A Grammar of Miya - UCLA Department of Linguistics

208
ndyaan
patg
'all'
'all'
A GrammarofMiya
ndyaan sgbg ; silbg ndyaan
patg silbg
5. Temporal Nominals, Adverbs, and Pro-Forms
Following are the main temporal words of Miya:
coonakil(n)
mJmi
sliwa
wfy tsuway
bgna
bgna nalci
ataa tir naa SllWa
funa Mna
dabaja
haa wiya mUku
heevgmi
aashiyf
wasan
matsawa
amUkwa
hacaawliw
tsuway
mUkwa
rodza
camaza
mukwanaX
eewuya
'now'
'today'
'tomorrow'
'day after tomorrow'
'yesterday'
'day before yesterday'
'last month'
'next month'
'this year'
'next year'
'last year'
'olden times, the past'
'(during) the raining season'
'(during) the harvest season'
'(during) the dry season'
'(in the) early morning'
'(in the) morning'
'(at) midday'
'(in the) afternoon'
'at night'
'(on) the day thatlofX'
'some day, (at) some later time'
Miya has also borrowed some temporal words from Hausa:
bazara
'aziliar
kUllum
160kaciy
karree
'hottest part of the dry season'
'early afternoon'
'always'
'time'
'o'clock'
'all the people'
'all the people'
lit. "some morning"
lit. "that yesterday"
lit. "on month of yesterday"
lit. "month of tomorrow"
?lit. "until some day/sun"
cf. washasham 'year'
ef. matsaw 'harvest season'
ef. muku 'sun, day'
cf. muku 'sun, day'
cf. radz;] 'afternoon'
cf. cdmdz() 'night'
cf. muku 'sun, day'
? < "on some (day)", with muku
(f) 'day' suppressed
Hausa bdzdrda
Hausa lizdhiif
Hausa hi/him
Hausa 160kiicii (note tones)
Hausa liarfie
The list of native Miya temporal expressions shows that several are derived from nouns
by means of a suffix -a (no consistent tone assignment rules emerge), and in one case ('dry
season'), by a prefix a- as well. A number of the temporal expressions with no known
8. Personal Pronouns, Nouns, and Adjectives (§6) 209
nominal source also end in -a. This differentiates such words from underived common
nouns, which never end in a (see §2.1). Correlating with overt morphological marking
and obvious semantic similarities is the fact that temporal adverbs, including complex
expressions with nominal head, have no additional syntactic marking such as prepositions
when used in the sense of "at, during":
• taa ham ba taa tsuwiiy
'he didn't eat food in the morning'
• d'gmat!on 1takir camma
'they were burglarized at night"
mukwd na saa tal ka, mlsaall kdrfie tsar, ...
'on the day for drinking the beer, about 2 o'clock, .. .'
160kiiciy b:i na d'a bfy vgrkaw, ... 'when (at the time that) she is going to give birth, ... '
Temporal adverbs can be used with "marked" prepositions such as 'until', 'up to',
'from':
tUn 'a bazara
suw kwapa SllWa
babfy camaza
'ever since ("since from") the hot season'
'until tomorrow', "see you tomorrow"
'up until the night'
Compare the last example, where cdmdza 'night' has its temporal adverbial form, with a
sentence such as cdmdza cfiJn say 'night has fallen' ("night has done"), where the root for
'night' is used substantively rather than adverbially.
6. Locative Nominals, Adverbs, and Pro-Forms
6.1. The "locative form" of nonns. Many nouns, when used to specify a location,
have special locative fonns. For most such nouns, the locative form employs a prefix
a(o)-, but some nouns have other markers, in particular a suffix -a (cf. temporal forms
discussed in the preceding section). Thus, consider the proper names Gituwa and
Mangila:
Names
ngon-uwsg jly
name-his "was"
Gftuwa
Gituwa
'his name was Gituwa'
Manglla kUma a sgm m ee naka bly-uw 'Man gila did know that
Mangila also Pf know NEG exist that water-NEG water was there'
Locatives
do b-uws aaGituwa ' ... and he went to Gituwa'
Sjn go-ICP (to) Gituwa
do jly tsilg-uwsg aaManglla ' ... and he settled on Mangila'
Sjn Prt settle-IeP (on) Mangila
do baa-z ee kUw aably 'aManglla
Sjn came-Iep to drnw water (at) Mangila
'she came to draw water at Mangila'
4