Mbay language
| Mbay | |
|---|---|
| Sara Mbay | |
| Native to | Chad, Central African Republic |
Native speakers | (90,000 cited 1990–1996)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | myb |
| Glottolog | mbay1241 |
Mbay, or Sara Mbay, is a Bongo–Bagirmi language of Chad and the Central African Republic.
It is reported that Mbay does not have independent personal pronouns. The meaning is largely carried out by subject, object, and possessive affixes attached to verbs, prepositions, and nouns. Other words, such as yá̰a̰ "thing", dèē "person", tàa "speech", and lòo "place" are used somewhat pronominally as something, somebody, something said, and somewhere.[2]
PLURALIZATION IN MBAY LANGUAGE
Mbay language has plural nouns just like any other or most languages. Mbay languages pluralise nouns by using prefixes, for example, ƃa-na (child) is Ma-na (children) in Mbay language.
To pluralize nouns, these changes occur, also it must be noted that the root word stays the same.
| SINGULAR | PLURAL |
| Ƃa- na (child) | Ma-na( children) |
| Do-sɛ (man) | Ro-sɛ (men) |
| ɳga-ta (woman) | Ba-ta (women) |
| Ku-sum (elder) | Gu-sum (elders) |
| To-pu (Friend) | Ko-pu (Friends) |
INFLECTION OF TENSE, MOOD AND ASPECT
Through the addition of prefixes, suffixes, tone changes and auxiliary verbs you are able to inflect tense, mood and aspect.
TENSE (Past, Present, Past)
They are marked by auxiliary words, particles or changes in verbal morphology.
Example 1. Present : I am eating
2. Past: I ate
3. I will eat
ASPECT: This is the nature of the action’s completion or duration, whether the action is ongoing, completed, or habitual
- Progressive aspect: I am eating
- Perfective aspect: I have eaten
- Habitual aspect: I eat regularly
MOOD: Speaker’s attitude towards the action. (Example. Commands, request, possibilities)
Imperative mood: It is used for commands; the verb root is used often without inflection. Example; Wa! = Eat!
Subjunctive mood: Used for wishes or hypothetical actions, it is marked by auxiliary particles.
Conditional mood: It is used for conditional statements and marked by particles.
DOES VERBS IN MBAY AGREE WITH SUBJECT NOUNS?
Yes, they show agreement with their subject nouns through subject pronouns, prefixes or tonal patterns.
Example ( The verb to eat):
- I eat =
- He/she ate
- You ate
Noun class prefixes: If the subject is a noun the agreement may be implicit through noun class prefixes. This alignment is more apparent in noun-adjective agreements than verb agreements but the subject class influences the tone or auxiliary choice.
Number agreement: Verbs do not inflect for singular or plural directly, but subject pronouns or auxiliary particles may signal number.
Singular=
Plural=
ADJECTIVES IN MBAY, AND DO THEY AGREE WITH HEAD NOUNS?
Noun class systems influence their form and agreement patterns which sometimes govern how adjectives agree with head nouns by class, number, and gender.
Descriptive adjectives: They explain size, shape, and colour, for example, big, red, small
Numerals: Functions to indicate quantity or rank, for example, one, two
Possessives adjectives: To indicate ownership, for example, my child
Adjective-noun Agreement: An agreement through prefixes that corresponds to the noun class of the head noun. For example, Big child, Big children
Position of adjectives: Adjectives usually follows the noun they modify. For example, small tree
References
[edit]- ^ Mbay at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
- ^ Keegan, John M. 1997. A Reference Grammar of Mbay. Munich: Lincom Europa. Cited in Bhat, D.N.S. 2004. Pronouns. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 26
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