Chapter 2. The sentence particle baa
2.1. The functions of the particle baa
As well as the predicatising function which it has in common with all other sentence particles, the SP baa (in some dialects ayaa/yaa/aa)[16] realizes the actantial and circumstantial focuses. Riveting the attention on a subject, an object or any other DFR which in Somali is expressed by a noun (personal names and emphatic pronouns are also nouns, as they can be used with definite articles), the SP baa turns that member of the above set which it immediately follows into the rheme. Being marked by baa it becomes the logical acme of an utterance, as it were:
(119) Náag báa nín aragtáy – A woman saw a man;
(120) Nín báa naagi aragtay – A woman saw a man;
(121) Béri báa nín iyo naagi abeesó arkeen – One day a man and a woman saw a snake.
2.1.1. The place of the SP baa in an affirmative sentence is defined by the following rules:
1) It immediately follows the word it emphasises;
2) It always precedes a predicate.
But since, as was noted in 0.3.10, nouns and adverbial modifiers can occupy almost any place in regard to each other, the SP baa can in practice stand in any place to the left of the verb.
2.2. Case and tone in a sentence with the particle baa
It was mentioned in 0.3.3. that cases and prosodic decoration (“packing”) of the components of an utterance depend on the choice of sentence particle and its attitude towards them. In the case of baa two situations are distinguished:
1) The logical accent coincides with the subject of the sentence (119) and
2) The logical accent does not coincide with the subject of the sentence (120 and 121).
In the first case (119) the subject (náag) is in the oblique (objective) case, indicated by high tone, while in the second (120) it is in the nominative, indicated by low, non-marked, tone and the special morphological marker -i (naagi). In the example (121), which is a particular realization of the general case (120), its subject consists of two nouns connected by1 the copulative conjunction iyo – and; the first noun (nin – a man) is in the oblique case, while the second (naagi – a woman) accepts all the exponents of the subjective case.
As for the objects (nín – ‘a man’ in the first and second examples and abeesó – ‘a snake’ in the third, which also includes the adverbial modifier béri – ‘one day’) these are in the general oblique (objective) case irrespective of whether or not they bear the logical accent, i.e. whether or not they are followed by the SP baa.
2.3. The particle baa with short subjective pronouns
The SP baa is used either on its own or in combination with a short subjective pronoun, depending upon the presence or absence of the substantive object in a sentence. If there is a substantive subject, baa may be used either with or without a short subjective pronoun, but if there is no substantive subject, it may be used only with such a pronoun:
(122) Muus buu ninkii cunay – A man ate a banana, or
(123) Muus baa ninkii cunay – with the same meaning, but
(124) Muus buu cunay – He ate a banana.
In sentences with the indefinite personal pronoun la, the SP baa and all other sentence particles are used without short subjective pronouns:
(125) Awr baa la dabray – A burden camel was hobbled [lit.: Somebody hobbled a burden camel].
2.3.1 The short subjective pronouns combine with baa, making the following series of forms:
Singular:
1st pers. baa + aan = baan
2nd pers. baa + aad = baad
3rd pers. masc. baa + uu = buu
3rd pers. fem. baa + ay = bay
Plural:
1st pers. (excl.) baa + aan(nu)= baan(nu)
1st pers. (incl.) baa + aynu = baynu
2nd pers. baa + aydin = baydin
baa + aad = baad
3rd pers. baa + ay = bay
The SP baa serves to place the logical accent on the marked-out member of a sentence, while the short subjective pronouns clarify the relation between subject and predicate. The usage of the SP baa with and without the short subjective pronouns has some peculiarities.
2.3.2. As was partially shown in 2.1, the SP baa without a short subjective pronoun turns any one of categories a), b) or c) below into the rheme of a sentence:
a) the subject (or subjective group):
(126) Awr baa dhintey – A burden camel has died;
(127) Libaaxii aan dhaawacay baa cararay – The lion I wounded ran away;
b) a direct or indirect object:
(128) Maskii baa naagtii dishey – The woman killed a snake;
(129) Faarax baa Cali ku dhuftay ul – Ali hit Farah with a stick;
(130) Ul baa Cali ku dhuftay Faarax – Ali hit Farah with a stick;
c) an adverbial modifier:
(131) Berri baa walaalkay iman doonaa – My brother will come tomorrow.
It is evident that in the example (128) naagtii – ‘the woman’ is the subject and maskii – ‘the snake’ the object, because the verb conjugates in the feminine gender and naagtii is the sole feminine noun here. But the example (129) can be understood as ‘It was Farah whom Ali hit with a stick’ and ‘It was Farah who hit Ali with a stick’, since there are two nouns of the 3rd person masculine singular (Cali and Faarax) and one noun (ul – a stick) of the 3rd person feminine singular. The form of the predicate indicates that the subject is one of the masculine nouns, Cali or Faarax, and the situation can be made clear by the intonation of the speaker.
(132) Fáarax báa Cáli ku dhuftáy úl – It was Farah who hit Ali with a stick;
(133) Fáarax báa Cali ku dhuftay ul – It was Farah whom Ali hit with a stick.[17]
Moreover if the subject is expressed not by a proper name, as in the last examples, but by another noun with an article or a demonstrative pronoun (-kan/tan – this, these and -kaas/taas, -keer/teer, -koo/too – that, those), or if it is followed by an adjective (an attributive verb), or is represented by a feminine noun without an article which ends in a consonant, it can adjoin special morphological marks which help to distinguish it from the object[18]:
(134) Awrka baa orgigu raacaa – The he-goat (always) follows the camel;
(135) Libaaxaas baa ninkani diley – This man has killed that lion;
(136) Nin xoog leh baa nin tabar yari legday – A weak man fought down a strong one;
(137) Maalin maalmaha ka mid ah gabadh baa islaani la kulantay – Once upon a time an old woman met a girl.
A subject stressed by the SP baa does not adjoin morphological markers because it is not in the nominative case (see 2.2):
(138) *Ninkani baa libaaxaas diley – This man killed that lion.
It should be noted that the examples (128-131) and (134-137) disprove the assertion of Heine and Reh (1983, p.28) that “the usage of a subjective pronoun becomes obligatory if a noun followed by the focus marker is not the subject of the sentence”. The cases of the obligatory usage of the short subjective pronouns with the SP baa will be described below; here I shall only stress that they help to distinguish a subject from an object:
(139) Cali Faarax buu ku dhuftay ul – this has only one meaning, namely ‘It was Farah whom Ali hit with a stick’.
2.4. The order of words in a sentence with the particle baa
Let us examine, using several examples, the order of words in an independent affirmative sentence with the SP baa without a short subjective pronoun. If there is a subject in the 3rd person (singular or plural), an adverbial modifier of place and a predicate (for instance, ‘Ahmed came from Mogadishu’), the following variants are possible:
(140) Axmed baa Muqdisho ka yimid – Ahmed came from Mogadishu;
(141) Axmed baa ka yimid Muqdisho – Ahmed came from Mogadishu;
(142) Muqdisho Axmed baa ka yimid – Ahmed came from Mogadishu;
(143) Muqdisho baa Axmed ka yimid – Ahmed came from Mogadishu.
In examples (140-142) the logical accent is placed on the subject, and in example (143) it is on the modifier of place. If baa marks any other DFR besides a subject, the order of words defined in (143) is the only one possible. The following, for example, are prohibited:
(144) *Axmed Muqdishu baa ka yimid;
(145) *Muqdishu baa ka yimid Axmed.
Therefore, in a sentence with the SP baa without a short subjective pronoun, the placement of the members of the sentence is defined by the following rules:
1) The subject cannot follow the predicate;
2) The order: subject/ another DFR/ baa is prohibited;
3) The order: another DFR/ baa/ subject is not desirable.
In practice the same rules function in cases where there are a larger number of members, as here in the patterns of the realization of the sentence ‘Ali brought a book for Farah’:[19]
(146) Cali baa u keenay Faarax buug;
(147) Cali baa u keenay buug Faarax;
(148) Cali baa buug u keenay Faarax;
(149) Cali baa buug Faarax u keenay;
(150) Cali baa Faarax buug u keenay;
(152) Cali baa Faarax u keenay buug;
(153) Faarax Cali baa buug u keenay;
(154) Faarax Cali baa u keenay buug;
(155) Faarax baa Cali u keenay buug;
(156) Faarax baa Cali buug u keenay;
(157) Faarax buug Cali baa u keenay;
(158) Faarax buug baa Cali u keenay;
(159) Buug Cali baa Faarax u keenay;
(160) Buug Cali baa u keenay Faarax;
(161) Buug baa Cali u keenay Faarax;
(162) Buug baa Cali Faarax u keenay;
(163) Buug Faarax Cali baa u keenay;
(164) Buug Faarax baa Cali u keenay.
Other variants, for example,
(165) *Cali Faarax baa u keenay buug;
(166) *Cali buug baa u keenay Faarax;
(166) *Cali Faarax buug baa u keenay;
(167) *Faarax buug baa u keenay Cali
are not possible due to the limitations mentioned above.
2.4.1. But if the subject of a sentence is the 1st or 2nd person singular or plural, i.e. the full emphatic pronouns aniga – I, annaga/innaga – we (excl./incl.), adiga – you (sing.) and idinka – you (pl.), the SP baa without a short subjective pronoun can follow only the subject. By replacing the subject Cali – Ali of the previous example with the pronoun aniga – I, we get a lesser set of variants of the sentence with the meaning ‘It was I who brought a book for Ali’:
(168) Aniga baa u keenay Faarax buug;
(169) Aniga baa u keenay buug Faarax;
(170) Aniga baa buug u keenay Faarax;
(171) Aniga baa buug Faarax u keenay;
(172) Aniga baa Faarax buug u keenay;
(173) Aniga baa Faarax u keenay buug,
(174) Faarax aniga baa buug u keenay;
(175) Faarax aniga baa u keenay buug;
(176) Faarax buug aniga baa u keenay;
(177) Buug aniga baa Faarax u keenay;
(178) Buug aniga baa u keenay Faarax;
(179) Buug Faarax aniga baa u keenay.
Any other order of words, including non-subject/ baa/ subject is not possible:
(180) *Faarax baa aniga u keenay buug;
(181) *Faarax baa aniga buug u keenay;
(182) *Faarax buug baa aniga u keenay;
(183) *Buug baa aniga u keenay Faarax;
(184) *Buug baa aniga Faarax u keenay;
(185) *Buug Faarax baa aniga u keenay.
2.4.2. It was stated above that the SP baa is also used with short subjective pronouns; in this case the SP baa places the logical accent on any DFR which immediately precedes it, and the pronouns themselves (-aan, -aad, -uu etc.) indicate the subject of the utterance:
(186) Odeygu Laas Caanood buu tegay – The old man went to Las Anod;
(187) Kal hore bay la socotay adhigii Caasha – Asha pastured sheep and goats last year;
(188) Lug baannu ku nimid – We (excl.) came on foot [lit.: with a foot];
(189) Wiilkii baa/bay walaashiis seexisey – The boy was put to bed by his sister;
(190) Maroodi baa beerta baabi’iyay – An elephant trampled down the field.
These examples demonstrate the main rules of the usage of the SP baa with a short subjective pronoun, which becomes necessary in the following circumstances:
a) if the subject is followed by another (emphasised) DFR (186)
b) if the subject is placed behind the predicate (187);
c) if it is the single manifestation of the subject (188);
d) the SP baa may not adjoin a short subjective pronoun if it precedes a substantive subject of the 3rd person singular or plural (189; cf. 154, 155, 157);
e) a short subjective pronoun is not used if the SP baa immediately follows the subject (190), therefore the following sentence is not correct:
(191) *Maroodi buu beerta baabi’iyey – An elephant trampled down the field.
2.4.3. The order of words in a sentence with the SP baa and a short subjective pronoun is defined by the above set of rules, and is exemplified here by the variants of the realization in Somali of the sentence ‘Mohamed bought (for himself) a loaf of
bread’, which consists of a substantive subject of the 3rd person, an object and a predicate:
(192) Maxamed kimis buu soo iibsaday;
(193) Kimis buu Maxamed soo iibsaday;
(194) Kimis buu soo iibsaday Maxamed.
In the variants (192) and (194) the usage of the short subjective pronoun is obligatory because otherwise rules a) and b) would be violated, and in the example (193) the short subjective pronoun can be omitted. The variant below is impossible due to the limitations indicated at the beginning of this paragraph:
(195) *Moxamed buu kimis soo iibsaday.
2.4.4. The placement order of the components of a sentence which has a substantive subject of the 3rd person, a direct and an indirect object is as follows, using ‘Ahmed bought a loaf for Faduma’ as the example:
(196) Axmed Faadumo buu kimis u soo iibiyey;
(197) Axmed Faadumo buu u soo iibiyey kimis;
(198) Axmed Faadumo kimis buu u soo iibiyey;
(199) Axmed kimis buu Faadumo u soo iibiyey;
(200) Axmed kimis buu u soo iibiyey Faadumo;
(201) Axmed kimis Faadumo buu u soo iibiyey;
(202) Faadumo buu Axmed u soo iibiyey kimis;
(203) Faadumo buu Axmed kimis u soo iibiyey;
(204) Faadumo buu kimis u soo iibiyey Axmed;
(205) Faadumo buu kimis Axmed u soo iibiyey;
(206) Faadumo buu u soo iibiyey Axmed kimis;
(207) Faadumo buu u soo iibiyey kimis Axmed;
(208) Faadumo kimis buu Axmed u soo iibiyey;
(209) Faadumo kimis buu u soo iibiyey Axmed;
(210) Faadumo Axmed kimis buu u soo iibiyey;
(211) Kimis buu Axmed u soo iibiyey Faadumo;
(212) Kimis buu Axmed Faadumo u soo iibiyey;
(213) Kimis buu Faadumo u soo iibiyey Axmed;
(214) Kimis buu Faadumo Axmed u soo iibiyey;
(215) Kimis buu u soo iibiyey Axmed Faadumo;
(216) Kimis buu u soo iibiyey Faadumo Axmed;
(217) Kimis Faadumo buu Axmed u soo iibiyey;
(218) Kimis Faadumo buu u soo iibiyey Axmed;
(219) Kimis Axmed Faadumo buu u soo iibiyey.
Of these great number of variants the most frequently used are those which begin with the subject and in which the objects are divided by the sentence particle or the predicate (196, 197, 199 and 200).
2.5. The particle baa and the agreement of the predicate with the subject
In 0.2.11 two types of agreement between the predicate and subject in a simple affirmative sentence were presented: “complete” (type I) and “clipped” (type II). In regard to the SP baa, the choice of agreement type depends upon which member of the sentence it turns into the rheme. If this is an object, an adverbial modifier or any other DFR except the subject, type I agreement is used. It is characterised by the maximum differentiation of all categories in all forms: persons, genders and numbers (0.3.11). But if the subject becomes the rheme (as was shown in 2.4, this happens when the SP baa immediately follows the subject and does not adjoin short subjective pronouns), then type II of the agreement is used. The deciphering of some of its indications was given in 0.3.11.
2.5.1. The personal verbal forms in the “complete” type of agreement with the participation of the SP baa follow the same pattern as those described in 1.5 for the SP waa. To confirm this it will suffice to compare two sets of sentences which differ only by the placement of the logical accent and correspondingly the type of sentence particle.
(220) Shaqadii waan dhammeeyey – I finished the work,
Shaqadii baan dhammeeyey – I finished the work;
(221) Shaqadii waad dhammeysey – You (sing.) finished the work,
Shaqadii baad dhammeysey – You (sing.) finished the work;
(222) Shaqadii wuu dhammeeyey – He finished the work,
Shaqadii buu dhammeeyey – He finished the work;
(223) Shaqadii way dhammeysey – She finished the work,
Shaqadii bay dhammeysey – She finished the work;
(224) Shaqadii waannu dhammeyney – We (excl.) finished the work,
Shaqadii baannu dhammeyney – We (excl.) finished the work;
(225) Shaqadii waynu dhammeyney – We (incl.) finished the work,
Shaqadii baynu dhammeyney – We (incl.) finished the work;
(226) Shaqadii waad dhammeyseen – You (pl.) finished the work,
Shaqadii baad dhammeyseen – You (pl.) finished the work;
(227) Shaqadii way dhammeeyeen – They finished the work,
Shaqadii bay dhammeeyeen – They finished the work.
2.5.2. The conjugation of a verbal predicate in a sentence of which the rheme is its subject (“clipped” type of conjugation), results in different forms. It is convenient to demonstrate these with the example of the verbs of the three main classes (keen – bring, samee – make and qabo – hold), the attributive verb baahan – ‘be hungry’ and the irregular verb lahaan – ‘to have’, in the Present General and Past General Tenses, using full (emphatic) pronouns as the subjects:
Present General Tense
Aniga baa[20] keená/ sameeyá/ qabtá – It is I who bring/ make/ take
Adiga baa keená/ sameeyá/ qabtá – It is you (sing.) who bring/ make/ take
Isaga baa keená/ sameeyá/ qabtá – It is he who brings/ makes/ takes
Iyada baa keentá/ sameysá/ qabatá – It is she who brings/ makes/ takes
Annaga baa keenná/ sameyná/ qabanná – It is we (excl.) who bring/make/take
Innaga baa keenná/ sameyná/ qabanná – It is we (incl.) who bring/ make/ take
Idinka baa keená/ sameeyá/ qabtá – It is you (pl.) who bring/ make/ take
Iyaga baa keená/ sameeyá/ qabtá – It is they who bring/ make/ take