Waxaa baahnaa/ lahaa isaga – It was he who was hungry/ had
Waxaa baahnayd/ lahayd iyada – It was she who was hungry/ had
Waxaa baahnaa/ lahaa annaga – It was we (excl.) who were hungry/ had Waxaa baahnaa/ lahaa innaga – It was we (incl.) who were hungry/ had
Waxaa baahnaa/ lahaa idinka – It was you (pl.) who were hungry/ had
Waxaa baahnaa/ lahaa iyaga – It was they who were hungry/ had
Being the rheme the subject does not adjoin morphological markers:
(274) Magaalada waxaa ku yaal masjid qurxoon (not qurxooni) – A beautiful mosque is situated in the city.
The normal order of words: waxaa/ the verbal predicate/ the subject (the rheme). Objects and adverbial modifiers are placed either before the sentence particle (a preferable variant) or between it and the verb:
(275) Shaleyto Diinsoor waxaa ka yimid nin aanan marna arki jirin = Shaleyto waxaa Diinsoor ka yimid nin etc. = Waxaa shaleyto Diinsoor ka yimid nin etc. – Yesterday a man whom I have never seen came from Dinsor.
In a sentence with the indefinite impersonal pronoun la, any component which follows the verb becomes its rheme:
(276) Waxaa la sheegay inay dhoofeen – They say [lit.: Somebody said] that they have left;
(277) Soomaaliya waxaa laga helaa Geeska Afrika – Somalia is situated [lit.: Somebody finds it] in the Horn of Africa.
In (276) a subordinate clause is the rheme, while in (277) it is a modifier of place.
Since in a sentence with the SP waxaa the part which follows the verb is the rheme, constructions like:
(278) *Wuxuu u yimi – He came to (him/her/them) or
(279) *Waxaa u yimid – (Somebody) came to (him/her/them)
are not possible.
It is necessary to note that the rule saying that if an object is not explicitly expressed it is meant (cf. for example Wuu u yimid – He came to him/her/them; U tag – Go to him/her/them), here does not work.
3.4. Special cases of the usage of the particle waxaa
The SP waxaa fulfils a number of special functions:
1) It introduces direct speech with the help of the verb odhan – ‘to say’, which belongs to a small group of the Somali “irregular” verbs:
(280) Wuxuu yidhi: “Berri baan imaneyaa” – He said: “I shall come tomorrow”.
The second part of this construction (as in this example) can have its own sentence particle. It should be noted that the verb which introduces direct speech can be repeated:
(281) Dabadeedna dhakhtarkii yidhi, wuxuu yirhi: “Haddaad jirran tahay waa inaad guriga joogtaa oo shaqada ka fadhiisataa” – Then the doctor said: “If you are ill stay at home and do not go to work”.
In the first usage, yidhi is the verb of the relative clause of which the subject is the word ‘doctor’, and in the second it is the verb of the main sentence with the same subject [lit.: Then the doctor who said, he said: “If you are ill … etc.”].
2) It is a component of the formula waxaa la yidhi – It was said [lit.: Somebody said] which opens every Somali folktale or proverb:
(282) Waxaa la yidhi, waxaa jirey oday wax garad ah oo la yidhaahdo Oday-Biiqe – They say, once upon a time there lived a sage whose name was Oday-Biiqe.
(283) Waxaa la yidhi, laba ma dhergaan: cilmidoon iyo hantidoon – They say, two persons will never be sated: he who craves for knowledge and he who craves for wealth. (Proverb)
3) In combination with the subjective pronoun of the 2nd person singular or plural and a verb in the Present General Tense, it conveys the meaning of the imperative mood; the usual method of forming this is the basic form of the verb for the 2nd person singular, and the same form plus the suffix -a for the 2nd person plural:
(284) Muus keen! – Bring (sing.) a banana!
alternatively
Waxaad keentaa muus! – Bring a banana! [lit.: You bring a banana].
(285) Guriga gala oo iska nasta! – Enter (pl.) the house and have a rest!
alternatively
Waxaad gashaan guriga oo iska nasataan – Enter the house and have a rest! [lit.: You enter the house and have a rest].
3.5. Two points of view on the particle waxaa
Some specialists in the Somali language (Bell, 1953; Abraham, 1962; Saeed, 1983 and others) do not attribute waxaa to the sentence particles[22]. In their opinion syntagm formed with the help of waxaa belongs to one of the three types of two-part verbless (“cleft”) sentences. The first part of such a sentence consists of the word waxa – ‘the thing’, ‘the things’ with a relative clause for which it is a subject, and the second part is a noun or nominal group; it is implied that there is a copula ‘to be’ and the SP waa in the sentence:
(286) Waxaan dooneyaa [waa] caano geel – I want camel’s milk [lit.: The thing which I want (is) camel’s milk].
(287) Wuxuu noo loogay [waa] laba wan – He slaughtered for us two rams [lit.: The things which he slaughtered for us (were) two rams].
(288) Waxaa naga cararay [waa] dameer iyo saddex qaalmood – A donkey and three young she-camels ran away from us [lit.: The things which ran away from us (were) a donkey and three young she-camels].
The first part of the sentence is indeed constructed as a relative clause: if it has its own subject a short subjective pronoun is introduced (–aan in 286 and –uu in 287), and the verb of the relative clause, the subject of which is a determinatum (in this case waxa, understood as ‘the things’), always takes a singular form (288).
Such an attitude to waxa(a) can be justified by the fact that reference back to the patterns of the formation of subordinate clauses saves the need to formulate special rules for the agreement of a verbal predicate with a subject. Nevertheless one reservation has to be made: where there is a coincidence of the feminine subject with the rheme, the predicate agrees not with waxa but with this subject, i.e. the verb takes the form not of the masculine but of the feminine gender:
(289) Qumbe subag ah waxaa keentay Maryam – Miriam brought a pot of butter.
The truth is that Lamberti (1982, p.67), who is also an adherent of the traditional approach, with the subject of the 3rd person singular feminine conjugates the verb according to the masculine gender (Waxaa yimid iyada – She came). This raises in my mind a serious doubt which paradoxically is shared by Saeed, another advocate of the interpretation of waxaa as a word with the meaning of a thing: Waxa jabtay (note the feminine!) silsiladdii – The chain broke (Saeed, 1983, p.82). On the other hand it seems as if Saeed does not see the difference between the word waxa (wax – a thing + the article -a as in this example) and the lexeme waxaa, which has one morpheme (a mora[23]) more and which in reality is used for the building of the sentence types under discussion irrespective of any of the theories.
Moreover, the fact that in a verbless sentence the role of the “empty” word is played only by waxaa (its synonyms do not have this possibility) means that we are dealing not only with the free usage of the word attached by a relative clause, but with a special type of affirmative sentence.
Indeed, in such sentences as, for example:
(290) Waxay ka hadleen nabadda – They talked about peace [lit., according to Bell et al, The thing which they talked about (was) peace] it is impossible to substitute the word waxa – ‘the thing’ by, let us say, arrinta – ‘the problem’, in order to make what is seemingly an equivalent sentence ‘The problem they talked about (was) peace’. A Somali sentence built in such a way is grammatically incorrect:
(291) *Arrintay ka hadleen nabadda
while in the correct version:
(292) Arrintay ka hadleen waa (= waxaa weeye[24]) nabadda there is a sentence particle.
Therefore the rules for the building of an independent sentence must contain instructions for the usage of waxa and for the types of agreement with it; this is equal to the introduction into the description of one more sentence particle – waxaa.
3.5.1. Also worth mentioning is the “half-semantic” argument which Zholkovsky (1971, p.196) adduced in favour of ranking waxaa within the category of sentence particles: “Waxaa introduces not only those second parts of the sentence which to some extent are ‘things’ and answer the question ‘who?’ or ‘what?’, but also the designations of place, time, condition and even subordinate clauses of the “adverbial participle” type: Waxay guriga weeraareen annagoo meel kale fadhinna. This, to follow the traditional treatment of waxaa, would mean in literal translation ‘The thing [which] they attacked the house we [who] place another were’[25] This example demonstrates that waxa is used not as a semantic but as a special inflectional quantity demanding any member of the first rank to follow the predicate. It is evident that in such cases there is no question of a “restoration” of, as it were, the omitted element – it is”.
3.5.2. It is worth noting, however, some peculiarities, which distinguish waxaa from the other sentence particles. First of all waxaa can adjoin attributes (for example kale with the meaning of ‘another’ or ‘also’):
(293) Wuxuu kaloo (kale + the conjunction oo) dooneyaa inuu la yimaaddo qof ii cusub – Besides he wants to come [lit.: that he should come] with a person whom I do not know.
Secondly the part of the sentence preceding waxaa (as in the case of waa, but not baa) can adjoin the markers of the subject:
(294) Muuska adduunka ugu macaani wuxuu ka baxaa Soomaaliya – The sweetest bananas in the whole world grow in Somalia.
For comparison:
(295) Muuska adduunka ugu macaani waa mid ka baxa Soomaaliya and
(296) Muuska adduunka ugu macaan Soomaaliya buu ka baxaa with the same meaning.
3.6. Sentences with two sentence particles
In sentences with waxaa it is possible to use a second sentence particle, either ayaa or baa, with each of the sentence particles retaining its functions and the peculiarities of its usage. Because, according to my observations, ayaa is used more often in this link with waxaa than is baa, I shall talk in this section basically about the SP ayaa.
3.6.1. The SP ayaa (or baa) always precedes waxaa, often immediately:
(297) Maalin maalmaha ka mid ah ayaa wuxuu ku soo baxay adhi meel daaqaya – One day he encountered sheep and goats which were grazing in a certain place;
(298) Markii ay haraggii ka bixisey bay waxay u geysey suldaankii magaaladii ay ku dhaqmeysey – After having skinned (the leopard) she took the skin to the sultan of the city she lived in;
(299) Maalin asagoo meel fadhiya ayaa waxaa u yimid wiil aabbihiis la diley – One day when he was sitting in a place he was approached by a boy whose father had been killed;
(300) Waa baa waxaa jirey nin wiil caasi ah ilmo ku leh – Once upon a time there lived a man one of whose sons was disobedient.
A subject, an object or an adverbial modifier (together with their relative clauses) can stand between the sentence particles ayaa and waxaa:
(301) Maalin maalmaha ka mid ah ayaa Cigaal Shiidaad iyo naagtiisii oo gurgooda jooga waxaa u soo muuqday niman – One day when Igal Shidad and his wife were at home they saw some men [lit.: men appeared in their presence].
3.6.2. The above examples demonstrate that both ayaa and waxaa can be used with or without short subjective pronouns. The adjoining of short subjective pronouns with ayaa produces the following sequence of forms:
Singular
1st pers. ayaa + aan = ayaan
2nd pers. ayaa + aad = ayaad
3rd pers. masc. ayaa + uu = ayuu
3rd Pers. fem. ayaa + ay = ayay
Plural
1st pers. (excl.) ayaa + aan(nu) = ayaan(nu)
1st pers. (incl.) ayaa + aynu = ayaynu
2nd pers. ayaa + aydin = ayaydin
ayaa + aad = ayaad
3rd pers. ayaa + ay = ayay
The rules for the usage of ayaa with and without short subjective pronouns exactly coincide with those described in the chapter on the SP baa, and those related to waxaa were expounded in 3.2.1.
3.6.3. In the link with ayaa the SP waxaa adjoins a short subjective pronoun if the subject of the main sentence is not its rheme. As regards the SP ayaa, it is, first of all, used mainly with a short subjective pronoun if it is the only representative of the subject:
(302) Markay tashadeen ayay waxay yidhaahdeen: “Berrito kaalay” – After taken counsel they said: “Come tomorrow”.
Secondly, ayaa never adjoins a short subjective pronoun if it immediately follows the subject:
(303) Niman ayaa waxay maqleen in Wiil-Waal deeqsi yahay – Some men have heard that Wiil-Waal is generous.
It should be noted that here the verbal predicate agrees with the subject in gender, person and number (contrary to the case when ayaa or baa is the only sentence particle in the sentence), i.e. the agreement occurs as if waxaa were the main and ayaa (baa) the subordinate sentence particle.
Thirdly, ayaa can be used with or without a short subjective pronoun if the sentence particle does not emphasise the subject which either precedes or follows it:
(304) Maalin maalmaha ka mid ah Yoonis Tuug sida caadada u ahayd ayaa (=ayuu) wuxuu u baxay meel fog si uu xoolo u soo xado – One day Yonis Tug as usual went far (from his house) in order to steal (somebody’s) stock;
(305) Markaas ayaa (=ayuu) wiilkii wuxuu ku soo noqday magaaladii aabbihiis uu u talineyey – Then the boy returned to the town ruled by his father.
But if the subject of the main sentence is its rheme neither ayaa nor waxaa can adjoin short subjective pronouns:
(306) Waa ayaa waxaa jiri jirey nin aad u lo’ badan – Once upon a time there was a man who possessed many cows.
It should be remembered that if waxaa had not been present in this phrase the SP ayaa could have been used, either with or without a short subjective pronoun:
(307) Waa ayaa jiri jirey nin aad u lo’ badan or
(308) Waa ayuu jiri jirey nin aad u lo’ badan.
3.6.4. The usage of the SPs ayaa and waxaa in the same sentence is never obligatory. By shifting, or softening, the logical accent one of them can be removed, and the remaining one conforms to the rules which govern the separate usage of the sentence particles:
(309) Suldaankii markuu aqalkii soo galay ayuu wuxuu arkay afadiisii oo gogol fadhida – When the sultan entered the house he saw his wife sitting on a mat.
The same phrase can be transformed into:
(310) Markuu aqalkii soo galay suldaankii wuxuu arkay afadiisii oo gogol fadhida or
(311) Suldaankii markuu aqalkii soo galay ayuu arkay afadiisii oo gogol fadhida.