Aniga baa baahan/ leh – It is I who am hungry/ have
Adiga baa baahan/ leh – It is you (sing.) who is hungry/ have
Isaga baa baahan/ leh – It is he who is hungry/ has
Iyada baa baahan/ leh – It is she who is hungry/ has
Annaga baa baahan/ leh – It is we (excl.) who are hungry/ have
Innaga baa baahan/ leh – It is we (incl.) who are hungry/ have
Idinka baa baahan/ leh – It is you (pl.) who are hungry/ have
Iyaga baa baahan/ leh – It is they who are hungry/ have
Past General Tense
Aniga baa keenáy/sameeyéy/qabtáy – It was I who brought/made/took
Adiga baa keenáy/sameeyéy/qabtáy – It were you (sing.) who brought/made/took
Isaga baa keenáy/ sameeyéy/ qabtáy – It was he who brought/made/took
Iyada baa keentáy sameyséy/ qabatáy – It was she who brought/made/took
Annaga baa keennáy/sameynéy/qabannáy – It were we (excl.) who brought/made/took
Innaga baa keennáy/sameynéy/qabannáy – It were we (incl.) who brought/made/took
Idinka baa keenáy/sameeyéy/qabtáy – It were you (pl.) who brought/made/took
Iyaga baa keenáy/sameeyéy/qabtáy – It were they who brought/made/took
Aniga baa baahnaa/ lahaa – It was I who was hungry/ had
Adiga baa baahnaa/ lahaa – It was you (sing.) who were hungry/ had
Isaga baa baahnaa/ lahaa – It was he who was hungry/ had
Iyada baa baahnayd/ lahayd – It was she who was hungry/ had
Annaga baa baahnayn/ lahayn – It was we (excl.) who were hungry/ had
Innaga baa baahnayn/ lahayn – It was we (incl.) who were hungry/ had
Idinka baa baahnaa/ lahaa – It was you (pl.) who were hungry/ had
Iyaga baa baahnaa/ lahaa – It was they who were hungry/ had
In contrast to structures with the SP waa and sentences in which the SP baa marks objects and adverbial modifiers, when the logical accent is placed on the subject the difference between the 2nd and 3rd persons singular and plural in all tenses of the regular verbs, and in the past tense of the attributive verbs and the verbs lahaan – ‘to have’, la'aan – ‘not to have’ and ahaan – ‘to be’, disappears. In connection with this it is necessary to point out a mistake made by the authors of a Somali text-book (Zorc, Issa, 1990, p.203), which is otherwise good in general. In the conjugation paradigm of the auxiliary verb jiri in the Past Habitual Tense, its form in the 2nd person singular is given as *jirtey instead of jirey: *Markabkan adigaa lahaan jirtey – It was you to whom this ship used to belong.
The final vowel of the regular verbs in the Present Tense shortens. The attributive verbs lahaan – ‘to have’, la'aan – ‘not to have’ and ahaan – ‘to be’ in the Present General are characterised by the syncretism of the agreement markers in all persons singular and plural. The same verbs in the Present General lose the differentiation in gender in the 3rd person singular. The syntactical parallelism which is observed in the conjugation of “adjectival verbs” such as baahan – ‘to be hungry’ in waa structures and in sentences with the SP baa with the accent on the subject, is one of the arguments for considering them as special (attributive) verbs and not as adjectives (Antinucci, Puglielli, 1980).
2.5.3. In constructions in which the subject is the rheme the agreement in gender (where it is possible) usually remains:
(228) Ninkii baa yimid – The man came;
(229) Nimankii baa yimid – The men came;
(230) Gabadhii baa halkaas joogsatay – The girl stopped there;
(231) Gabdhihii baa halkaas joogsaday –The girls stopped there.
In the first example the subject is a noun of the 3rd person masculine singular; in the second, the 3rd person masculine plural; in the third, the 3rd person feminine singular; and in the fourth, the 3rd person masculine plural. Because baa emphasizes the subject in each example, the verbs have the form of the 3rd person singular of the corresponding gender.
The deviations in gender-agreement are connected with the ability of the Somali nouns of certain classes to change into the opposite gender in the plural. This is true first of all in regard to masculine nouns whose stem ends in a consonant (Bell’s 2nd class), the vowel -e or the diphthong -ey/ay (6th class). As was demonstrated by this researcher (Bell, 1953) the feminine gender of these nouns, recognised by their article, is formal, and therefore the verbal predicate is conjugated in the masculine. This can be seen in the following pairs of sentences in which the roles of subjects are played by the nouns of the 2nd and 6th classes and the predicate has the form of the 3rd person masculine singular:
(232) Siraadkii baa jabay – The lamp has broken;
(233) Siraaddadii baa jabay – The lamps have broken;
(234) Odaygii baa bukooday – The old man got ill;
(235) Odayaashii baa bukooday – The old men got ill.
2.5.4. The verbal predicate can also be conjugated according to the same scheme when the subject is in the form of a plural noun of Bell’s 5th class, which consists of recent borrowings from Arabic:
(236) Maxbuuskii baa cararay – The prisoner escaped;
(237) Maxbuusyadii baa cararay – The prisoners escaped.
But the majority of the nouns of this class, including the subject in the example (236), form their plural in one of two ways: by reduplicating the last consonant of the stem, adding the vowel -o and changing the gender, like the nouns of the 2nd class, or else by inserting an additional vowel in the stem according to the “broken” Arabic paradigm. The gender of the form constructed in the second way is perceived as a “real” feminine, and therefore agreement takes place according to the feminine gender:
(238) Maxaabiistii baa carartay – The prisoners escaped.
Nevertheless there are some speakers of this language who even with such a subject conjugate the predicate in the masculine:
(239) Maxaabiistii baa cararay – The prisoners escaped.
2.6. The particle baa in special syntactic constructions
Some special syntactic constructions are generated with the help of the SP baa. It is used in particular:
1) To convey, from the attributive to the predicative role, the verbs ahaan – ‘to be’, lahaan – ‘to have’ and la’aan – ‘not to have’ which are used in relative constructions with nouns: oday fariid ah – a wise old man [lit.: an old man who is wise], nin gadh leh – a bearded man [lit.: a man who has a beard], islaan indho la’ – a blind old woman [lit.: an old woman who has no eyes].
(240) Odaygu fariid buu yahay – This old man is wise [lit.: is a wise man];
(241) Ninkani gadh buu leeyahay – This man has a beard;
(242) Islaantaasi indho bay la’ayd – That old woman was blind [lit.: had no eyes].
2) With words of the adverbial type which, in combination with the preverb u, transmit the meaning of direction (sare...u – up, hoos...u – down, gees...u – to the side, hor...u – forward, dib..u – backward[21]):
(243) Sare buu u kacay – He jumped up;
(244) Sanduuqii cuslaa hoos buu u dhacay – The heavy box fell down;
(245) Sagaaro gees bay u orodday – The dik-dik ran to the side;
(246) Hor baanu u dhaqaaqnay – We (excl.) moved forward;
(247) Gaarigu dib buu u tegey – The car went backward.
3) With the noun si, carrying the meaning of manner, which is used with attributive verbs and is governed by the preverb u:
(248) Si xun buu u dhaawacmay – He injured himself badly;
(249) Si wanaagsan buu ii (= i+u) galay – He treated me [lit.: He entered into me] well.
4) With the noun aad, which carries the meaning of intensity (‘very’) and requires the preverb u:
(250) Aad baan u aqaan Axmed – I know Ahmed very well;
(251) Caasha aad bay u quruxsan tahay – Asha is very beautiful.
5) With the attributive construction si aad ah – ‘very much’, the elements of which were described in 1), 3) and 4) and which is also governed by the preverb u:
(252) Si aad ah baannu u saaxiibnay – We (excl.) became very (good) friends.
6) In the construction which is regularly used to convey the comparative degree:
(253) Cabdi iyo Ciise, Ciise baa dheer – Issa is taller than Abdi [lit.: Abdi and Issa, Issa is tall].
2.7. Sentences without the particle baa
The SP baa can be omitted:
1) In sentences with the preverb ka which is used to convey the comparative degree:
(254) Hawadu maanta (baa) ka xun tii shaleyto – Today the weather is worse than it (was) yesterday.
2) In comparison constructions with attributive verbs which are often used in proverbs:
(255) Maalin iyo habeen (baa) kala mudan – Night cannot be compared with day.
3) In the second of two sentences divided by the conjunctions ama…ama –either…or, in cases where their subjects bear the logical accent and their predicates and objects are common to both sentences (they can be omitted in the second one):
(257) Ama Cali baa geela raacaya ama Faarax (baa geela raacaya) – Either let Ali pasture the camels or (let) Farah (pasture the camels).