Lesson 20

Lesson 20

This lesson continues to explain further uses of the Possessive adjective.

SYNTAX

To express prepositional phrases with pronoun objects such as: on top of it, in it, beside me, behind us, etc. is done by single nouns. These nouns occur following verbs and are in the locative case, since they are expressing place-where, and they are suffixed by the possessive adjective as follows:

Examples:

"on it"	Lä̲thni̲ jɛ wu̲dä̲. -- Put it on my head. Literally: Put it at my head.
"in it"	Cɛ wä̲ rɛydɛ. -- It went in it. Literally: It went to the inside of it.
"beside it"	Jɛn a gɛ̲kä̲du̲. -- She is beside you. Literally: He is at the side of you.
"behind it"	Kɛn diaal a jɔɔda. -- They are all behind us. Literally: They all are at our back.
"in front of it"	Wër nhiamdiɛn. -- Go in front of them. Literally: Go to their front.
"among them"	Yaŋ kɛl a rɛydiɛn. -- One cow is among them. Literally: One cow is at their inside.

rɛydä̲	inside of me	rɛydan	inside of us (in)
rɛydu̲	inside of you	rɛyda	inside of us (ex)
rɛydɛ	inside of him her it	rɛydu̲n	inside of you
rɛydɛ	inside of him her it	rɛydiɛn	inside of them

To express the idea "for you", "for me", "for them" a prepositional phrase is used [kɛ kui̲c] which was explained in Lesson 11. [kui̲c] is a noun and it is suffixed by the Possessive Adjective endings. The literal translation of the phrase is "with my side" etc. i.e. for me.

kɛ kui̲cdä̲	for me	kɛ kui̲cdan	for us (in)
kɛ kui̲cdu̲	for you	kɛ kui̲cda	for us (ex)
kɛ kui̲cdɛ	for him her it	kɛ kui̲cdu̲n	for you
kɛ kui̲cdɛ	for him her it	kɛ kui̲cdiɛn	for them

When a noun in the genitive case is possessed by the personal pronoun, if the noun has a genitive suffix, the possessive is added to the suffix.
- Nɛmɛ ɛ du̲ŋ gatä̲dä̲. (gat-ä̲-dä̲) This belongs to my child.
- Ɛ gua̲a̲th tɛ̲tä̲du̲. (tɛ̲t-ä̲-du̲) It is the place of your hand.
- Ɛ ruac jä̲kä̲dɛ. (jä̲k-ä̲-dɛ) It is the word of his messenger.
The derivative [ɛn] occurs with nouns and noun clauses as an introductory word to an apposition. It is derived from the personal pronoun 3rd persons. It appears in the plural as [kɛn]. It is very common in Nuer for a noun or pronoun to be qualified by another noun in apposition introduced by [ɛn or kɛn]. It is not translated.
- Ɣä̲n göörä̲ jɛ, ɛn wu̲t ɛmɔ. -- I want him, that man.
- Ɣä̲n göörä̲ kɛ, kɛn wu̲tni̲ tɔtɔ. -- I want them, those men.
- Ci̲ wu̲t ɛmɔ bɛ̲n. Ɛŋa? Ɛn dä̲muɔɔr.
- That man came. Who? Your brother.
Noun clause [Cɛ jɛ lar ɛn ɤöö cɛ li̲w.] He said it that he died.