derivation in hausa

DERIVATION IN HAUSA

Introduction

Derivation is a branch of morphology which is the

study of the internal structure and forms of the word.

Morphology has two broad sections, inflectional process

which do not change the grammatical class of the word

Haspelmath (2002) and derivation processes which

changes the class of the word. Derivation in Hausa is

a process which involves the formation of a new word

from an existi9ng word through affixation,

reduplication, supra-segmentally by lengthening the

last vowel of the base form or changing the tonal

melody.

Hausa language uses three major lexical categories

for the formation of new words, these are nouns, verbs

and adjectives. For example, the word “gina’ which is

a verb, may be used in different contexts yielding

different forms of constructions as follows:

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Ya gina gida

He has built a house

Yana gina gida

He is building a house

Ya gine sauran filin

He has built on the remaining part of the plot

Gidan ya ginu

The house is well built

Ya sayi ginannen gida

He bought a ready made house

Magini ya zo

The bricklayer has come(Fagge, 2004)

Similar results of different derivation of

grammatical classes can be obtained by conveying verbs

to nouns, nouns, adjectives and adjectives to verbs.

Some of the derivational processes are:

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Affixation

Short morphemes with abstract meaning are called

affixes. The addition of affixes to a root or stem is

known as affixation. Affixation is in four forms

depending on where the addition is made. The addition

made before the root is termed prefixation. It is

called infixation when the addition is done within the

root and suffixation when the addition is after the

root or stem. In Hausa there is transfixation where

the affix and the root interlace (Alhassan, 2007).

This mostly happens in the inflectional process

therefore will not come under this discussion.

Reduplication

Reduplication can be viewed from two perspectives,

one is the function and degree of productivity and the

nature of the morphological process. Newman (2000)

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feels the term reduplication serves to describe both

active functional processes, productive or partially

productive and the results of such reduplicative

processes.

In Hausa there are two types of reduplication, the

partial reduplication where part of the base form is

repeated as in ‘Karfi (Strength), ‘karfafa’ ( to

strengthen) and complete reduplication where the base

form is completely repeated as in, ‘daka’ (pounding)

and ‘dake-dake) (to pound repeatedly). Reduplication

may be prefixed where the reduplication formation is

added before the root or sometimes it is the root that

is repeated as in ‘buga’ (to beat) bubbuga (to beat

repeatedly where /g/ is assimilated to /b/.

Reduplication could also be suffixal where the

formative is added after the root as un, ‘karfi’

(Strength), karafafa (to strengthen) Mathews 1991).

Statement of the Problem

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Creating new words for new concepts is one of the

functions of derivational morphology. There is greater

need for naming diverse nominal concepts therefore

languages generally have more means for deriving nouns

than for deriving verbs and adjectives (Bauer, 2002).

Languages usually have fewer verbs than nouns and

verb-deriving patterns are less numerous and diverse.

Most commonly verbs are derived from other verbs. This

is because adjectives are used more rarely than verbs.

The paper intends to find out how new words are derived

in Hausa and to find out the other processes used to

derive words other than affixation and which of the

classes are derived more often.

Instruments

The instruments for the research are written

materials such as journal articles, and books.

Informal inter views with fifty Hausa speakers both

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male and female in Zaria was used to complement the

written works.

Objectives of the Paper

The paper is on derivation in Hausa. The objectives

are:

a. to find out how new words are derived in Hausa

b. to discover the type of affixations used to derive

new words in Hausa

c. to find out the other processes used to derive

words other than affixation.

Significance of the Paper

Although some studies were carried out on

derivation in Hausa, the approaches differ from the

present study. The paper would enrich the knowledge of

Hausa derivational morphology. Students of linguistics

would benefit from such a paper because it was thought

that derivation in Hausa was just a matter of

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affixation. With this paper, they would be able to

learn about other derivational processes.

Teachers of Hausa and other Nigerian languages

including English would know more about derivational

morphology. Writers can benefit from this paper

because it discusses Hausa derivational morphology in

detail.

Some linguists have written on derivation in Hausa

but they all have different approaches to the subject,

for instance. Galadanci (1976), Jinju (1977), Rufai

(1979), Fagge (2005) and Sani (2005). This paper has

combined all the approaches it would enable readers to

see the approaches at a glance, to decide on the best

way to approach Hausa derivation.

Discussion

Some Hausa linguists have written on derivation in

Hausa but they all have different approaches to the

subject. For instance Galadanci (1976), Jinju (1977)

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and Rufai (1979) only mentioned how participial

adjectives are derived. Galandanci (1976) mentioned

that “participial adjectives which consist of a

partially reduplicated stem of the structure-acc-where-

c-is identical with the final consonant of the stem…

and a finality suffix of e, iya or u is added” e.g.

Bugagge (the beaten male)

Bugaggiya (the beaten female)

Bugaggu (the beaten plural)

Skinner (1977) mentioned a way of making dependent

nouns from verbal base forms, “the verbal base forms

followed by the last consonant doubled, plus a suffix

which vary according to concord”. He also pointed out

that one can use this method to drive nouns from other

nouns e.g.

(Lafiya health) Lafiyayye (healthy)

But it is more often used to make nouns from verbs e.g.

Daf dafaffe (cooked)

Fas fasasshe (broken)8

Rubut rubutaccee (written)

The affixed adjective is derived from adjectives

like Sangami and zundum… The last consonant of this

type of (very tall) (very deep) adjective is

duplicated, then the vowel ‘e’ is added before and

after the second consonant resulting from the

duplication If the adjective is masculine, but if it is

feminine there is a suffix – iya attached to the

duplicated consonant.

Example:

(Masculine) (Feminine)Bullu}i bullu}e}e bulla}a – bullu}e}iyaGarsa}i garas}e}e garsa}a – garsa}e}iya

In the above citations, it is believed that

participial adjectives consist of a verbal or

adjectival stem whose last consonant is duplicated and

the vowel is added after the duplication Jinju (1977).

Rufai (1987) did not agree with these views. He

proposed that participatial adjectives can only be

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derived specifically from grade II secondary verb forms

which are always known to end in-e he gave examples

with;

Nome (to farm/clear)

Saye (to buy all)

Rufe (to close)

Bude (to open)

He then classified the participial adjectives into

four classes. The transitive based such as

}onanne (burnt) from }ona (to bun)

Soyayye (fried) from soya (to fry)

Intransitive verb based such as

Mi}a}e (straightened) from mi}e (to straighten)

Tsayayye (strong one) from tsaye (too stand)

Noun based as in;

Lafiyayye (healthy) from lafiya (health)

Sihirtacce (bewitched) from sihiri (magic/witch craft)

And adjective based such as:

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Garsa}e}e (very huge) from garsa}i (huge)

Bambarmeme (very big) from bambarmi (big)

Rufai’s argument here is that the base form

undergo three processes before reaching the final form.

These processes are over-duplication, vowel shortening,

and stem final vowel lowering as with:

Ha]amamme (glutton) ha]ama (gluttony)

(ha]ama) underlying form and verb formation

(ha]ame) grade two secondary form

(ha]ame-mee) partial duplication

(ha]ame-mee-mee) over partial duplication

(ha]ame-me-me) vowel shortening

(ha]ama-m-mee) antepenultimate vowel dropping

(ha]ama-mi-mee) stem final vowel lowering

(ha]amamme) surface form

Also Rufai (1989) feels that verbal nouns could be

derived from nouns by the addition of –ci, oci and anci

ending example.

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Budurwa (lady) budurci (act of being a lady)

Kasuwa (market) kasuwanci) (trading)

}auye (village) }auyanci (acting of being a villager)

Abstract nouns could be derived from concrete nouns by

putting a-ci suffix to the base form, e.g.

Kusa (near) kusaci (nearness)

Taajiri (richman) taajirci (richness)

Butulu (ungrateful) butulci (ingratitude)

(Rufai 1979:3).

Derivation can also be made through another kind

of suffixation which can simply be called vowel

alternation or change. This means that the original

vowel of the base is dropped or alternates with another

suffixal and derivational vowel. This kind of

derivation is combined with a change in the tone

pattern. Specifically the tone of the first syllable

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(if the base is a verb) is normally high but becomes

low after the derivation e.g.

Taafa (to clap) tafii (clapping)

Sayaa (to buy) sayee) (buying)

Hoora (to train) horoo (training)

(Rufai 1979:4)

Nouns could be derived from verbs by affixing a

ma-prefix with –I, -iya, or –a suffixes depending on

the gender and number. There is also a change in the

tonal melody of the derived form. Example.

So (love) masoyi (lover male) masoyiya (lover

female), masoya (lovers) (female worker).

Aiki (work) ma’aiki (male worker) ma’aikiya (female

worker) ma’aika (workers).

Nouns signifying place and tools could be derived in

the same manner nouns could be derived from verbs by

suffixing –ayya to the verbal stem to show mutuality.

Buga (to hit) bugayya (exchanging blows)

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Ja (to pull) jayayya (controversy)

Bi (follow/obey) biyayya (obedience – loyalty)

As can be seen from the above example, not much as

been written in the area of the Hausa derivational

morphology. Most people concentrated mainly on the

inflectional processes and made just a passing remark

on the derivational processes. Those writers that

indicated an interest in the subject only mentioned how

to derive one or two classes from others.

Sani (2004) mentioned two types of falling tones,

the underlying and derived falling tones. He pointed

out that the derived falling tone emanates from an

underlying high tone as a result of morphonological

rule. It is a transformation of a high tone in a

particular phonetic environment. The examples of

mayyaa (witch), rai (soul) and kyau (beauty) were

presented and analysed as:

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/majee/ - underlying representation

Maaj - apocope

Maajijaa - suffixation

Mayya - syncope

Vowel reduction and tonal coalescence

H + L

(Majjaa) - Surface representation

(Mayya) - orthography

b. /kyaawuu/- UR

Kyaaw - apocope

Kyaw - vowel reduction and tonal

coalescence

H + L

[kyaw] SR

Kyau Orthography(Sani 2004:29)

Agentive nouns are basically argued to be derived

of a high-toned prefix ma, which is essentially built

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on verb stems. They are all masculine derived froms.

Fagge (2004) gave examples of the following:

Stem Instrumental nouns Meaning

Burga(v) maburgii swizzle-stick

Bu]a mabuu]i a key

Kaame makaami a weapon/holder

Duuba maduubi a looking glass/mirror

Rufee marufi a cover

(Fagge 2004:73)

Nominal stems can become verbal through both

affixation and reduplication. By affixation, the verbal

morpheme -ant which takes various surface structures is

added the nominal stem to change it. into a verbal

stem. The morpheme ant. if added to a word whose final

vowel is /o/ or /u/ then the. initial segment of the

morpheme which is /a/ may change to to at/ thus giving

it. anant/ surface realisation e.g.

daakoo ( waiting) daakantaa (to wait)

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baakoo (stranqer)baakunta (to visit)

gurgu (cripp1e)gurgunta (to cripp1e )

magana (talk) maganta (to talk)

Another way of changing nouns to verb«, is through

reduplication. In this case, the last consonant of the

base form is reduplicated and an -a a suffix is added

as in

haskee (light) haskakaa (to light)

rauni (weakness) raunana (to weaken)

zaafi (heat) saafafaa (to heat)

}arfii (strength) }arfafaa (to strengthen)

Derivation of Verb from Adjectives

Verbs could be derived from simple adjectives

through suffixation - The ant a verbal mopheme is added

to the root or stem of the base form to change it into

an adjective:

Farii (white) faranta (to whiten)

Ba}ii (black) ba}anta (to b1acken)

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}arami (small) }aranta (to make small)

manya (big) manyanta (to make big),

Derivation of Verbs From Adverbs,

Verbs could be derived from adverbs by affixing

the -ta and -anta verbal morpheme to the stem of the

adverb:

Kusa (near) kusanta (to make near)

Dai]ai (singly) ]ai]aita (to make single)

gaba (front) gabanta. (to be in front)

daidai (right) daidaita (to righten )

Derivation of Nouns from Verbs

Derivation of nouns from verbs takes two forms,

one is by suffixation the second is by vowel

lengthening. The second process affects only the grade

III verbs.

1. Derivation of nouns from verbs by suffixations

takes several forms (a) awaa suffix- may be added

to the whole verb which becomes the stem; after

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suffixation the derived from becomes a verbal

noun:

gyaara (to repair)gyaaraawaa (act of

repairing) faaru (to happen ) faaruwaa

(occurrence)

zubar (to throw away) zubarwaa (act of throwing

away)

faara (to begin) faarawaa (beginning)

Those that take on an -aa suffix with vowel

alternation:

googa (to rub) guugaa (rubbing)

fee}ee (to sharpen) fii}aa (sharpening)

tseeree (to outrun) tsiiraa (safety).

Those with -ii suffix

nuuna (to point) nuunii, (pointing)

toofaa (to spit) toofii (spitting)

tsooma ( ta dip) tsoomii (dipping)

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Those with -oo suffix

Ji}aa (to wet) ji}oo (soaking)

Ri}a (to hold ) ri}oo (keeping)

Those with -ee suffix

zaabaa (to choose) zaabee (choosing)

aikaa (to send) aikee (sending)

cuunaa (to show) cuunee (showing)

Other Processes

As has been indicated earlier, derivation of

verbal nouns from verbs by vowel lengthening only

affect grade III verbs. The final vowel of the verb

form is lengthened to change it into a verbal noun.

farga (to become aware) fargaa (awareness)

kwaana (to spend the night) kwaanaa (act of sleeping)

dangana to be contented) danganaa act of being

contented)

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Derivation of nouns from adverbs

Nouns could be derived from adverbs by modifying

the tone pattern of the adverb and shortening the last

vowel. Most times the two processes occur together,

with few exceptions):

baayaa (back) baaya (behind)

kasaa (country/ground Kasa (ground)

}a (on the head) }ai (head)

Derivation of Adjective from verbs

Participial adjectives could be derived from verbs

by partially reduplicating the stern of the structure -

ace. where it is the same with last consonant of the

root or its palatal alternant and a finality suffix -ee

(Galadanci 1976):

aikata (to perform) aikatacee (c1eaned)

kunyata (to disgrace) kunyataccee (disgraced)

lalata (to spoil) lalatacce (spoilt)

gurgunta (to cripple) gurguntacce (crippled)

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Derivation of Adjectives from Nouns

Participia1 adjectives could be derived from

abstract nouns of sensory qualities by reduplicating

the first syllable of the base from and adding an -aa

suffix:

Zaa}i (Sweet) zazzaa}aa (sweetened)

kaushi (rough) kakkausa (rough textured)

kyawo (beauty) kyakkyaawaa (beautiful)

Derivation of Adverbs from Verbs

Adverbs could be derived from verbs by the

addition of a short-e suffix to the stem of the verb

forms

kwatanta (to describe) kwatance (described) kasafta (to

divide) kasafce (divided) baakanta (to scatter)

baakance (scattered)

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Derivation of Adverbs from nouns

Adverbs could be derived from nouns by vowel

shortening and vowel change such as:

Kunnee kunne (on the ear)

Ruwaa (water) kuwa (in the water)

Bakii (mouth) ]aka (in the mouth)

]akii (room) ]aka (in the room)

In this paper an attempt has been made to examine

the derivational processes in Hausa. It has been

discovered that derivation in Hausa is achieved by

affixation, vowel shortening and alternation, tonal

changes and reduplication.

It has been shown that verbs are mostly derived by

suffixing the anta or -ta verbal morphemes depending on

the number of syllables in the base form. Base forms

with less than three syllables mostly use the -anta

suffix, those with three or more syllables use the -ta

suffix. Verbs are also derived from nouns through

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reduplication, where the last consonant of the base

form is duplicated and an-aa. suffix is added to give

the verbal form-Nouns are derived from verbs by

suffixation, vowel alternation and tonal modification.

Verbal nouns are derived by adding awaa suffix to the

verb. In the case of grade III verbs the final vowel is

lengthened to make it into a verbal noun.

Participial adjectives are derived from verbs by

partially reduplicating the stem of the structure where

the is same as the last consonant .of the root, or its

palatal alternant and adding finality, vowel –ee.

Participial adjectives could be derived from abstract

nouns of sensory qualities by reduplicating the first

syllable of the base form and adding an -aa suffix.

Rufal (1987) also stated that participial adjectives

could only be derived from parsons grade II secondary

Verbs by over duplication, vowel shortening and stem

final lowering. Jinju (1977) also believes that

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adjectives could be derived from adjectives by

reduplication and suffixation.

It has been seen also that adverbs could be

derived from verbs by the addition of a short. -e

suffix to the stem of the verb form.

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Fagge, U. U. (2005) The status of bound morpheme MA inHausa

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Newman, P. O. (2000) The Hausa Language: An EncyclopediaReference

Grammar Yale University press

Parsons F. H. (1960). The Verbal System in HausaAfrika und Ubersee 44:

1 – 36

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________ (1987). Two items of Hausa derivationalmorphology paper

presented at the 4th international conference onlanguage, literature and culture Kano, BayeroUniversity

Sani, MAZ (2005) Underlying falling tone and derivedfalling tone.

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