Grammar

Grammar

Buli belongs to the Gur language family and its subgroup of Oti-Volta languages (formerly: Mole-Dagbani languages). This family also includes the languages of the Mossi, Gurma, Dagomba, Kusasi, Frafra and others. Like many others in this group, Buli is a class language.

It has five singular classes, four of which correspond to the four plural classes. Semantic word fields are only rudimentarily preserved in the classes. The first (wa/ba) class contains mainly persons, but many of the foreign words, adopted later, have also been incorporated into this class. The fifth (bu) class contains mainly amorphous objects such as liquids (nyiam, water; daam, millet beer) and abstractions (yam, mind; jiam, thank).

We find class affiliation in the case of nouns, adjectives, numerals as well as personal, possessive and relative pronouns which, with the exception of numerals, are marked by a class suffix. The classes themselves are named here after the personal/possessive pronouns: 1. wa/ba, 2. di/nga, 3. ka/si, 4. ku/ti, 5. bu/-.

Examples of noun-classes:

 

class                 indef. Sing.                   def. Sing.            indef. Plural              def. Plural

 

1. wa/ba ko (father)             kowa                   koba                          kobanga
2. di/nga yeri (house)             yeni                     yie                             yienga
3. ka/si bang (bangle)             bangka               bangsa                       bangsanga
4. ku/ti kpanung (lute)             kpanungku           kpanungta                  kpanungtanga
5. bu/- nyiam (water)             nyiamu                -                                -

 

The class markings of the personal/possessive (1), indefinite (2) and interrogative pronouns (3) as well as the numerals (4) are shown in the following table.

 

Class               1                      2                       3                         4

Sing.                                                                                            (one)

I                       wa                   -wai                  wan(a)                wanyi

II                      di                     -dii                    din(a)                 dinyi

III                    ka                    -kai                   kan(a)                 kanyi

IV                    ku                    -kui                   kun(a)                 kunyi

V                     bu                    -bui                   bun(a)                 bunyi

 

Plural                                                              

(two)

I                       ba                    -bai                   ban(a)                 baye                       

II                      nga                  -ngai                 ngan(a)               ngaya        

III                    si                     -sii                    sin(a)                  siye            

IV                    ti                      -tii                    tin(a)                  tiye            

 

Adjectives

Most adjectives belong to one of the nominal classes and do not change their class under the influence of a governing noun. Other adjectives can adopt the suffixes of nearly all classes of the governing noun, e.g. bi-yogsik (a wet child), zu-yogsuk (a wet head), ni-yogsing (a wet hand).

In the definite forms and the plural of noun-adjective combinations, only the adjective is marked by its own definite or plural suffix, e.g. nur fiik (a small man), pl. nur fiisa (small men).

 

Syntax

The sentence order is subject-verb-object. Adverbs may be placed in an initial, medial or final position.

Subordinate clauses can contain a conjunction following the subject, e.g. dan (if, when), daa (when), ate (that, so that; consecutive), ain or ayen (that; often after verbs denoting the idea of speaking).

Without a conjunction, the temporal subordinate clause in the past is marked by the particles (le...la), e.g. Mi le pilim chien la, n nya ti kowa (When I was coming back, I saw our father). Tenses: The past is either marked by an adverb (e.g. daam, in the past) or by tonal arrangements. The future tense is indicated by adding ‟le‟ following the subject (Mi le jam. I will come.)

Serial verb constructions are very common.

 

Adjectives follow the noun in its root-form (e.g. ba-nubi, female dog; root form of dog: biak). They cannot stand alone in a predicative position, e.g. ‟The land is good‟ = Tengka ka teng nalung (or, by use of the verb nala, 'to be good': Teng nala.).

Some nouns, most of which refer to parts of the body, are used to denote the idea of postposition, e.g. zuk (lit. head, transl. on, over), noai (lit. mouth, transl. at, on, near), nying (lit. body, transl. on, over).