments
The Manipulation.
"Mom started looking at me differently from that day.I remember it like the back of my ...
101 views
51 upvotes
59 comments
Mapped
She has patches that look like continents no cartographer bothered to name.Her mother c...
251 views
43 upvotes
43 comments
That’s Everything
Look at me!I used to be a foot. Now I’m a fist. A clenched thing pushed into a satin b...
319 views
37 upvotes
35 comments
70
70Seventy is one of those numbers that seems to carry weight.Not because there's anythi...
225 views
42 upvotes
42 comments
